Douglas Russ Newby | Selected Works

I am an archi tectural designer working and residing in Los Angeles, Cal i fornia. Having had the opportuni ty to l ive in several regions of the Uni ted States and travel through parts of Asia, Austral ia, Europe, and North Afr ica, I have come to v iew the development of successful archi tectural projects as an inherent ly region-speci f ic pract ice. Research into the local nuances of cul ture, c l imate, and ecology dr ives my work. For me, the ul t imate purpose of archi tecture is the provis ion of master plans, bui ld ings, and landscapes that perform del iberate and measurable funct ions, promot ing both ecological and social sustainabi l i ty, for the communit ies they are meant to serve.

Douglas Russ Newby

PROFESSIONAL WORK

1138 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, p. 4

Westchester Family YMCA Welcome Center, Los Angeles, CA, p. 10

West Los Angeles College Masterplan, Culver City, CA, p. 14Performing Arts Center, Concept, p. 32

Wallis Annenberg Hall, Concept,University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, p. 38

Harris Residence Hall,Ground Floor Renovation,University of Southern California,Los Angeles, CA, p. 42

Kaprielian Hall,Third Level Renovation,University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, p. 46

North Terminus Station, Concept,Lincoln Boulevard Streetcar,Santa Monica, CA, p. 48

ACADEMIC WORK

L.A.gora: Polycentric Civitas, Graduate Thesis, Los Angeles, CA, p.50

Vertical Hutong, Graduate Project, Beijing, China, p.62

INDEPENDENT WORK

Newby Family Cabin, Placerville, CO, p. 72

Microstack, Denver, CO, p. 78

In 2012, West Edge Architects was asked to provide the schematic design for a 90,000+ square foot commercial office building on the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Lucas Avenue near Downtown Los Angeles. The client currently owns two low-rise office buildings on the block and is looking to expand their own offices while also investing in the asset of rentable Class A office space. Completing the program, the ground floor of the building is designed as public-use commercial space, including space for a fine-dining restaurant, small cafe, and a large suite for commercial retail. The new building is designed to complement the clients existing properties, creating a unified and pedestrian-scaled street edge along Wilshire Boulevard. The offices, elevated above the street, will offer sweeping views of the Hollywood Hills and Los Angeles Basin, while acting as a commercial balance to several new residential real estate developments in the area.

1138 Wilshire BoulevardCommercial Office Building

Westlake, Los Angeles

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Westlake, Los Angeles

The location on Wilshire Boulevard and Lucas Avenue, just across the Harbor Freeway from Figueroa Street in Downtown and within a ten minute walk of MacArthur Park, is capable of supporting a vibrant street life. To support this potential, the ground floor building envelope interacts with the street, providing several public amenities for the neighborhood. Employees, visitors, and everyday neighborhood inhabitants alike will be encouraged to linger.

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FLOOR PLANS “Useable” Area Exterior Deck

The envelope-adjacent private office is a requirement for the client. However, it is also important to ensure that all employees will have at least partial interaction with spaces lit by natural daylight on an everyday basis. To accomodate these competing requirements, the design consists of three distinct elements that fit together to create the overall composition of the building. The public plinth, clad in the same sandstone as the existing buildings, grounds the building within the context of the street, while the glass enclosure of the open offices acts as a counterpoint to the more weighty materiality of the private offices and public plinth. The resulting separations between private offices and public plinth allow daylight deep into the building.

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WELCOME DESKJUICE BAR

WESTCHESTER FAMILY YMCAWelcome Center

Westchester, Los Angeles

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In 2011, through a charitable donation from a long-time member, the Westchester Family YMCA secured funds to build a new “Welcome Center”. West Edge Architects provided pro-bono services, designing membership offices, a welcome desk, and a juice bar to replace the existing lobby and an existing multi-purpose room. On the exterior, a wall that previously enclosed a patio adjacent to the multi-purpose room was removed to provide a new entry patio where members can fraternize before and after their workout. Custom casework was designed to “sweep” members from the entry patio, past the welcome desk, and into the existing exercise facilities. The Welcome Center opened in February 2013.

