Pin Up 10/18

for class on monday 10/18 we were asked to design the exterior and site for the vance chavis library. each group had a different approach to the project. below are some notes i took during the presentation.

Kurt's group:

• curved building



• triangular columns



• wanted to engage community and unite them through artistic expression



• open grid parking lot with grass



• building is meant to cradle and invite.



• stated Vatican as inspiration



• not serious learning... more like "build a volcano and blow a hole in it kinda learning." --kurt.
  

Maiken's group:

• box cube in center=beacon



• presented 3 different building and site plans



• one had interesting triangular shape built onto side.

Monique's group:

• rectinlinear form set on an angle



• resembles sawtooth center in winston salem



• lots of glass and wood beams



• parking on angle in back



• green roof



• either direction your coming from it grabs your attention



• very practical and interesting



• lots of opportunity for indoor/outdoor spaces

Lily's group:

• assymetrical floor plan



• anchored to benbow



• parking on back and side



• quiet area upstairs



• seem to have children and general space together



• seems to be more of a disconnect in entrances rather than centralized location.

As a group we liked:

• drop-off zone



• open pavers



• centralized



• response to existing building

the main points of the building my group designed are as follows:

• responds to idea of life long learning by mimicing an open book



• louder group spaces ------> quiet spaces



• builds off of the existing site which we planned to use for a outdoor space



• centralized circulation desk



• two entrances



• we suggested that the stacks take you on a journey to find your book.



• we also suggested that materials change in some way on the exterior to make various suggestions about the structure which support life long learning.

during our presentation Kurt asked if he thought that people wanted to go on a journey to find their book. my thoughts on this question are that yes people do. in a library i feel that one comes to pursue knowledge. taking people on a journey to locate knowledge would enforce this point. also i frequently feel during class discussions that as designers many in the group are trying to get to far away from the purpose of a library. by catering only to those who "read out loud" as maiken once put it, you are neglecting people who need the library to be a quiet place to study and do their homework... just a thought.

Advisory board meeting

Today we presented our precedent research and site analysis to the advisory board for the library. During introductions i was suprised to learn that most of the people attending the meeting were interested in child development in some form or another. It was also interesting to listen to Sandy do the introduction. She mentioned that they wanted the library to be larger and more inviting so that they could expand their user base. Bridget said something interesting about the users of the current library stating that they ranged "from womb to tomb." The meeting was very insightful but I was disappointed by the turn out...

McGrit-Horton Library grand opening

We went to the McGrit-Horton Library opening and there were tons of people there! it was exciting to see such awesome community interest. i enjoy the design of the building and especially the children's area.

Assignment 1.0 Reading Room: final renderings

here are the final renderings for the reading room assignment... in retrospect i would have done several things differently. i think that the size of the forms need to be scaled down so that they aren't so overwhelming. i also think that the screens need to move rather than be stationary... which was an idea that several professors expressed to me when we were doing our "gallery" critiques.

Assignment 1.0 Reading Room: process work

Our first studio assignment was to design a reading space within the Gatewood building. I immediately choose to use the lobby space because I felt that it had the most potential. The space is beautiful but overwhelming because of its size. Therefore my thought process became geared towards finding a way to make one feel like they are in their own guarded corner while being in a large space. I found inspiration in the photo to the left, which shows reading nooks in the McGrit-Horton library in Greensboro, NC.

I decided on this form...which I loosely refer to as "trapezoidal"...because i felt that it lent itself to comfortable positions for reading.

Eventually I decided that in order to make someone feel comfortable in these reading nooks there would need to be dividers in between spaces. Also I thought that by placing them against the glass wall you would create a focal point within the room which would intrigue visitors to the lobby.