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A conversation within social housing about the individual versus the community. This project highlights 16 separate units stretching along the entire site, which is located in the Third Ward, Milwaukee. These units are not the same, but equal; some have a stair that extends up to the roof, whereas some have a backyard and are ADA accessible. Expressing a literal individuality within the units, the units punch in and out of the retaining wall and create different environments for each unit. The community space formality is simple with two ‘boxes’ on top of each other, with the bottom box having a slight angle to create a boundary between the public and private individual units. At that moment the building also carves in its own entrance. Overall this project is having a conversation about the individual over the community within social housing.

The goal of this project was to connect the underdeveloped parts of Milwaukee’s Third Ward District to the existing city by acknowledging and understanding the existing movements of the urban form. Throughout my transformation of the underutilized area of Milwaukee, I devised an urban greenway that cuts through the site, as well as an urban pathway that connects the Third Ward District the existing bike path along the lake, Riverwalk, and Downtown. In the hopes of creating a new permanent adaptive component of city life and devise a renewed sense of character for a redeveloped part of the city that can continually evolve and promote livability with a more pedestrian footprint. For my focus area, I wanted to create unique connections to people and places to create a vibrant urban community. I carefully considered the angles of my hotel to respond to the two corresponding north and south streets to create a “gateway” into the focal point of my project. As well as meticulously considering the different street layers to reclaim the ordinary and create dynamic spaces that merge the public and private realm.

Arch 650 Urban Design Studio focused on the underdeveloped east side of the Third Ward in Milwaukee. Among the surface lot ridden land stands a blackhole in the neighborhood stretching two blocks long. This was previously known as the A. Gagliano Co. warehouse buildings and was used for ripening tomatoes. Instead of demolishing this cheap metal clad building, I set to transform it into affordable work / live residencies for artists in Milwaukee. I focused on the north building and developed Buffalo Street into a pedestrian public space. The transformed north building includes 24 residencies and 19 studio spaces, while the south building contains a restaurant and formal gallery. The north building also includes a cafe and bloody bar adjacent to the public space and a produce market to the northwest. The project aims to create a small artist community as well as an iconic place people want to visit in the less travelled part of the Third Ward.

The mission of this project was to design a competitively-priced, zero-energy ready, suburban single-family production home. It will be a baseline for energy-efficient homes in the area. We worked as a team with engineers at UW-Madison to submit this design to the Solar Decathlon and presented our work in front of several judges and viewers. This design demonstrates the adaptability of our home by creating a production house design that can be applied to any lot located in the upper Midwest. To achieve this we focused on two clients: the home builders and the homeowners. The design is responsive to Midwestern clients interested in an updated Arts and Crafts/Craftsman style, and supportive to builder’s goals of economy of form and materials. This house will be an affordable, and modifiable house that can be built quicker and more efficiently than a typical home. This is the new standard for affordable and sustainable homes that actively fights climate change by reducing residential energy consumption. This home will be built for a family in Verona, WI. The design methods I went with on this home were around open concept and breaking up the house in a service/served style. Though a small footprint, an open floor plan and vaulted living space makes the space feel larger. The modern craftsman is now functional for the everyday Midwestern, and is a model for energy savings.

It introduces a new secondary chapel, rare books archive, offices, coffee shop and various types of meeting room. By using the center of Unity Temple as the Center point of the new building, it create an entrain perpendicular to chapel. This center point will be an atrium that uses for the information center as well as divides the building into two separate parts. The shape of these two part of the new building are heavily influence by the First United Church of Oak Park in the North and the Kenilworth Tower in South. The North part of the Visitor’s Center that face the lake street will be use for public use. The South part of the Visitor Center is use for the private use.

The overall form of the structure is carefully designed to avoid visually blocking the Temple from view, as well as allowing the Temple to dominate in the landscape. Per Historic Preservation guidelines set forth by the National Park Service (NPS), new construction materials must be clearly contemporary in nature and the use of original identical building materials are discouraged. To incorporate some iconic materials strongly linked to Prairie Style architecture, vast amounts of wood CLT and exterior stone were used liberally on the exterior façade. Natural light is allowed to penetrate deep into interior of the building through tall vertical fenestrations and interior transoms.

Over time, the plant waste from weaving and consumption will accumulate and compost, resulting in the gradual buildup of sediment in the host pit. In the far-future, the project, in the absence of humans, will shift ownership to the animal stewards who came before, as they incorporate the derelict frame, which will by this point be indistinguishable from adjacent plant growth, into their habitat lifestyles.

Located in the inner Harbor District, the MKE Scholar’s Residency aims to create a community of individuals. A series of ‘steps’ throughout the hill define different social interactions and programs. A library, café, gymnasium and performance spaces hug the perimeter of the site forming a large public courtyard. Further south is home to the gardens and residencies of those who inhabit this urban village.