ENTRY PATIO

FINAL CONSTRUCTION PHOTOGRAPHS

The digital media revolution has forever altered the traditional concepts of journalism and news-telling. At the cutting-edge of journalistic education, the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism has taken an active role in defining the future of the field. Developing the concept for a new facility that will provide state-of-the-art laboratories and equipment, students will be encouraged to break down the boundaries that have previously separated broadcast, print, and web journalism, creating an environment of innovation that will allow for the continuous renewal of the School’s mission.

West Edge Architects’ concept design for the 85,000 GSF building is the expression the School’s ambitious role in the field of journalism. The exterior of the building was developed to be consistent with the Italian Romanesque style of the USC campus, imbuing the School with a sense of stability and continuity. The design of the interior spaces is intended to express the openness, transparency, and immediacy of the current media environment. Media labs, seminar rooms, and classrooms will be inviting and transparent, encouraging students to enter, collaborate, innovate, and learn.

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Wallis Annenberg Hall

LEGEND

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B Cinema Arts Building

C Cinema Arts Sound Stage

C All Sports Building

D Courtyard Lawn

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VIEW FROM CINEMA ARTS BUILDING BIRD’S EYE LOOKING SOUTH

VIEW FROM McCLINTOCK AVENUEVIEW FROM COURTYARD LAWN

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A Multi-Purpose

B Study | Conference

C Pantry

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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIAHARRIS HALL - Ground Floor Renovation

After fifty years of use, the Harris Residence Hall lobby, located on the eastern edge of the USC campus, was renovated in 2011 by West Edge Architects to meet the expanded programmatic needs of the university. In addition to serving as the residence hall’s entrance lobby and student lounge, the space will also host programmed events, including conferences and intimate lectures and performances. To accomodate the varying requirements, operable glass partitions are employed to separate the conference and multi-purpose spaces. The variance in flooring materials helps define smaller zones within the larger, continuous spatial volume. To accommodate the building systems while maximizing the amount of natural daylight accross the space, the ceiling slopes up from a low-point in the center to the underside of the existing second floor slab.The student lounge is separated from the multi-purpose spaces by a glass storefront system, allowing an uninterrupted view for the length of the public space.

Interior Elevation - Nor theast - “Piers”

Interior Elevation - Nor theast - “Piers”

At the beginning of the design process, accurate as-built drawings were not available. Thus, the precise location of the building’s structural elements could not be determined until after the demolition of the existing space. A series of over-sized “piers” were used to encapsulate the range of space where the existing columns might occur, allowing for the desired open, multi-use design required by the program. Upon identifying the precise locations of the existing columns during the demolition phase, the design of each “pier” was eroded by shelving elements to respond to the specific quality of adjacent spaces: the existing columns are revealed, emphasizing the process of renovation.

In 2011, West Edge Architects renovated parts of the first, third, and fourth floors of Kaprielian Hall on the University of Southern California campus. Existing offices suites on the 3rd floor were demolished to make room for graduate and research facilities for the Behavioral Science Department. The office suites were replaced by the renovations on the first and fourth floors. Custom casework was designed to meet the department’s specific requirements, including extendable dividers for the study carrels in the Research Lab to ensure the integrity of testing results.

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Kaprielian Hall - 3rd Floor Renovation

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1 Lounge 2 CPU Classroom 5 Graduate Student CPU Lab3 Research Lab 4 Seminar RoomBEHAVIORAL SCIENCE FACILITIES

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Lincoln Boulevard is the main North-South axis for beach cities on the westside of Los Angeles. Currently, property lining the boulevard is severly undertutilized, consisting of a collection of drive-thru restaurants, strip malls, and automotive repair shops. With the intent of improving the walkability and urban experience along the boulevard, West Edge Architects has proposed a streetcar system as the anchor for new Transit Oriented Development.

