no abstract provided by author / Master of Architecture

It was my objective to develop a design-method with which I could define and capture the spirit of an urban monastery. The spirit of this monastery was to dictate the form, structure, volume, materials and details. Each part of the project, inside and outside, were to have the spirit of an urban monastery. lt was my hypothesis that the best way to capture the spirit of a project was to begin with conceptual models. These models were based on abstractions of how I felt about the monastery and its parts. Words such as hard, soft, dark, light, loud, quiet, open, closed, inviting and defensive were used to define the models. These models would grow and change, adapting to new situations, always gaining in detail until I would finally end up with a final design. / Master of Architecture

Well designed forms and spaces can maintain their inate beauty and harmony though activities in and around them will come and go. These spaces are timeless. My search is not directly for a form but rather for a pattern, dictated to by the idea, governed by rules about the space and limited only by site. A form that gracefully embraces itself and the reason for its genesis. Continually evolving. The hospital will be my instrument. I sense what a hospital is but I do not know what it will become. A functional organism by nature, it must be understood and simplified so that Architecture can triumph. Therefore, a strong, viable plan for form and space is essential. / Master of Architecture

Master of Architecture

A twenty-five story, 200,000 square foot mixed-use complex on the edge of Baltimore's downtown office district. A building system reminiscent of the Japanese Metabolists' is developed, but with less of a preoccupation with "high-tech" imagery. This system is manipulated to produce plazas and public spaces at many levels throughout the complex. The complex 's relationship to the 1855 Camden Station is also a major issue. / Master of Architecture

Have we lost the Art of Architecture? In this post-industrial epoch economics, capitalism, apathy, and popular culture are causing modern man to neglect aspects of his humanity. The essence of his existence and the quality of his life are quietly becoming a superficial image, T.S. Eliot sees this decay as the desacralization of modernity: "(the) assertion is that no culture has appeared or developed except together with a religion ......I see no reason why the decay of culture should not proceed much further...." Modernity has blinded man, he is unable to see any significance between reality or representation, poetry or banality, the eternal or the temporal. The ontological view of man is being lost to a historical view of man. Thus the actuality which gives meaning, significance, and value to man's existence - the poetics; and the actuality that transcends man over time - the eternal, are slowly being dissolved in a solution of neglect, opinion, and apathy. Architecture is the making of sacred space. Permanence and poetics are the signification for Architecture and the sacred. The poetics are man's desire to express, create and understand meaning in this world. Being a significant act of man, this expression of the infinite, manifests itself in Architecture. This is the ability to transcend beyond the need for a basic shelter toward something which expresses the aspirations, desires, wisdom and tragedies of man. The eternal has both physical and spiritual attributes. The physical aspect is man's skill and ability to make things. By joining together material, structure, gravity and geometry man assembles an artifact with the intent that it will endure and weather over time. The spiritual aspect is man's memory of things compelled by his own mortality which leads him toward permanence. Modern Architects are faced with the fact that their abilities are disappearing. The ability to define meaning, to profoundly seduce materials, to perform the ritual of construction and to mark a place - the ability to make a work of Architecture is slowly becoming extinct. If permanence and poetics cannot be reconciled with modernity, if man cannot create an artifact which is transcendent, existential, and eternal; the Art of Architecture - a language of man - will be lost. / Master of Architecture

All buildings are a response to the environment, but some are more sensitive than others. Those structures designed as artistic statements are considered to be works of architecture. Buildings make statements with shapes and materials, but often the message is lost. The use of veneers and hidden steel structures makes perception compete with the truth. If a building’s appearance reflects its construction, then its system of values is more easily understood. The· shapes and materials that convey these values can be derived from many sources, but a building’s context can offer vital clues. The architectural elements in the vicinity of a site can inspire new forms of expression. This project examines a small urban district for the design of new building on a vacant lot. The design is based on the dominant features of the area's existing architecture. · The proposed building is a mixed—use facility that offers commercial and residential spaces. The site of the project is in downtown Roanoke, a city in southwest Virginia. / Master of Architecture

Too often, space or void, has been considered an a priori condition. Rather than using it and it's relationship to solids to create a harmony and balance of form, void has been unconsciously disregarded as a virtual nonelement in design. This thesis attempts to bring a tangible character to the void; to design the void as if it were a solid form. In doing so, the limiting properties of solid are broken down. Defining characteristics of solid and void are shared and boundaries are blurred. What was once known becomes unknown. / Master of Architecture

The reason for this thesis project was not necessarily to create a thing, but rather to create a basis of thought on Architecture. An idea about Architecture which had to come from a strong architecturally philosophical foundation. Thus, this thesis is about establishing and then solidifying a structure of thought from which I could continue my education, by asking questions of Architecture, and then create a position of strength from which I could base my design decisions on. The fundamental idea is that of a city as a great communal room created over time by its inhabitants, from smaller rooms, neighborhoods. This room is in constant evolutionary change as it continues to define itself physically for its time and place in history. But the city is not just a physical thing, it is also a sense of place, of belonging to a moment in history, and to a distinct place in the world. / Master of Architecture

The Savannah River originates in the area of Rabun Gap in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in northern Georgia, and flows eastward to the Atlantic Ocean. Where the river opens out to the sea, the Tybee Island Lighthouse stands. A few miles inland, the city of Savannah, Georgia rests on the shore of this river. Part One of this book, Beginning of the New, analyzes the original settlement of this city. Part. Two, Composition with the Old, is a proposal for a square in that urban scheme. From Rabun Cap to Tybee Light is a colloquialism, once used in this part of Georgia, meaning 'all-inclusive'. This phrase is used here not only to indicate the physical location of this city, but the usage represents my search for a complete architecture- gathering a breadth and depth of understanding in order to build a house or a city. That search is not presented in this volume. What is presented are two vehicles for this search; the analysis and the proposal. In this search. I am somewhere between complete nescience and categorical mastery. I do not know where I stand but this book stands there with me. / Master of Architecture