Route 66 Museum (3rd Year)

Project Purpose: design a Route 66 museum in Springfield, MO to house artifacts from the historic road from years past.

Over the years, the location of Route 66 has changed physically while the authenticity of the road has continually diminished.  From each location to the next, all have steadily impacted  the nature of the older Route 66 in a negative way.  The goal of this museum is to capture the uniqueness of the old Route 66 and use that as the basis for displaying its artifacts while also bridging the gap between the past and the present.

Level 2

Level 1

Level 4

Level 3

Section 2

Section 1

Wall Section

South Elevation & East Elevation

Tractor House (3rd Year)

Project Purpose: design a house winch would serve to store and display an antique tractor.  I chose to design the tractor house in a way that would showcase the tractor rather than simply storing it.

The concept behind the tractor house and the specific tractor displayed (John Greene A) was to take technology and illustrate how the advancement of technology has created bigger and better tractors that have moved man away from the earth.  Elevating the building accomplished this.  Also, the tractor is display hanging from structure well above the earth.  The structure of the building is fully exposed relating to the industrial time when the tractor was used.

As technology has advanced the human element has been taken away from the earth itself providing a new farming experience beginning with the row-crop tractor.

East Elevation

Floor Plan

Section

South Elevation

Wall Section

Denton House (2nd Year)

Project Purpose: design a weekend/research house for a non architecture faculty member on Tablerock Lake, MO.  I chose Rebecca Denton, an english professor, who would use her house for writing.  She wished for open spaces and natural light throughout the day.

The site itself proved to be a challenge due to the drastic slope down to the lake.  Correct angles were essential to provide the viewer with the proper view.

A wish for open spaces called for minimal walls, with interior walls only in the more private bedroom areas.  The living room is taller than other spaces to establish it as the focus and to allow for more light.  It is also presented as a glass box for this reason.  For light throughout the day, clearstory windows wrap around the entire exterior connecting to either side of the glass box.  And finally, on individual walls from the clearstories, more windows are placed based on the configuration of the room.  It was also expressed that a direct view of the living space from the kitchen was desired.

Crossroads (Bike/Car Sharing Center) (2nd Year)

Project Purpose: design a bike/car sharing center that would serve as the first of many others in a system in downtown St. Louis.  Local people working in downtown as well as tourists had to be taken into account.

The site is in east St. Louis and centered around many landmarks and important buildings.  I used this to my advantage by taking these into consideration when designing.

A way to associate the bike/car sharing building to the rest of St. Louis was needed, so designing began by simply drawing lines from the site to major landmarks.  These lines eventually became dominant axis of the site and influenced the building and pathways.  The idea is that people come from home to the site, from the site to work, back to the site after work, and finally back home.  This general motion is displayed on the site as a “figure 8” and how people move through the site involves crossing paths.

Ripley Center for Health and Wellness (2nd Year)

Project Purpose: design a building for the public of Ripley, Tennessee.  Our assignment was to use our best judgement based on interviews with the people of Ripley to determine the design and function of a building to fill the space.

The site is in downtown Ripley, Tennessee in the square.  Getting people to the square and specifically the building we design was a challenge we all faced.  I used form and function as the basis of the attraction.

Ripley, Tennessee is a small city and with some research, I discovered that over half of its population lives below the poverty level.  And based on national statistics, the poorer people are, the more unhealthy lives they live.  I developed the Center for Health and Wellness to give the citizens a place to learn how to live healthier lives on a low budget while supplying them with exercise equipment.  Using the Clinton Library as a precedent, the design of the building is cantilevered and includes exterior structure.  The reason for this being that I wanted the building to be viewed as a solid “foundation” for Ripley with this building serving as the foundation for its people living healthier lives.