The Eisenhower Avenue Valley site is unique in the Washington Area for its highrise development potential. It offers access to the Metro line, the beltway and Old Town Alexandria. Its zoning diversity will accommodate light Industrial, commercial and residential construction. The question of whether or not to build a tower in proximity to the temple is an architectural and a political question. The assumption of this project is that the Eisenhower Avenue Valley will have high rise development. This design has recognized the significance of the Eisenhower Avenue Valley site and its zoning. It identifies the specific aspects of the site, such as the proximity of the Metro Line, the beltway, Old Town and the Potomac River. Within this context, the project defines the user of the metro by finding an architectural meaning within the planning issues discussed above. As the grid-lock of the beltway grows and becomes more congested, the Metro Line will flourish. The Metro line, when used to its greatest potential, will soon replace the street grid and city block as an urban organizational element. A city's character is drawn from this urban element. This project responds to this element by defining the individual within such a context. Retail commercial and residential space exist with respect to the Metro Line, not in competition with, or in ignorance of it. A perpendicular axis emerges from the Metro Line. Ordered around this axis are residential, commercial and retail spaces that exploit their specific site advantages. The accomplishment of this project has been in understanding and developing an architectural solution to these planning Issues and questions for the individual who will live, work and shop in this environment. I would like to acknowledge the help of several individuals. Ed Rahame's carpentry expertise and· advice helped me through the oral defense of my thesis. Tim Mount's photographic ability and patience were greatly appreciated. Don Casey provided intimate knowledge of the Eisenhower Avenue Valley and the public policy applied to it. This came from his years in public service as a City Councilman. / Master of Architecture

The design of a drug rehabilitation center for women with children incorporated the treatment theories of therapeutic communities. At the time this center was designed, only two facilities of this type were in use specifically for women. The Washington metropolitan area was in need of such a treatment program for women. Three architectural concepts were studied which were appropriate for this type of facility: threshold, community and natural light. Threshold became a symbol for change. The development of a small community within was the unifying concept for this project. Natural light was developed as an important element which is a healing medicine for the psychological and mental health of a person. Society needs to deal with the problem of drugs and the hold they take on people. It is no longer responsible for us to turn our heads from this affliction. Facilities such as the one developed in this thesis will help mothers overcome their addictions, while obtaining some family cohesion. The children that are able to participate with their mothers will hopefully avoid the same mistakes their own mothers made. One day they may grow up to become responsible, contributing parents and citizens. / Master of Architecture

The goal of this thesis project is to gain a greater understanding of how architects are being trained. The project is a renovation and addition to a building serving as a school of architecture. The design of the school reflects the architectural educational process. "It is not enough to teach a man a specialty. Through it he may become a kind of useful machine but not a harmonious developed personality. It is essential that the student acquire an understanding of and a lively feeling of values. He must acquire a sense of the beautiful and the morally good. Otherwise he - with his specialized knowledge - more closely resembles a well-trained dog than a harmoniously developed person. He must learn to understand the motives of human beings, their illusions, and their sufferings in order to acquire a proper relationship to individual fellow man and the community." Albert Einstein from the New York Times, 10/5/52. / Master of Architecture

Americans are going through a radical change in how they build cities. Urban areas across the nation are growing with multiple cores called "Edge Cities." These new centers do not look like our old city downtowns where buildings stood side by side, but rather their low broad outlines dot the landscape like cattle along a forged trail. These office towers, frequently guarded by trees and moats of asphalt peer at each other from respectful distances through reflected bands of glass. On the fringe of the modern city, these displaced spores sprout without relationship to any existing organization, other than the serpentine ribbon of looping, sprawling highways. The formation of spaces rather than the formation of objects is a strategy I explore in the "Eisenhower Metro Center" to combat today's urban sprawl. Architect Steven Holl suggests, "The expanded boundary of the contemporary city calls for the synthesis of new spatial compositions. An intensified urban realm could be a coherent mediator between the extremes of the metropolis and the agrarian plain." Within the scope of my thesis project I hope to define a new synthesis of urban life and urban form. Program, quality of light, and movement will become form generators of this new "Urban Edge". / Master of Architecture

The aim of this design thesis was to look carefully at the historical environment of the chosen site, and with the understanding developed from this exploration, to design a group of houses that would answer to the desires of the individual and the needs of the collective, or simply: to create places where people would wish to dwell. "Houses must be special places within places, separately the center of the world for their inhabitants, yet carefully related to the larger place in which they belong."¹ / Master of Architecture