Portfolio as 12/13.

These are only a few pages from my portfolio.

3 and 1 exercises

Logos

I have created a couple of versions of my logo. It is an abstraction of the initials M H for Margaret Henderson. I was not as successful creating a logo out of P H for Peggy Henderson. Since most people know me as Peggy, I felt it ok to go with an abstracted version as it would not be recognizable anyway.

The versions are black, colored, and with a gradient background. The one shown here is for my portfolio with the gradient background.

Combined adobe photoshop and sketchup for boards

These are the 3 boards created for our third project in design class.

Board 1 (far right): utilizes adobe lines to create a site plan. The basic plan was first created in sketchup. I wanted to remove the tan background but
I could not find the method in sketchup which forced me to put a
brown/gray background on the other boards as well.


Board 2 (see below, right) used elliptical shape tool and gradients
to create the bubble diagram. I now see I have a title block
problem. In one case it came in as separate elements just like the source
file, in another case it comes in as a combined shape and I don't know why.
I don't think I combined into one layer but maybe I did.


Board 3 (immediate right) is the grand finale where I created the model in sketchup, rotated views and saved output for the perspective and elevation. The cross section was then created by chopping the model in half. I could not get the cross section tool in sketchup to work and cutting the original apart was very difficult.

TMCC 3D model

The south side of Sierra Building at Truckee Meadows. I am having trouble will filling in surfaces of irregular shapes such as the triangular roof.

Modular apartment component

This apartment is designed to attached to a vertical cylinder of a diameter of 40 feet. Individuals can have architects design their own unique apartment that can be 'plugged in' to the cylinder which provides utilities and elevator transport to their private domain. It's a way to build up, not out, but still have a home designed for the individual family.

New ideas for concrete

graphicconcrete.com may be the answer for the exterior for our next project. We must design a house in a neighborhood zoned for both residential and commercial. Wood houses, brick warehouses, cement apartment buildings create an ecclectic neighborhood. Because of this I did not want to add to the situation but perhaps pull from the surrounding buildings. The site also has an historical marker for the railroad that can perhaps serve as a starting point. At any rate, I liked the following design from www.graphicconcrete.com.

Steven Holl, another attempt to upload poster

This time I used the instructions on page 121 - preparing an image for emailing (that also works for web posts) to make the image smaller. First I reduced the size of the board from 24x36 to 6x9 inches. Then I followed the instructions to merge layers and reduce resolution.

Steven Holl

Steven Holl is my architect for project 3 of our design class. I created a board in adobe to be plotted out. The size is 24x36 inches. I created it at a resolution of 300 and converted it to 150 for plotting. That has not been done yet.

Posting to the web is failing at that size. I changed the size to 6x9 inches per p. 94 in our text. I will now attempt to post this size on the web.

That failed too with supposedly a known blog problem.

Landscape Architecture by Mia Lin

I learned about Mia Lin last year when another student researched this architect. I was struck by her work. She is famous for the Vietnam War Memorial and the Civil Rights Memorial. I really like the Civil Rights Memorial. It documents the history of the movement and has water flowing over it which is very symbolic for most people. The water for me represents peace, relaxation or a time to reflect. Now with our struggles with the middle east we seem to be back in a similar situation. I have included a photo of the Civil Rights Memorial.

Alternative landscaping for dry climate

Here is another alternative for landscaping in a dry climate which involves more than just more rocks. At a business park, located where Kietske Ave. ends in the south they have used cement structures in geometric patterns to form a very decorative landscape. Unfortuneately the architect is not known.

Added roof to 3D structure

It was very difficult to raise the roof. Intersecting lines in 3D sketchup under edit did not work. I finally added a vertical line on the Y axis and drew lines individually. Then I deleted the extra geomentry from the flat roof and it worked.

Using Pen Tool for Site Plan

The pen tool was used to create a north arrow and circulation paths for vehicals and pedestrians.

First Day of Google SketchUp

These are images from my first two attempts at Sketch Up during class lab.

Example of a story board design

Nine Square Matrix

In this project we studied the influence of simplicity and complexity, proportion and scale, and relationships between the parts and the whole on architectural design. In nine steps a simple object of our choosing was transformed to a composition consisting of 3 habitable areas, demonstrating 3 levels of complexity.

My composition began as a cube divided into 3 horizontal levels by horizontal planes. The levels were hollow. I created 3 levels of complexity by executed 9 transformations, 3 per each level. Level one contained a recessed plane and a rotated cube. Level two was subtracted creating a large void where a complex object was hung beneath the overhead plane. Level 3 had more complex subtraction involving cutting into 4 planes of the cube. An additive form consisting of 3 cubes were inserted inside the void space.

The simple object was transformed and in the process a lot was learned about simplicity giving way to complexity, voids and planes creating interesting spaces and the relationships of the parts to the whole.

Can Reno borrow from Zen Buddism Gardens?

Because our climate is so dry I have been thinking of ways to add beauty to our landscape and conserve our natural resources. Rock-scapes, typical of the Sierra, are everywhere. To add variety I have been considering our own style of Zen Buddism gardens. Multiple textures and few plantings lend themselves to our climate. I would like to seem them modernized or "Reno-ized" to make them our own local architectureal style.

The above photo link provides an example of the Karesansui Garden. Just scroll down to item 4.

Practice Post

This is my first post