2008
Nonya Grenader, Albert Pope, and John J. Casbarian (Thesis Committee)

The lack of housing is a signature problem in Southern California. Furthermore, relentless low rise development leaves little room for recreational parks.

This thesis explored infill densification of parking lots to address both issues, using public parking below grade, new housing above, and a public park at grade.

The design included a variety of unit types and embraced the automobile, exploring parking garage typologies to allow residents to park their cars at home.

Thanks to Jing Gu, David Jefferis, and Stephanie Millet for their help on the model, and to Stephanie Hsie and Victor Chea for their help on the renderings.

2007 with Clint Keithley
Professors J. Kent Fitzsimons and John J. Casbarian

I studied in Paris for the Spring of 2007. This project explored the suburb of Evry, which was saddled with a moribund central district outside of Paris.

This project posited that envisioning a plethora of lifestyle case studies would help develop a rich urban environment, mixing the activities of the inhabitants both within the center and the periphery.

By engaging the road network and divorcing the programmatic use from the building typology, we could create and exploit exciting new adjacencies to reenergize the surrounding districts and suburbs with a multiplicity of buildings, scaling from detached small structures to multi-block superstructures.

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2007, with Alexandre Acemyan
Professor William Cannady

Midtown Houston had become an destination for young professionals returning to the Inner Loop, and a new park was being proposed along the light rail line to jump start further development.

Beginning with a master plan concept that incorporated existing buildings, this mixed use project became itself a patchwork with a variety of unit types, small apartments, high-rise suites, two-story lofts, and the preservation of the existing building at the street corner.

2006 with Kenneth Yeung
Professor Doug Oliver

This project was a final assignment for a seminar about concrete. It was a quick charette for deploying concrete in emergency situations.

The basic concept was to ship the all of the design intelligence in a metal box which could be easily transported separate from the concrete. The metal box would unfold once placed on site, and the metal decking would then be the formwork for the concrete pour. My fondest memory was this glorious wall graphic, where the details were printed at 1:1.

2006 with Joanne Park
Professor Christopher Hight

In spite of building a protective seawall in the early 20th century, Galveston never fully recovered from the disastrous 1908 hurricane that leveled the city.

This project was a counterintuitive proposal to re-energize the urban landscape by building out into the Gulf beyond the seawall. The businesses along this section of the seawall was primarily owned by Landry’s, the large restaurant entertainment conglomerate.

With this understanding, we proposed a public-private megadevelopment, using their high rise hotel on Galveston seawall as our anchor for a series of interlinked piers into water creating a dynamic network of mixed use spaces.

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I came across this project as a case study my second year at Rice. Professor Dawn Finley had a twinkle in her eye when she that recommended I check out the project.

She was dead on. I love this building. Aesthetically it is not a stunner, but the raw efficiency of space is breathtaking. He takes a cliff, extends the top as a playground, supported by long span trusses which houses lecture halls, covering a gymnasium with raked seating. Everything flows together perfectly.

Here is the architect’s sketch, a few photographs (by my friend Chen Cheng who also talked us into a tour of the building), and my own axonometric analysis from the case study.

2004 to 2007
Masters of Architecture

My undergraduate studies were an amazing diverse educational experience, but the breadth came at the cost of a focused study on architectural design. Rice was a beneficial counterbalance, with a strong focus on architecture and urbanism, both in the studios and in the academic curriculum.

Three of my six studios involved working in teams, and I was fortunate to work with great partners. I also took a couple courses that were co-taught with the school of business and studied in Paris for a semester.

arch.rice.edu