The proposed North Terminus, located in Downtown Santa Monica, is situated on Main Street, adjacent to the city’s major civic buildings. The location will provide immediate access to shopping districts along the Third Street Promenade to the North and Ocean Park to the South, while providing a transit connection to the Expo Line, planned for service to Downtown Los Angeles.

In addition to providing a public transit connection to the rest of Los Angeles, the station will serve as the permanent home of the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market, consolidating a function that currently meets in disparate parking lots around Santa Monica. Coupled with Corner Field Operations’ new “Civic Center Parks”, the North Terminus and Farmer’s Market will provide a public program capable of connecting the Third Street Promenade and Ocean Park, creating a continuous civic corridor at the North end of Lincoln Boulevard.

LINCOLN CORRIDOR STREETCAR NORTH TERMINUS Santa Monica, California

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A Parking Garage &B Santa Monica Public Market

C Streetcar Terminus

D Farmer’s Market Plaza

D Public Orchards

NORTH TERMINUSCONTEXTA Expo Line Lightrail StationB Santa Monica PlaceC To Santa Monica PierD Civic Center ParksE Santa Monica City HallF Santa Monica Superior CourtG Civic AuditoriumH To Ocean Park

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L.A.gora POLYCENTRIC CIVITASGraduate Thesis

The L.A.gora is an attack on the prevailing efforts to re-cast the City of Los Angeles as a typical “core-periphery” urban environment. Historically, Angelenos have found their civic identity in the localized nuances of their individual neighborhoods, and the unwarranted focus of political and economic capital on Grand Avenue and Bunker Hill has undermined and eroded this civic compact. In an attempt to (re)discover civitas in Los Angeles, the L.A.gora defines a methodology aimed at supporting and enhancing what is left of the city’s inherent, but neglected, polycentrism.

Miracle Mile District, Los Angeles

L.A.gora POLYCENTRIC CIVITASGraduate Thesis

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The L.A.gora is a parasitic urban form, seeking out areas of the existing urban fabric infused with civic “potential”. In the Miracle Mile District, for instance, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and Hancock Park provide portions of the “facility” components that make up the holistic L.A.gora program. The ensuing built intervention completes the program, augmenting the existing neighborhood to support the emergence of a new civic center. This parasitic process would be undertaken throughout the city, but the resulting built intervention would be necessarily unique, based on the “potentials” found in a given neighborhood. In the Miracle Mile, for instance, the static process of artistic exhibition is balanced by the insertion of the active process of making art: the built intervention is an artist commune.

Block Structure vs. Programmatic Column Grid

The L.A.gora program requires a built form capable of simultaneously adapting to and co-opting the existing “potentials” of a particular site. Rather than adopt a monolithic, internally focused block structure, an infinite grid is overlaid on the entire Miracle Mile District. The grid provides a datum to anchor a series of programmed building elements; the resulting negative space becomes an amplified and continuously accessible pedestrian streetscape. The deconstructed building conforms to the site while multiplying the amount of programmed public space available to the Miracle Mile’s inhabitants.

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SECTION THRU LIBRARY, PLAZA, AND GALLERY

The vertical layering of the commune’s public programmatic elements “thickens” the site, expanding the area of potential interaction between artists living in the commune and the everyday inhabitants of the Miracle Mile District.

View of Gallery from Plaza | Vertical circulation elements play a conspicuous architectural role, promoting an atmosphere of public ownership over the commune; the visual prominence of stairs and elevators is a signal to visitors and artists alike that all levels of the commune are publicly accessible and provide a civic utility.

Reading Room | The Reading Room and Main Stacks of the Visual Arts Library are located beneath the plaza formed by the gallery, cinema, and above-grade portion of the library. Glazed areas of the plaza surface provide natural daylight for the reading room, while informing users passing through the plaza that the commune extends below their feet.

