benjamin matherportfolio2007-2009

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Cloister Building . Field & Object Building . UWM Alumni Conference Center

Cube . Installation . Installation . Textile Gallery National & Water Amphitheater

Music

Cloister Building Fall 2008 Professor James Shields Architecture 310

The program of this exercise was to de-sign a year-round public farmer’s mar-ket using the design elements of either a courtyard or cloister building type. The site was an urban historic center of a northern city (43 N. Latitude), 90’ x 75’. The north facade is adjacent to an existing masonry building 20’ tall. The south facade faces a park consisting of an old oak tree. To the east is the ter-mination of a beautiful boulevard, and to the west, a neighborhood street. I chose a cloister plan, focusing the market stalls in cloister arms around a central inaccessible garden. The public enters through the southern cloister arm. To address the surplus of shop-pers entering from the boulevard, the east entry is taller and less dense than the west entry. The cloister garden ex-tends into the park through an outdoor, glass covered pergala, addressing the beauty of the natural surroundings.

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Field and Object BuildingFall 2008Professor James ShieldsArchitecture 310

The program of this exercise was to design a year-round public farmer’s market using the design elements of ei-ther a grid or field/object building type. The site was an urban historic center of a northern city (43 N. Latitude), 90’ x 75’. The north facade is adjacent to an existing masonry building 20’ tall. The south facade faces a park consisting of an old oak tree. To the east is the ter-mination of a beautiful boulevard, and to the west, a neighborhood street. I chose a field/object building. The market stalls are situated in two stoa object buildings, the east building bro-ken in two to open the entry from the boulevard. The park entry is marked by structural trees that support the field ceiling above. Window louvers are tilted downward at a thirty degree angle to supply adequate sun horizontal sun shading for east-west sun expo-sure, and is left tilted for the southern exposure.

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UWM Alumni Conference CenterFall 2008Professor James ShieldsArchitecture 310

The program of this project was to design and develop a conference center and residency for the UWM Alumni Or-ganization located at the east termina-tion of Kenwood Boulevard. I chose a linear building type utilizing both stoa and basilica plans. The lecture hall, break-out space and meeting rooms oc-cupied the stoa plan while the residence housing occupied the basilica plan. A continuous curve flows throughout the layout and continuing down the hill to Lake Michigan’s shore line via a pergola stairway. The residency consisted of eight buildings, with a separate unit of each floor. The buildings were placed in a basilica format, with a pergola acting as the central nave. Each unit had a similar floor plan consisting of a public section separate from the private section. The floor plans were rotated to allow for a beautiful view in each unit. Each housing unit would be entered through the outdoor nave. Sun shading will cover the public facades, while wood walls and pre-cast concrete panels complete the private facades of each unit.

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Cube ProjectSpring 2009Professor Marc RoehrleArchitecture 320

The program of this project was a 1’x1’ cube. My concept was taking a basic cube and rotat-ing the top clockwise ninety degrees. Instead of curves, I chose to focus on the linear planes this would create. In keeping with the concept that this was once a perfect cube, each plane was aligned on one wood board so that when cut and assembled, the grain would follow each side rotating from bottom to top.

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Installation: National Ave. & Water St.Spring 2009Professor Marc RoehrleArchitecture 320

The program of this project was to design an installation of one of sixteen sites that interacted with the public, possibly introducing something not regularly noticed. The site at National Ave and Water St was interesting in that although only a few blocks from Milwaukee’s Third Ward, when within the site one is separated from the realm of downtown Milwaukee. Two man-made hills block the north and south view while two bridges define the site east-west. To address the opportunity of being separated from Milwaukee, our group decided to map out Milwaukee landmarks obstructed from view. Each cut in the hill points to one of these landmarks. The length of the cut represents the distance to that landmark, which is shown by mural at the end of each hole.

This project was completed in cooperation with Alex Harm, Paul Steidl and Joseph Miletta.

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Installation: National Ave. & Water St.Spring 2009Professor Marc RoehrleArchitecture 320

The program of this project was to design an installation of one of sixteen sites that interacted with the public, possibly introducing something not regularly noticed. Located adjacent to the Sum-merfest grounds, this site offered the mouth of the Milwaukee River as an opportunity to design and develop. Using the pre-existing railing as a structural element, our group design a moving installation, based on the leaf spring. A cable extended from the ends of oak slats down to a buoy floating in the water. When a wave moves in the buoy up and down, the oak slats are pulled up and down, showing the pedestrian the water’s move-ment. Paying special attention to craft and detail, our group further developed each connection of the design, ultimately eliminating all nails and screws. Each connection is held together simply by pres-sure.

This project was completed in cooperation with Alex Harm, Paul Steidl, Joseph Miletta, Mary Biwer, Brian Hagstrom, Nathan Lochner, and Aaron Vierck.

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Textile GallerySpring 2009Professor Marc RoehrleArchitecture 320

The program of this project was to design a gallery textile art. The building would include gal-leries, a classroom/workshop and a residence space for an artist-in-residence. The site is an infill site between Sendicks and True Value (30’x120’) on Downer Ave in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The design concept I played with was move-ment: with such a narrow space, planning the location of each space within the building must address how a person moves through the building. The ceiling above each floor is tilted at angles and direc-tions that push or pull a person to or from spaces.

The artist-in-residence space is located on the second floor on the west end of the building. A private entry serves this space from the back. Directly bellow is two levels of storage serviced by a freight elevator.

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Textile Gallery

As one enters the building, they are drawn forward by the nar-rowing space. They are forced to decide to stay on the first floor or move to the second where the space narrows even more. The first floor is then opened to a two story atrium: gallery one. Depth in the gallery is seen by protruding wall planes into the gallery space. The second floor is divided into two more galleries by the ceiling and elevator.

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My passion for the violin start-ed in fourth grade. Through many years of dedication and hard work, I’ve achieved many accomplishments. In the sum-mer of 2006, I auditioned and received the Madison Summer Music Clinic Scholarship, a tuition scholarship for UWM or UW-Madison. I am an active member of the UWM Sympho-ny and Chamber Orchestras, as well as self-employed in the field of fine arts and an em-ployee of the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra.

Being an art form itself, I’ve found that the same dedication and hard work is needed in the field of architecture. My past experiences with music have and will continue to help my knowledge of architecture and design grow and develop.

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