Yes, I’ll admit this page is a little old. I’ll update it soon with Philadelphia work.
Tomukun Korean BBQ is an upscale restaurant in downtown Ann Arbor. It features curving concrete countertops, downdraft grill tables and 50 steel lanterns made specifically for the project (find out more about them here). The design blends contemporary and traditional elements, along with flowing materials and complex lighting.
In addition to the architecture, the project was a mechanical challenge as the downdraft tables had to be routed through the basement and out the roof, piercing through a bank vault at one point.
This project completed while working at OX Studio.
Winner of AIA Huron Valley Interiors Architecture Award.
The Michigan Arts Center is a compact multi-use center, featuring a ceramics workshop, glass studio, art gallery, cafe, and large interior courtyard for musical and community activities. Slotted into a small-town main street, it mixes traditional Midwestern brick architecture with contemporary design elements to create a building that integrates into the community and still stands out.
Construction is underway.
Project by OX Studio.
A classic case of peeling back existing architecture to reveal the building beneath, the Phire Branding renovation involved a great deal of addition by subtraction. For the new owner, we transformed a run-of-the-mill office complex, with drop ceilings and cramped hallways, into an open plan with exposed tin ceilings. To create even more space, we claimed part of the rear garage as office space, and inserted a skylight to pull light into the rear of the building. Copper awnings on the front facade were removed and brought indoors as an accent piece.
This project completed while working at OX Studio.
Winner of AIA Huron Valley Low-Budget Project Award.
Ann Arbor-based fast-casual restaurant chain No Thai came to OX looking to update their image and create a template for future restaurants to follow. We were tasked with creating an upscale design that could be repeated in other locations in a cost-effective manner. The new restaurant design included concrete counters, bamboo bench seating and grass-inlaid resin panels coordinated with the new graphic design for the company. The prototype has proven popular and has been repeated in two other locations so far.
Project completed while working at OX Studio.
Forty years ago the Lavender Pit Mine was a productive copper mine. Today it is an empty hole, 900 feet deep and spanning 300 acres.
This theoretical project proposes nesting a skyscraper inside the mine which will use its structure to support a dome covering the hole. The dome will act as a gigantic green roof, reclaiming the lost space for nature. The area beneath takes advantage of the unique conditions created by the dome to become a climate-controlled area for human use. Through use of many simple, passive systems, the entire complex is a sustainable, underground oasis in the desert, with the area above reclaimed for nature, and the space below a unique opportunity for human use.
Publications: Maxim Magazine, Evolo.com, Les Debrouillards (can.), NewLook Mag. (fr.)
Entry for the Evolo Skyscraper Competition 2010.
An entry in the 2012 Evolo Skyscraper Competition, the Automatic Tower is a skyscraper powered by the motion of its inhabitants. As people go about their day, whether moving to work or to the park or to the other side of their home, the tower takes the energy of the people's weight moving around and transfers it into energy, essentially taking the energy that we expend to move and giving it back to us in the form of electricity.
The tower is composed of dyads, each one a pair of pods balanced on their fulcrum like a seesaw. The pods are composed of living, working and recreational pods, so that as people go places they move the seesaws of the dyad, and thereby create motion that can be turned to energy. In addition, farms on the top of the top create energy from nothing, as plants grow from sun and rain and then transfer their energy to the tower as they move down for processing.
For our degree project at Washington University in St. Louis, we were tasked with picking and programming our own project. I chose a spaceport, based on the Virgin Galactic spaceport currently being built in Arizona.
The Horizon Spaceport functions both as a private spaceport and an interactive museum. It integrates into the ground, a curving mirrored surface that merges with the horizon and buries itself into the end of the runway, affording visitors a unique view of the spacecraft as they lift off. The interior likewise utilizes curving forms and mirrored surfaces to immerse the visitor in the museum.
A student project at Washington University in St. Louis, the Grand Center Art + Life complex is a residential building combined with a multi-use art gallery. Situated in an artistic, but developing area of St. Louis, it provides an anchor to the various art galleries in the vicinity and a much-needed living space for the neighborhood.
Architecturally, the building is a simple L shape, with the vertical residential portion anchoring the horizontal art gallery. In the center of the site sits the sculptural annex building, which grows upwards and intersects the gallery, acting as a piece of art in itself.
