FLU IS HERE

Guys,
Apparently the flu is here. I will continue to work but am pretty much out of commision right now. I was up all night and have been in bed all day. My hubby brought my laptop into our room for me and hopefully I can get some of my green information up for you. Some of it is seen in my site plan. So...don't panic if I'm not blogging!

PROGRESS SITE

Site:
This diagram pretty much shows much site layout ideas.
The north side of the site will have a wall that will protect the parking and it will come up to the first floor level where it will convert into a retention basin for the water collection. To the north edge of the parking wall will be planted with native grasses non-mow area. Along the south edge of the parking wall is a path for the students and/or community to stroll along. I envision this as an area where the students go to just step away from the work day for a brief time. The area between the academic building and the residential tower should be natural terrain and should not be graded to a perfect landscape. The paths as well should be more of a rugged design and not just a carved out straight path. This will give the feel of a natural setting not a designed setting that is typical in urban settings. Another rugged path will need to be inserted for those approaching from the west. The front retention area should have a “wall” that is planted with native plants.
My basic site ideas are to keep the landscaping as native as possible and non linear.

Building Elements:
Most of the elements are discussed in prior posts. The water collection is shown here in the site plan; the shading and day lighting are demonstrated in my schematic detail from the intensive presentation. I will gather my images into a sheet and post that soon. I did a lot of research this weekend while in bed.

PROGRESS STRUCTURE

Here are the first steps to the strucure. Kurt and I have been emailing each other today and discussing the cantilvers over the tracks. He is confident of what I am calling cantliver 1 but not cantilever 2. I am rethinking that edge and also still in communication with Kurt about it. I will continue studying this.

Structure

Foundation:
Due to the soil conditions on our site as a result of filling in the back bay, the foundation shall be supported by piles to be approximately 100’ with a pile cap. The parking level of my building shall be a structural concrete slab with all other slabs above comprised of metal decking with a concrete slab. Foundation walls shall extend 4’-0” below grade (frost line) and shall be a 12” thick concrete wall. (Werner, does the footing become the pile cap?).

Framing:
Both buildings are to be framed with structural steel as noted on the floor plans, section and details. Framing shall be either fire sprayed or enclosed in a fire rated assembly due to the classification of the building. Depth of beams to be 18” in order to meet the ratio specified by Kurt (span/depth = 20). The maximum span is 30’ and the minimum is 20’. Column spacing is also a maximum of 30’ with the average bay being 30’ X 20’ but they do vary. See plans for specific bay sizes. Glass walls on South Façade shall be curtain wall systems. All interior wall framing shall be metal stud.

Cantilever:
I have been in contact with Kurt and this is underway.

PROGRESS ELEVATIONS

Here are my blocked out elevations in progress. I still need to include the parking lot level and need to work on the fenestrations on the tower as well as incorporate Werner's comments in the tower. I have increased the height of it but I want to make it more powerful. I just wanted to get a post up of my status. I need to move on to the rest of the tasks for the week so I will revisit these at the end of the week. I think my site layout and the ideas I have for landscaping and site elements may impact the facades so I will work on that and the structure next.

MASSING STUDY

Here are some images from a "quick" massing study that I was working on purely in sketchup. No AutoCAD! Well, except for the footprint of the building. I think that I am on to something and am going to move onto studying the fenestrations which will be a combination of my scheme from the intensive and the sketch I showed last week.


Aerial View

Aeriel view - from southeast

View heading east on Mass Pike - you can see the angle from Gehry's building transposed onto mine.

View down Boylston Street looking east

View from rounding the corner at Best Buy. I like that you can see through the lot - I will be studying this more when I move to the site plan. You can see the consistency of the street facade down Mass Ave.

REVISED BUILDING FOOTPRINT ON SITE

Here is the revised footprint. I have separated the buildings much more as you can see. I wish to use the residence tower to hold the street facades of both Boylston and Mass Ave. (Werner, oh great Zoning Administrator, am I granted this approval for air rights?). The solid hatch demonstrates the building at ground level. The horizontal hatch demonstrates the building above. I will be posting a solid figure model of this so you can understand it more. All lines are taken from the existing street facades and Gehry building as demonstrated on my post from yesterday.

SITE STUDIES

Ground


Figure


Figure Ground combined (buildings and Streets - Open areas are demonstrated in white)


Utilizing figure ground studies for further study

These images show the progression of my studies to come to the following findings:

1. All three edges shown in the diagram must be held by some portion of the facades of my buildings.


2. As much open space as possible should be held on the ground level as it is severely lacking in the surrounding blocks.


3. The buildable area is most of the site, however the building facades should slide in and out of the center of the site in order to accomplish items 1 and 2.


4. The Zoning Administrator will be approached in order to obtain permission to encroach on the setbacks in order to hold the street facades of Boylston Street and Massachusetts Avenue.

GEHRY ELEVATION STUDY

These images show the solid void study I was doing and the zone studies I was doing. I am attempting to classify zones of the elevations that could be utilized in my elevations. I was also trying to understand the relationship of the Gehry elevations. I will be utilizing these findings in developing my facades along Mass Ave, Mass Pike and Boylston Street. I think Boylston Street facade needs to incorporate something to demonstrate the traditional facades such as demonstrated on the west facade of the Gehry building. The Mass Pike Facade needs to be more of a void facade.