Plaza Plan & Principal Facades | While the L.A.gora is programatically parasitic, the architecture of the artist commune provides an expansion and enhancement of the Miracle Mile’s existing urban character. The public buildings are positioned toward Wilshire Boulevard and scaled to interact with the existing LACMA buildings: the 4th facade of the plaza formed by the gallery, cinema, and library is Renzo Piano’s BCAM building on the LACMA campus.

SECTION THRU KIOSKS / LOFTS, CINEMA, LIBRARY, AND SUBWAY STATION

The scale and footprints of buildings decrease as the artist commune extends into the residential neighborhood south of Wilshire Boulevard. The spacing of the “artist loft / kiosk” buildings provides intimate outdoor public areas where the informal exchange of goods and ideas between artists, visitors, and residents of the Miracle Mile District can occur.

SECTION THRU KIOSKS / LOFTS, CINEMA, LIBRARY, AND SUBWAY STATION

BCAM BUILDING

KIOSK MARKET PLACE & ARTIST LIVE-WORK LOFTS

The Artist Commune is a test case for a larger urban theory encompassed by the L.A.gora. The civic heart of Los Angeles is not locked away behind the freeway interchanges that surround Downtown; it is found on a thousand different street corners spread throughout the city. As we design and construct the urban future of Los Angeles, we can continue to ignore the city’s inherent polycentrism and build ever-more programatically generic civic monuments along Grand Avenue. Or, we can seek out the multitude of neglected sites throughout the city and offer precise interventions capable of releasing the latent civic potential buried in the city.

KIOSK MARKET PLACE & ARTIST LIVE-WORK LOFTS

Beijing needs a new housing typology. As a result of a mass migration that sees twenty million people relocate from the countryside to China’s cities every year, Beijing’s historic hutong neighborhoods no longer function. The courtyard dwellings that once defined the city have been infilled completely: three families now occupy the space meant for one, and the exterior spaces that enabled communities to form within the hutongs no longer exist.

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Infill Growth | Beijing & Historic Hutong Courtyard Dwellings

1960 1980 2000

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High-rise elevator apartment blocks have become the answer to Beijing’s ever-increasing need for more housing. As a result, residents complain that they now live next to one another without ever becoming neighbors; the social spaces of the hutong have been left out. By contrast, the Vertical Hutong provides a density of 42 dwelling units per acre while developing a high-rise typology that supports the type of social interactions that previously defined Beijing’s hutongs. Instead of elevator lobbies and internal hallways, a “vertical street” crosses an open atrium. Instead of wall to wall apartments, double and triple height winter gardens provide the terminus for the vertical street, opening the buildings to the city and providing the kind of intimate public spaces that support spontaneous interactions between residents.

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Winter Night Inter ior & Exter ior Envelope Closed

Summer Night Inter ior & Exter ior Envelope Open

Winter Day Exter ior Envelope Closed & Inter ior Open

Summer Day Exter ior Envelope Open & Inter ior Closed

Operable Double-Skin Building as Flue

Passive Heating & Cooling | The Vertical Hutong will be environmentally sustainable. So much of Beijing’s notorious pollution arises from the fact that much of Beijing’s population still burns coal at the individual scale to heat un-insulated hutong homes. The Vertical Hutong, contrastingly, will be wrapped in a operable double-skin that, coupled with each tower’s concrete structure serving as thermal mass, will provide the framework for passive heating and cooling strategies for each of Beijing’s seasonal climatic conditions. To ensure that the Master Plan provides access to the sunlight and wind necessary for the success of these strategies, a repeatable pattern was established to locate the housing towers in relationship to each other: even in the winter, when the towers cast the longest shadows, every housing unit receives multiple hours of sunlight during the middle of the day. Coupled with the carbon sink provided by the proposed parkland, the Vertical Hutong provides a methodology for improving the city’s air quality.

