Andrew Vargo

Architecture . Design . Innovation

www. Andrew Vargo .com

240 . 899 . 2786

AndrewVargo@live.com

Education

2011

2014

2016

2012-2017

2013

2008-2012

Penn State University

Pantheon Institute

Penn State Global Programs

University of Maryland Introduction to ArchitectureCollege Park, MD

Landscape ArchitectureParks and PeopleMang’ula, Tanzania

Architecture & Ancient Cities Rome, Italy

Bachelor of ArchitectureState College, PA

School for International Training Buddhist Arts and ArchitectureIndia & Kashmir

Winston Churchill High School Potomac, MD

EYP ArchitectsWork Experience

DVA Architects

DPZ Architects

Whitetail Ski Resort 2010-2012

2012

2014

2015-2016

Taught Classes of 1-18 People Developed Lesson PlansContributed to Station Design

Met with Clients Prepared PresentationsContributed to Concept Development

Conducted Site AnalysisCreated Existing Condition ModelsCompiled Digital Archives

Designed Project Bid PresentationsDeveloped BIM ProjectsProduced Construction Documents

resume

PSU Digital Beehive2013-2017 Mentored Students on RevitResearched applications for Unity and VRAssisted student-run software classes

Proficiencies

Adobe

Autodesk RevitRevit FamiliesAutoCAD3DS Max

PhotoshopInDesignLightroomIllustrator

Digital

Fabrication Laser & CNC Systems3D PrintingWood WorkingWelding

RhinoUnityBasic VRPhotography

resume II

References Paul O’Connell EYP Architecture and Engineering

Senior Architect at EYPpoconnell@eypae.comWashington DC Office | 202.471.50001000 Potomac St NW, Washington, DC 20007

Marina Khoury DPZ Architects Partner at DPZ Architects & Town Plannersmarina@dpz.comWashington DC Office | 301.948.6223320 Firehouse Lane, Gaithersburg, MD 20878

Ute Poerschke Penn State University Associate Professor of Architecture at Penn Stateuxp10@psu.eduPenn State | 814.865.4238429 Stuckeman Building, University Park, PA 16802

Bob Vujcic Donnally Vujcic Architects Principal at DVAbvujcic@dva-arch.comDVA | 301.590.8900400 Professional Drive, Gaithersburg, MD 20879

SuspensionNon-Architecture

Borgo Angelico

Roofer House

Il UffiziPage 39

Page 38

Page 37

Pages 34-35

Composite Plan & ProjectionGraphite on Velum

Drafting of a HouseGraphite on Velum

Historic Urban Development StudyGraphite & Watercolor on Card

Proun SculptureMetal, Wood, String

Door at NightPage 36 Existing Conditions SketchCharcoal on Canvas

Settlers Ridge HouseArchitecture

Tiber River Museum

Discovery Center

A Living RoomPages 26-27

Pages 20-25

Pages 16-19

Pages 08-11

Museum Pavilion & WorkshopHajar Pavilion Competition

Community Center, Museum, Master PlanAllen Street, State College, PA

Visitors Center, Museum, InfrastructureVia Gulia, Rome, IT

Personal ResidenceSettlers Ridge Road, Osterberg, PA

Portfolio

Center Sky ObservatoryPages 12-15 Visitors Center & ObservatoryMount Lemmon Observatory, AZ

NSNP Community Center

Phototropism Solar ArrayPages 32-33

Pages 28-31

Solar Array & Educational DisplayEast Park Ave, State College, PA

Community Center & After School CareNorris Square, Philadelphia, PA

Settlers Ridge House

Settlers Ridge Road, Osterburg, PA

5 Months

This house was my first solo project. I competed for this project in January of 2017 by providing a concept image to the client based upon their initial description. To win this job, I competed against several graduate students and other upper year architecture students. As part of the selection process, I met with the client on site where we discussed their vision for the project. After seeing the quality of my work and the style of my proposal, I was offered the job.

The 8,000 square foot residence is to be built in a small wooded area on top of a hill in southern Pennsylvania. Over several months, I met with the client regularly to help put their vision for the project on paper. After completing the design, I create a bid set that was handed off to a design-build firm who are now handling final construction documents, engineering and construction administration.

9

Selected Page From Concept-Design Bid-Set

11

Original Concept Sketch for Master Bedroom Screen Shot of VR View provided to Client

Exterior View of Early Design Exterior View of Finished Concept Building

13

Center Sky Observatory

Mount Lemmon Observatory, AZ

8 Days

The ‘Center Sky’ observatory, was designed for the 2017 Stewardson Competition. My unique take on the prompt lead me to create a smaller observatory in order to create a more profound visitor experience. I modeled my project many people’s first experience with telescopes, standing around one in a dark field with full view of the sky. The point of my solution was to draw a parallel between the telescope’s deep space and what you can see with your eye. This vital connection would have been lost under a typical dome structure.

VR View

15

Alison Robinson

Tiber River Museum

Via Gulia, Roma, Italy

5 Months

The concept for this project was: “by creating a base system to build onto, even an infrastructural element can become an important cultural and architectural artifact.” The Tiber River Museum was designed for the Pantheon Institute studio course. This project sought to provide a new perspective on the Tiber River. By occupying the space behind the river walls, this project could provide new views, better access to the waterfront, and create a modern space without interrupting the historic center of Rome. This idea was extended to create a ‘wall way’ tunnel along the Tiber River behind the flood walls. This would open up a significant amount of much needed building space in the heart of Rome.

