This thesis project is an examination of how design can reinvigorate interest in reading through the creation of a branch library. The primary focus of this study is to generate a space that successfully binds intellectual interests, social and economic groups to re-establish community.

This Thesis is my effort to understand what subjects I find interesting and why. In the processes of writing and making sculpture, I discovered that my underlying fascination is in history. I am interested in places and objects for their individual qualities, but I also want to know how they relate to the world. If I am drawn to an ancient place or object, I want to examine how it fits into the contemporary world, and visa versa. The complexity of these relationships is increased by the vast number of histories (or stories) that are intertwined in the world. Over the course of the thesis I write about my various influences, and the development of my work from undergraduate to graduate school. This progression has been from observation of natural world to a more complex questioning of how the world came to be what it is. I conclude by defining the direction in which I want my work to continue: directly along the border between myth and reality.

Corporate Housing & Training is a hybrid project that promotes the future use of living-and-working environments in the same site offering the amenities of a hotel, apartment and an office in one. The challenge of approaching this type of project is the way the program works and how it flows together with different users and different needs without even getting out of the building at the same time. This project helps the actual local and global needs because it would be a big impact for the traveling executives and companies by promoting business, exchange of ideas, and socializing; due to a wider span of options for them and have time after work to do other activities with the community all involved in one place. In order to complete this project nine case studies where explored from a view of similar sites, programs and processes by Architects and Interior Designers who approached the solution to the problem in different ways.

Essay to accompany MFA thesis exhibition for the Department of Sculpture and Extended Media.

Cycling is a sport of opposites. The mechanisms that comprise a bicycle are beautifully simple and work in perfect harmony to produce a graceful and efficient means of transportation. Additionally, cycling is a rigorous form of full-body exercise that has a relatively low-impact on the body’s bones and joints. Most importantly cycling tears down boundaries, it forces the rider to notice his surroundings and be aware of those around him. Cycling builds community and allows for interactions, both between riders and between rider and place. Juxtaposed against the simplicity and elegance of the bicycle, is the complexity and corruption of the sport. In recent years, cycling has been marred by scandal, fraud, and greed. The sport, on an international scale, has shifted away from friendly competition and community building to racketeering and marketing. In contrast to the wealth associated with the sport, stands the fact that participation in cycling can be prohibitively expensive. In an effort to overcome this obstacle, organizations like the Richmond Cycling Corps (RCC) are attempting to grow the popularity of the sport by introducing it to Richmond’s underserved youth. The RCC is a non-profit organization whose chief goal is to increase exposure to the sport in an effort to promote the development of healthy lifestyle choices for Richmond’s youth. By doing so, the RCC strives to build stronger, more connected communities. Using the program and mission statement of the Richmond Cycling Corps as a starting point, this project seeks to develop a space that promotes emotional and physical growth using cycling as the method of delivery.

My thesis is part story telling, part exploration of research and part narrative of my experience in graduate school that culminated with my thesis work Piecing. My work explores how memory and history are connected to objects and the role they play in our ability to feel ‘at home’ at a moment when that is challenged in many ways. I extensively explore recent literature on the topic of nostalgia that is described as a reaction to the fragmentation and dislocation of our current moment, nostalgia as mal du siecle.

Is it possible for a small hotel to strengthen connections between local and transient groups? Can a small hotel serve as a host to visitors to Richmond, Virginia but also serve as a ‘third place’ for people who live and work in the city? The Branch Public Baths Building in Richmond, Virginia will be renovated to strengthen community by serving as a restaurant and providing accommodations and interaction to a wide variety of travelers through an urban hotel setting. The Branch Public Baths cafe and restaurant can be an ‘anchor’ third space. This unique design solution can strategically integrate the third space as gathering space. It will be a hybrid version of a coffee house, bar & restaurant and hotel. It will be a destination in itself not just for overnight guests.

Change and development over an extremely fast period of time in Qatar have shifted the atmospheric sense of the country. The distance created by the skyscrapers and their scale to people has a great impact on the behavior and interaction between the people and the city. In my research, I aim to incorporate the old experiences and behaviors with contemporary design in objects used within the house to maintain the feeling of being home through reliving the fading behaviors and traditions as well as bringing closer the modern city into the home through the use of materials. Through experimentation with human behaviors, materials and senses, I create a series of projects that deal with memory, nostalgia, and traces of time.

This project is an experiment in the adaptive reuse of an Art Deco style manufacturing facility in Richmond, VA. The building has fallen into disrepair and has been inhabited by two different owners over the years, but the structure remains very much as it did when it was erected in 1946. I will propose adapting to the defunct space, a forward thinking school based on hands-on, creative learning. This school will challenge accepted pedagogies and serve as an exapmple of future learning. I have always looked as adaptive reuse interior design as a parasitic form of designing. The new program is almost never intendeed for the original space as it was designed and therfore should show its uniqueness in contast to the site. In this thesis, I will explore how the program will influence the design process, thus creating the most appropriate design to facilitate a futuristic learning environment in a obsolete manufacturing plant.

Personal exposure to, and in-depth investigations of cultural artifacts can be used to inform visual explorations that represent the universal experience of existing in a world where cultural boundaries are blurred and constantly evolving. Cross-cultural understanding and visual language are expanded throughout the research and making processes, resulting in work that has increased resonance with diverse audiences. Artifacts are not only expressions of a specific group of people, but also reflections of societal influences on one’s thinking, creating, and experiencing the world. In an increasingly global society, there is more interaction between cultures, resulting in a greater exchange of beliefs and perspectives. Through this exchange, certain aspects of a culture are retained, while new approaches to form and material are also intro-duced. When culturally-specific methodologies and aesthetics are visually or conceptually layered, work is produced that communicates relevant, meaningful narratives about the intersection of cultures.