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Winter Garden | The housing towers consist of stacked 4-level community blocks. Each block has a large and small winter garden and a tea room, providing the informal social gathering spaces that once defined the streetscape of Beijing’s original hutongs. Additionally, these spaces provide the means for regulating the interior temperature of the individual housing units. During the summer, the envelope of the winter gardens remains open, provide the inlets that allow the open stairwell to serve as a flue. In winter, the envelope closes, and the warm air collected by the winter gardens serves as a thermal buffer for the individual units.

Typical Plans | All Private Units

Tea Room, Private Units Large Winter Garden, Private Units, Mailroom

Small Winter Garden, Private Units, Laundry

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Void House | A void in the concrete superstructure, each unit provides the owner with a private exterior terrace, the framework for controlling sunlight, heat gain, and wind for natural cross-ventilation, and plumbing and electrical hook-ups. The layout of interior spaces will be left up to each owner, allowing them to fill in the void to meet their own requirements.

Body Cabinet | The “body cabinet” is a pre-fabricated module that can be purchased by owners and assembled in different spatial configurations within each “void house”. The same structure accomodates several different space types, such as a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and stairwell. Constructed from common materials, like OSB, plywood, and light timber, the cabinets will be affodable to the Vertical Hutong’s inhabitants.

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NEWBY FAMILY CABIN San Juan Mountains Placerville, Colorado

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1) Two Level Mass• “Immediate Family” Program Above• “Extended Family” Program Below

3) Separate Upper Mass• Privacy for “Immediate Families”• Maintain compact mass for “Extended

Family” program.

5a) N-S Orientation??• Each “Immediate Family” Suite has

nearly identical characterisitcs (sunlight, daylight, view, etc.)

• No hierarchy between suites• But...

6) Sunlight• Provide direct sunlight to North Suite in

winter months through clerestory

7) Extended Family Program• Extend Lower Mass toward views

and access road to accomodate full “Extended Family” program.

5b) E-W Orientation!!• Each Suite is not used equally• Both Families will only occupy

home at same time during holidays.• Hierarchy between suites ensures

both families will use full building.

2) Pitch Roof• Accommodate Snow Loads• Increased efficiency for PV &

Evacuated Tubes

4) Vertical Circulation• Stairwell in Void between Upper

Masses.• Double-height space increases

efficiency of passive heating/cooling

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The Newby Family has owned 35 acres of land in the San Juan Mountains of Southwest Colorado for over 30 years. In the early years, the family spent several weeks each summer using the property as a base camp for exploring the surrounding wilderness. As the children grew older and started families of their own, the plan was always to build a small cabin in the woods: a place to get away, congregate for special occassions, and pass down from generation to generation. Thus, the Newby Family cabin is not a home, in the general sense. It will be occupied by different parts of the family at different times, and for much of the time, may not be inhabited at all.

Given this constraint, the schematic design for the 1,500 gross square foot structure outlines an off-the-grid concept that takes advantage of the site’s access to sunlight, breezes, and both rain and ground water, while framing the views of the mountains and aspen groves that have become so important to the family. The building features double-leaf masonry construction to provide solidity against the wear of time, fire-resistance, and high termal mass capable of storing heat provided by the sun during the cold winter months. The spatial layout strives for social sustainability, developing a hierarchy between the two private suites on the second level aimed at preventing family members from claiming individual “ownership” over any part of the cabin; the family will develop its own rules for the alternating use of the master suite. In this way, the cabin will remain a shared retreat: a home for extended family.

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NEWBY FAMILY CABIN Energy Strategy

Heating Strategy

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Average Temperature June Hi: 77 December Hi: 35Lo: 15Lo: 52

Marking the entry to the TAXI District near Downtown Denver, the MICROSTACK is a community for affordable living. At 375 gross square feet, each unit provides the inhabitant with re-imaginings of the spaces associated with the typical American single family home: space for living, sleeping, relaxing, entertaining, and gardening.

