The actual need for such a building as the Arab World Institute is wellestablished because Arabs are searching for a solid relationship with Westerners. Growth is possible only through education. The Arab World Institute offers the opportunity for education, information, and entertainment, and serves as a hub of activity where all people-Arabs and otherwise-can meet and share cultural distinctions.The Arab World Institute will have at once:A cultural center for the need of the understanding of Arabic civilization,A museum to show the struggle for development in the Arabic world and to illustrate the cultural impact in a symbol of the city's past development,A library to express the architecture's poetic dimension.The Arab World Institute's buildings do not represent a single and imaginary moment in time, but a place of evolution and change. The Arab World Institute's mission will be:To develop a deeper knowledge and better understanding of Arabic culture, language, and civilization,To improve communication and cultural exchange between nations,To further The United States' relationship with the Arab world in order to contribute to developments in the rest of the world. / Department of Architecture

This project has produced the design for a multi-use building combining offices, retail, and housing on a site in a prominent central area of the United States Capital. / Master of Architecture

When contemplating the history of religious architecture several typologies become apparent. There is the refinement of Gothic cathedrals where the volume and use of material not only reinforced the liturgy but gave breath to a tempo of chant. There also is the small New England chapel steeple and modest gable which provide such a compelling image that it has become an icon in American culture. This thesis explores the design of a sacred space independent of traditional symbolism. Rather than attempting to refine an existing typology this design explored what is fundamental in creating a sacred space. A church for a congregation of Spiritualists, who currently are renovating a Methodist church in Georgetown. [2] This design is centered on a few elements. In response to Spiritualist liturgy which is devoid of an altar there is an exploration of defining void thus creating a focal point by the enclosure of space. The importance of views is emphasized, expressly views to sacred areas that are not actually touched. Layering of transparency is explored which provides a vehicle for information between discrete areas. / Master of Architecture

"Having being fixed on paper or retained in the memory music exists already, prior to its actual performance differing in that respect from all the other arts. The musical entity thus presents the remarkable singularity of existing successively and distinctly in two forms separated from each other by the hiatus of silence. This peculiar nature of music determines its very life as well as it's repercussions in the social world for it presupposes two kinds of musicians: the creator and the performer." Igor Stravinsky This thesis is an investigation of how architecture becomes the threshold manifesting that hiatus of silence; preparing the spectator; preparing, reinforcing and introducing the spectacle, only to be completed by the final act, that of the performer. It is that in between through which one passes in anticipation and preparation. The form in which the creative phenomenon exists then becomes the prologue of the performance. / Master of Architecture

This project is a school for dance located in the Northwest of Washington, D.C. It functions mainly as a professional educational center for dance, but also offers classes to the community at night and on weekends. The school will accommodate up to 250 professional students and as many from the community. The community classes help support the school as well as provide students with the opportunity to obtain teaching experience. Opera, previously the main draw for musical performances, has, in recent years, become increasingly expensive to produce. As a result it has become unavailable to many. This has resulted in a rise in the popularity of dance. The decision to design a school for dance was inspired partially by my love for dance and partially by the increased need for such a school. A pinwheel circulation was chosen as an indication of perpetual movement and the school evolved around this idea. Honest, but modest materials were used as is befitting a public school with limited financial resources. The tactile qualities of the materials are important. Materials are rough and informal, as are the students in the initial execution of their art; moving towards refinement and, subsequently, moving on. The accumulation of many small individual units all working together to make a whole is similar to the relationship of the students to the school. Brick is too formal for this school and for this site, so block was chosen. The building takes advantage of every opportunity to interact with the site by providing natural gardens and outdoor places to dance. The paths formed by each leg of the pinwheel are interwoven with the site so that each path is part site, part building. It is important to provide students with informal meeting places in order to increase the possibility of contact with others. This is an important aspect of any school, therefore every opportunity was taken to provide them where possible. The intent was to provide a well composed, well choreographed space that was rich in its sensory offerings and amenable to the study of dance. / Master of Architecture

In designing a National Museum for the Imaging Arts, a dual obligation is created. It is to provide an intimate place for the cherishing of manifestations of the individual, while also creating, at the scale of the nation, a symbol of the civilization. Architecture accepts this obligation through the hierarchical scaling of the referents of order, material, space, and light. / Master of Architecture

I think of a book as an act of human generosity. In its offerings are the treasures of a mind. The architecture of a library should celebrate the presentation of the book. In celebrating its presence, the library becomes a museum of books. IN THE ORDER OF THE CIRCLE GEOMETRY WARM GARDEN COLD GARDEN GREEN GARDEN STONE GARDEN IN THE NATURE OE THE WALL HOW TO FINISH THE LAND AT THE WATER’S EDGE / Master of Architecture

The work involves an architectural design for a facility located on The Mall in Washington, District of Columbia. The Museum of American Immigrants is a proposed facility for housing the exhibits regarding immigration sequences and their development that make up the United States of America. The ethnographic nature of the work, its artifacts, their collection, exhibition, preservation, and mutations is seen as a means to nurture our better understanding of the on-going struggle with the experiment called America. With reference to current theories of museum architecture, examples of other similar museum buildings, site constraints, and programming, the work strives towards the integration of architecture and purpose. The building is expected to provide layers of experience in both spatial and ethnic terms. The precise geometry defines the spaces and voids, while the way the exhibits are organized defines the building as a framework of displays. The design method used in developing the building called The Museum of American Immigrants has involved a personal understanding in working with the contemporary design Vocabulary and programmatic concerns to create a learning environment for the Visitors while making every effort to achieve contextual balance and harmony required by the surroundings. / Master of Architecture

The fresh new approach taken by today's children's museums offers great potential for an equally fresh approach to the architecture which houses these special places. Just as the "exhibits" at the children's museums invite a new relationship between the visitor and the museum collection, so too should the architecture encourage a new interaction between the individual and the built structure, between the institution and the urban environment. The new Children's Discovery Museum proposed for Washington, D.C. takes the theme of interaction as its basis. The design aims to promote a new level of participation between the people, the building, and the city. In this way, the attitude which is central in making children's museums so special was adapted to form an architectural framework: that all children -- regardless of age -- might discover a more meaningful connectedness to the built world around them. / Master of Architecture