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Too often buildings around the world are completely demolished or gutted only for another building to take its place less than thirty years later, despite the strength of its original design intent. This human fascination with replacing the old with the new has led to a disastrous climatic situation. According to the EPA, in 2018 more than 90 percent of total construction and demolition debris generation in the U.S. alone came from demolition, and around 145 million tons of it was sent to landfills. Building design and redesign decisions must become even more conscientious when it comes to planning for the future, not only in the materials that are chosen, but how they are connected. Designers must plan on how projects not only get built, but also how they will inevitably be taken apart. / Master of Architecture / Too often buildings around the world are completely demolished or gutted only for another building to take its place less than thirty years later, despite construction standards in place to ensure buildings may withstand a hundred years of use. This human fascination with replacing the old with the new has led to a disastrous climatic situation. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, in 2018 more than 90 percent of total construction and demolition debris generation in the U.S. alone came from demolition, and around 145 million tons of it was sent to landfills. There is only so much land left to bury more trash, and most of it is poisoning the planet's resources, especially thanks to the exorbitant amount of plastic that is continuously created and discarded. This thesis seeks to study an underutilized building within a city, and discover ways to redesign it in a conscientious way that will offer future occupants opportunities to remodel or upgrade the structure with as little waste as possible. This idea of deconstruction is utilized in not only the materials that are chosen, but how they are connected, as well as in how the existing components are discarded or repurposed.

Across cities in America and the world old buildings are retired to the fate of demolition. The once glorious piece of architecture are seen as unwanted, eyesores and just not fit for today's needs. This thesis seeks to show that with an adaptive-reuse approach, one can restore the 'lost glory' of such old buildings and even add new undiscovered value to its performance and architectural richness. / Master of Architecture

This thesis is an investigation into the role of architecture as a tool for connections. It explores this idea in four scales: the urban scale, the immediate context, the scale of the building and the interpersonal scale. Architecturally, it addresses the complexities of an intervention in an urban fabric and embraces the contextual it is an attempt to reanimate the core of Downtown Roanoke, through the adaptive reuse of an inert built mass by opening it up to put it in conversation with its surroundings. Programmatically, it responds to a collaborative transient workspace catering to individual entrepreneurs or small groups of independent start-up enthusiasts or simply mobile workers. The thesis focuses on connections as the language through which these stories find their expression. / Master of Architecture

There are many programs throughout the world and in the state of Virginia that have been developed to change the outlook of youth on a broader spectrum. Youth in at risk communities face a different set of parameters and are often mislabeled as "bad kids". Many of these youth simply need an environment filled with positive energy. This redesign will create an environment that guides through intuition and the understanding of angles and markers that are considered universal in all languages. The space will open up a world that is non-institutional and without the normal boundaries and pressures of typical grading system. The education center will cultivate healthy habits for learning that can carry them on to community colleges, universities and the eventually the workforce.

This thesis project explores repurposing a hydroelectric plant along Richmond Virginia's Canal Walk. The building has been redesigned to create a community-oriented space programmed as an indoor park, event venue space, and cafe. Throughout this thesis, it became important to create private niches within a public space while creating a flexible public venue that accommodates a variety of activities. Through a variety of spaces that offer users options, a flexible public venue is creating, yielding a community-oriented environment that reconnects local with the site.

This thesis explores the development of an interdisciplinary design incubator and community business center in Richmond, Virginia through the adaptive reuse of a retired, historic school building. In contrast to the deteriorating conditions of Patrick Henry School, renewed growth abounds in its extraordinary site surroundings—the 105 acres of Forest Hill Park, which serves as the virtual backyard of the school building. This dualism provided a prime opportunity for discovering the design possibilities in connecting a built space to its physical surroundings and for giving meaningful new life to an abandoned space.

Adaptive reuse of historic buildings is often a good way to make use of empty unutilized spaces that are architecturally valuable to function as desirable and pleasing environments. The inherited architectural features, large amounts of craftsmanship in the details that usually accompany these older spaces are the appealing traits, which make them exclusive. The design idea of faculty housing in an early twenty’s century Baptist church currently used as the Virginia Commonwealth University Music Center represent an alternative option to it’s existing use. The faculty housing idea in this thesis, as a second adaptive reuse option does not try to resolve any existing problem with the current use, but is introducing an alternative way of design using old and new. To help with the progress of this thesis the following question was explored How is the integration of historic and new create a new entity?