Framed by the stacked configuration of prefabricated micro-homes, the broader TAXI community can descend to the riverside through a generous public portal. A public cafe and kayak rental station introduce Denverties to both the recreation and ecological potential of the South Platte River

MICROHOUSING COMPETITION TAXI District Denver, Colorado

MODULAR DESIGN

• In-SituSuperStructure

• Plug-inPre-FabricatedMicrohomes

ORIENT THE STACK

• Alignupperunitswiththecardinaldirections

• Maximizepotentialforpassivedesignstrategies

• DirectviewofDowntiownDenver

CONNECT TO THE RIVER

• Array/FantheStack• Micorhomes&

CirculationCoreframetheentryportalforpublicaccesstotheSouthPlatteRiver

PERFORMANCE

• CladMicrohomeswithreclaimedwoodslatrainscreen

• ContinuousR-30rigidinsulation

• ClusteropeningsinskininSouthandEastfacingwalls.

• ApplyPVfilmtoshinglesofSouthfacinggardenplanters

• Storerainwateronsiteforirrigationofgardenplanters.

SELF-SUPPORTING MODULES

• StackableStructure• Independencefrom

theconformityofthesuper-structure

ALTERNATE STACKING

• Built-inTerraces• Increasessite

surfaceareaforrainwatercollection

SECTION ‘AA’

1. Micro-House

2. Micro-Garden• Rainwater Catchment• Solar Collector

3. Public River Access• Car / Bicycle Parking

4. Common Room• Rainwater Cistern• Laundry Room

5. Public Program• Kayak Rental & Storage

6. Circulation Core

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Each microhome is a self-supporting structure, stacked to align daily activity with the ecological characteristics of the site. The organization of the MICROSTACK provides a built-in garden and solar harvesting armature for each resident, increases on-site surface area for rainwater collection, and maximizes the potentail for passive heating cooling for each home. Additionally, the MICROSTACK provides residents with sweeping views of the Denver skyline.

INTERIOR VIEW_“PROGRAM TAXI” IN DINING CONFIGURATION

To provide residents with a socially sustainable living environment in 375 gross square feet, each microhome is furnished with all of the spaces customary to the traditional single family home: living room, bed room, den, and dining room. The “Program Taxi” is a custom-designed furniture system that converts a single volume into four different living experiences. On one side, a resident will find the functions associate with sleep. On the other, the accouterments supporting living, dining, and entertaind. Large furniture elements fold in and out of the “Program Taxi” as it travels along rails embedded in the floor and ceiling structures. Supplementing the “Program Taxi”, furniture modules are arranged to accommodate the residents’ varying social and personal requirements.

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A. Dining Configuration

B. Study Configuration

C. Relax / Entertain Configuration

D. Sleeping Configuration

ELEMENTS

1. Program Taxi 1.1. Table & Bench 1.2. Desk & Bookshelf 1.3. Bed

2. Furniture Module

3. Exterior Deck / Garden

MICRO-HOUSE SECTION_“PROGRAM TAXI” IN STUDY CONFIGURATION

MICRO-HOUSE SECTION_“PROGRAM TAXI” IN SLEEPING CONFIGURATION

The typical suburban context of single family homes concedes social interaction, neighbors going years without ever meeting. Contrastingly, the MICROSTACK draws individuals together through connections to the South Platte River, the TAXI district, and the overlapping arrangement of the individual housing units. These connections provide amenities, generally unaffordable to the individual homeowner, at the community level.

IMAGE CREDITS

Graphics and Wri t ings by Douglas Newby(unless otherwise credi ted)

Photographs, © Lawrence Anderson• YMCA Welcome Center• USC Harr is Residence Hal l

COPYRIGHT

Professional Work, © West Edge Archi tectsAcademic & Independent Work, © Douglas Newby