For this project a natatorium with a large liner track was to be built within the Arnold A. Arboretum. The Arboretum itself is a large collection of many different plants from all over the world. These plants are used for research and study. With the landscape an important part of this project we had to develop a working topography while meeting requirements for the program.

The main concept of this project was a large ramp system that punches through the main building. This ramp system also floats above the track and the pool area. Another part that is important is the retaining walls that circle the building. They slope with the land and are intergrated into the terrain.

In this exercise a building was to be built in an idealized location. The location was a grassy incline somewhere in Boston. This building was to contain a famous sculpture and a famous painting. The main concept of this structure was to be a simple overhang that was pulled from the land. This concept of the overhang was included in the ramp system as well.

The overhangs played another important role and that was to block out the harsh summer sun. But during the winter months, sunlight is able to penetrate and warm the building.

A multistory dance studio was designed in the North End of Boston. This Antigravity Dance Studio was different in the sense that the studios were required to contain enough height for the performers to jump high into the air. The site of this project was carefully studied and taken into consideration. Since it was on the corner of the North End, many old brick buildings surrounded it while it looked onto the new Greenway.

An important aspect of this building’s design is a large passage that goes through the building. This opening allows public passage through the building. The open space also has spaces for planters and vegetation and allows light to penetrate the building at many angles. Two large glass staircases also constantly allow light into the building from different directions on different floors.

A structure called the Boston Voice Center was designed in a dense infrastructural node on the northwest corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Boylston Street. This important corner of Boston is exposed to the Massachusetts Turnpike, a railroad corridor, and busy streets that run towards Fenway and Newbury street.

Because this site is so heavily trafficked, the sound levels had to be taken into account and the envelope of the building was very important to it. This envelope is divided into two types. Heavy concrete walls and layered glass walls. The concrete walls generally face the louder parts of the site like the Mass Turnpike and the railroad corridor.

The slope and the heavy concrete wall is an important aspect of the project. The wall follows the same direction as the slope but the wall has a reversed incline. The performance spaces are split into two parts, one is inside and the other is outside.

For this project we had to study a performance artist. The artist that I studied was Joseph Beuys. His core ideas focus on healing which became the main concept of this space. A study of Chinatown revealed that it was crowded, dirty, smelly, old, and noisy. To be able to heal Chinatown, the space must be clean, inviting, not crowded, and fresh. I used a lotus flower as the symbol of healing. The concept I developed from the lotus was layers of walls. The layers can be used to control spaces, create transparencies, and to change views.

The performance space that was created in Chinatown became a spiral of layers. The layers or walls of the space became an important part of the space and they were twisted to create a parallax view.

The layers descend into the ground so a person going through the space sees the layers differently. Space in the center remains open to allow a person to perform. People that walk by the space can catch a glimpse of the performance because the walls allow people to see into the space.