On Wednesday we had the opportunity to receive feedback on our schematic site and building designs. In trying to integrate some of the feedback from the previous pin-ups, some ideas were strengthened, while others were pruned back.

Site Design

We worked to refine and execute our ideas for the site, resulting in a simplified urban plan. A central greenway bounded by two 120′ deep development lots extending towards the back of the site. Vehicle access is pushed to the edges of the lot. Feedback from our pin-up indicate that significant challenges remain, but our diagrammatic layout is workable. We need to capitalize on the visibility of our site from I-205. A beacon of sorts on the site would act as a visual cue, denoting that there is something special happening just off the highway. Additionally, we need to strengthen our documentation in regards to traffic relationships between the site and the neighborhood/region. At the neighborhood level, this applies to pedestrian, Tri-met commuters, cyclists, as well as passenger vehicles. At the regional level, we have to ensure that we have efficient freight access, since both of our buildings are “processing centers” of a sort.

Building Design

The majority of our critique was focused on site design, but the brief conversation we had about the building was very illustrative and raised some extremely important questions. Thus far, my process for designing the building has been people-centric, using spaces to engineer social dynamics. This is a good start, but it lacks the comprehensive accommodation for the actual physical activities taking place in the building. I also lost sight of the modular intentions of the initial design. I need to provide larger outdoor spaces and loading areas to service the shops diverse occupant groups. I also need to differentiate between the labs and classroom spaces on the ground floor. The next step is to break the object building I have designed into a repeatable module. the space between these modules can create the opportunities for loading bays and outdoor materials storage.