outside.in

retail live/work parking

communityelevator/stair residential

54321 6 7 8 10 119 roof

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U

context community and choiceurban housing in chicago

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program: equal distribution of 1-3br apts 15 town homes work and retail space fitness club with pooltotal sf = 470,000limited to 42 story building

site: The project was sited in the historic prarie avenue neighborhood South of Chi-cago’s downtown area. The lot chosen for the project lies accross the street from H.H. Richardson’s Historic Glessner House built in 1886.

analysis: The site for this project is a meeting ground for dichotomies and contrasts in the built environment. The area is under-going a massive change from a historic quiet urban neighborhod to an infill of both typical suburban two story walkups and gigantic concrete and glass condo towers. In the last 4 years 26 residential towers have sprung up with an incred-ible 86 more condo projects slated for the near future. An incredible 65% of the people moving to the neighborhood are relocating to the city from the suburbs. This project is meant to ask questions about this development and proposes in its place a building which is a response to its historic and built context and can act as a vibrant center for a new commuunity

concept . context: Upon analysis of the neighborhood three con-sistent building typologies emerged . The suburb home, the tradi-tional apartment building, and the contemporary highrise. This project takes this (banal) source material as the starting point and basis for its design.

suburbs

“modern”

traditional

concept . context: Sited accross the street from the project is H.H. Richardson’s historic Glessner House. By erecting a wall around the site and directing the home inwards to its own courtyard Rich-ardson proposed a private and intimate escape within the chaos and dirt of the metropolis. This project expands on that idea.

25’ x 25’ standard column grid + vertical wall partitions + floor slabs +program

As a response to the repete-tive floor plans of the mod-ern high rises located in the neighborhood, this build-ing takes their same infra-structure (read same cost) modulated on the 25’ x 25’ “standard” column grid and proposes 25 unique and efficient unit layouts ar-ranged in horizontal “neigh-borhoods” throughout the building. As a response to the inher-ent separation and discon-nected sense of the required town homes this project chooses to incorporate the townhomes as an integral part of both the structure of the building and the identity of the community. Rather than promoting exclusive ownership each house is di-vided into two units with two of the homes serving as both a guest house for visi-tors and a community cen-ter for the residents.The homes are presented as voids within the block . These large voids are placed to admit sunlight to the in-ner courtyard and to access views to the city the lake and the park located on the south.

models

response:plans

unit plans

unit models

urban section typology analysis along 17th ,18th and 19th streets

outside in.on the the exterior of the building reflects the characteristics of the modern highrise typology of the glass curtain wall while side each unit type expresses its own materiality and identity, the materials were chosen from the pallet of the existing neighborhood.

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