ARCH 402-Spring ‘18

Prof. Dan Woodfin

Halsted Point Redevelopment

The project is a proposal for redeveloping the southern tip of Goose Island, in Chicago. The site is currently being used as a maintenance and storage facility for Greyhound Buses. The main focus is to transform an industrialized, barren site, to one that promotes growth of the natural environment, and creates spaces where residents and the public can access nature. Studies show that an individuals physical and mental health increase the more they interact with nature, and it is a goal of the project to maximize these spaces. Overall, site performance is the driving force behind many of the design decisions, and focuses not only on the natural environment, but the quality of living spaces within the tower.

At first glance it is a simple painting, but a closer look tells a very different story. To many the painting appears to be nothing more than paint slung onto a canvas in a hurried and sloppy matter. Some might even say it's not real art, that it looks like something a child would do during playtime. And that is where the beauty lies. It is simple, but yet not straightforward and maybe not so simple after all.

The tale of Pythoness is one born out of Greek mythology. It starts with a grudge held by Apollo, toward the Serpent that brought great hardship to Apollo’s mother. After slaying the Serpent, he left the massive body of the Python to rot in the city of Delphi. Delphi was famous for the Oracles that resided on the Mountain, and later is where Apollo would build his Temple. As the story goes, the Priestess that sat on the throne in the Temple, was given the name Pythia. The Pythia was able to connect with Apollo, and gain prophetic wisdom for those who sought out her services and were willing to make a sacrifice.

This simplified story now has viewing the painting in a whole new manner. The viewer can now ask the painting more complex questions. Each brush stroke appears to be more purposeful, they beg one to ask “why are you there, and not somewhere else on the canvas?”. Why is paint splattered in one area, but more controlled in another? And why are some colors vivid and bold, while others seem to fade out or bleed through? That is the beauty of Abstract Art, it is not what scene did an artist try to recreate, but what feeling are they trying to express to the viewer or emotion are they trying to provoke within them.

Translation Essay

Based on the music of Sufjan Stevens, the project was to create a free floating space that would represent a physical journal one might take if they were to experience the song.

The Process

Starting with an aerial view of Paris, I traced the radial pattern of the streets using the Arc de Tromphe as the center point. My next step was to zoom out and add a second circle to the tile to represent other roundabouts in the city. I then zoomed back in and choose to keep both circles and a select number of roadways. I varied the widths of the roads to show the hierarchy of the various streets.

Paris Sunset

Starting with two tile designs, distinct patterns emerge in each of the four quadrants to create the composition. The tiles were created by abstracting an aerial view of Paris and the other from the striped arches of the Mezquita Cordoba. The patterns in each quadrant were created by laying the tiles in a centralized order. Because the composition is oriented to form a diamond shape, there is an axis that breaks the composition into upper and lower sections.

The Project

The goal was to use to designs that are opposite in scale, and abstract it down to create a pattern. The final step was to create a model/3D representation of that pattern.

(Model was constructed out of chipboard and is approx. 6” x 6” x 3”.