Team Members: Alison Robinson, Andrew Vargo

19

Discovery Center

Allen Street, State College, PA

4 Months

This project was developed for the ‘Discovery Space,’ a children’s science museum in State College, PA. The clients wanted to see what a possible expansion to their program could look like. Their original plan was to renovate a smaller building. Our proposal was far more ambitious. We created a new master plan that would create a more developed mixed-use zone that would help the community afford a larger, more effective learning space. We also saw this as a great opportunity to create new civic area for downtown State College. We immediately fell in love with this idea of using learning and education as the core of the new civic district. The project was developed around the three main types of learning: Visual, Auditory, and Physical. Each style of learning was incorporated into both the building and through smaller installations throughout the space.

Team Members: Alison Robinson, Andrew Vargo

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Not to Scale

21

Story Boards: Each card had drawings of the project, short descriptions, diagrams, or precedent images to help give a fuller image than is possible through renderings alone. The physical nature of the cards also helped draw the clients into the presentation.

The Network: In addition to conducting classes and hosting shows, we decided that the Discovery Space could serve as a center for people to learn about other learning opportunities in the community.

23

Using a few simple technologies, like passive solar heating, thermal mass walls, earth tubes, and a few air fans, this design removes the need for typical heating and cooling systems.

Like any large building, there were a lot of things that went into making this building functional. Spaces like storage areas, elevator shafts, bathrooms, and fire stairs all take up a lot of space and make it hard to create open space. In our design, we managed to separate these spaces to give the activities areas the room they needed.

In order to help pay for this civic learning hub and achiever the higher density goals of the county, we created a solution that would allow for the inclussion of up to three additional floors of Class A offic space. These spaces would help offset the cost of the Discovery Center and help build up downtown State College.

Passive Heating and Cooling

Activity Space | Support Space

Public Private Partnership

25

A Living Room

Hajar Pavilion Competition

3 Days

“To be intimate with nature in its multifaceted moods is one of the greatest experiences of life.” -George Nakashima

By partially burying the building and aligning it with the grain of the hill, I was able to create a smooth transition between different levels of exposure. At the front, the floor rolls out onto the hillside, allowing for more natural access and a directed view. Then, as the ground rises, the building transitions from a gallery space where guests can interact with the furniture, to a kitchenette with eye level views of the ground, to a secluded workshop with clerestory views.

27

Norris Square Neighborhood Project

Norris Square, Philidelphia, PA

5 Months

The Norris Square Neighborhood Project is a youth focused community center in Philadelphia. My project focused on creating more open social spaces while still maintaining respect for the historic row house architecture of the neighborhood. To do this, I developed my project in the form of a ‘vacant lot’, or, an open space flanked by a pair of row-houses. The open space was used for community functions while the two ‘row-houses’ housed the more private parts of the center. The large slat-work style auditorium bridges the two row house blocks.

On top of the community space, I designed a very large urban garden. This garden was designed to recreate the vacant lots that NSNP cares for, while raise the farming space into better light.

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N

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29

Phototropism Solar Array

East Park Ave, State College, PA

5 Days

Phototropism: The movement of an organism in response to light. Our proposal for the Penn State 2015 Class Gift Solar Array focused on this idea of phototropism and drawing from nature as inspiration. We proposed that instead of building a standard car cover array in some out-of-the-way parking lot, this array should be something visible, beautiful, and educational.

The arboretum, with its reputation as an outdoor classroom and its abundance of phototropic organisms, provided the perfect space for our array. The array was a series of single panel rows, supported by a compound arc rail and single posts every 30 feet. The arc of the rail held the panels up at a 30° angle and then tilted the row of panel so that each panel would be optimized to a different time of day during the equinox. This allows visitors to track the sun across the panels and learn about how the sun moves across the sky and the effect this has on solar energy, both in photovoltaics and in plant life.

Team Members: Andrew Vargo, Chris Frey , Melanie Ray, Kirk Diamond, Jordan Crolly

33

Suspension

Proun Sculpture

2 Weeks

A Proun is an installation style developed by El Lissitsky and can be a painting or a sculptural installation created with social or special inspiration. This is the ‘Proun’ I developed for the first project of Second Year studio. I was interested with the idea of defying gravity and exploring the tension between two opposing forces. My Proun is a set of opposing arcs between which three large metal objects are suspended. Originally, the Proun was an experiment with the possibility of weightlessness; the result shows how difficult it is to show true weightlessness. My hope was for the three solids to float miraculously between the arcs, existing in spite of gravity by using the tension of the arcs. However, the web of cables became the dominating visual focus of the piece. The intricate web of suspension cables creates a very real expression of how all things are, and must be, connected in order for a structure to be a functional whole.

This water colored sketch was created for a “postcard” project in Alan Ceen’s Cartography course. Given the card on the bottom right, I was tasked with finding that location in Rome and recreating the modern image of it.

The Post Card is part of Ettore Roesler’s Disappeared Rome series from the late 19th Century. This particular card depicts a plaza near on the Borgo Wall gates in Borgo Angelico.

Borgo AngelicoGraphite and Water Color on Card

3 Hours

Door at NightCharcoal on Canvas30 minutes

Il UffiziGraphite on Velum

3 Months

Roofer HouseGraphite on Velum2 weeks