Skylar Moran : Projet Professionel

S k y l a r M o r a n

Seeking to discover new, more robust topologies of brands as platforms for economic, social, and cultural activity, solving the needs of clients and serving the interests of their communities.

Model, structure and volume, for MCHAP 2014 Awards.Edificio Altamira by Rafael Iglesia, Rosario, Argentina

Experience

Graham Resource Center, IIT College of Architecture

Student Assistant, Foreman

O’Donnghaile, Inc.

Project Architect

Vari Architects Ltd.

Architectural Renderer

A Architects

Project Architect

DMA Architects NorthStar Studio Inc

Project Architect

Skills

Drafting / Modeling / CAD / BIM

Graphic design / Editing / Publishing

Document management / Database

Web design / Web publishing / CRM

Education

Illinois Institute of Technology

Bachelor of Architecture

Northern Michigan University

A.A.S. Architecture Technology

Chicago, IL

2011 — 2015

Chicago, IL

2012 — 2014

Chicago, IL

2012

Chicago, IL

2011

Chicago, IL

2004 — 2010

Chicago, IL

2015

Marquette, MI

2004

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Skylar Moran : roadside Culture Stand

Roadside Culture Stand, Sweet Water Foundation, Chicago.

Roadside Culture StandSweet Water, ChicagoSpring 2014

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Roadside Culture StandSweet Water Foundation, Chicago

This project, part of the Comprehensive Building Design curriculum, was a design/build studio led by Eva Kultermann. The model of Roadside Culture Stand was developed by our sponsor, The Wormfarm Institute in Reedsburg Wisconsin, of which several have been developed and remain in operation. This stand was to be built for Sweet Water Foundation, a not-for-profit aquaponics organization located on the south side of Chicago.

The culture stand will vend local produce to inner city Chicago food deserts, and serve as [an] informational kiosk to attract and direct visitors to other agricultural and cultural attractions. The project will investigate the collaborative possibilities of utilizing the arts as a marketing vehicle for local farmers’ products. Built on a trailer, Wormfarm looks for artistic excellence in design, innovation, and spirit of community collaboration in the development of the stands.1

In the individual proposal phase, I identified three criti-cal parameters governing the design of a stand to be used for the sale of food and representation of local food and culture: the “barrel head” where exchanges would take place, the familiarity of the market format, and the value of the “spectacle” or symbolic element.

As partners in the next phase, we pushed the “flat-pack” typology further to create what would ultimately be realized: a series of stepping surfaces for multipur-pose use as a walking, seating, and selling platform.

In the final design and construction phases, my focus was on solving the fold-down steps required both for access to the upper level of the stand, and for enclos-ing the sides during storage and transport.

1 Kultermann, Eva, Project Brief, Illinois Institute of Technology, 2014.

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Fold-down step design: concept sketch, axonometric,shop drawings, and operating sequence (3-tread option).Roadside Culture Stand, Sweet Water Foundation, Chicago.

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“Flat-pack” strategy: parti sketch, rendering-in-context, and model.Roadside Culture Stand, Sweet Water Foundation, Chicago.

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Individual proposal: elevation, rendering-in-context, plan, and model.Roadside Culture Stand, Sweet Water Foundation, Chicago.

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1:250 section model.Naïve Intention : Middle Ground, Oyunohara, Japan

Skylar Moran : Middle Ground

Middle Groundoyunohara, JapanFall 2014

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Naïve Intention : Middle GroundOyunohara, Tanabe, Wakayama, Japan

This project, under architects Pezo von Ellrichshau-sen, fundamentally investigated circulation through the lens of the pilgrimmage. A concrete tower, 100m at its base, 50m at its summit, and 200m in height, with stairs and ramps, and no other building systems or program, was to be occupied once annually, and viewed as a ruin at other times.

Although its form and size is literally deter-mined by the performed ritual, the frantic ecstasies of a culminating journey tend to blur the physical distinction between the landscape and the building. In the climax of this arrival, architecture disappears into the context and becomes pure presence, the hazy incarnation of a resemblance, of a collective illusion. Hence, the setting is no longer a background and the building no longer a discreet vessel, a solid and protective frame, but the very repository of undeniable meaning.1

My intention was to produce a pleasant climb, and to stray from that path for no reason. Situated in the river valley of the most sacred Shinto temples, on a site known as Oyunohara, the tower reflects the expe-rience of the mountainous pilgrimmage routes which terminate here, winding them above the site. Stairs spiraling against one another level out at rings, and intersect at intermediate moments to create a scal-able, polyvalent path up, down, and around.

The structure is both monolithic and transparent. Unusual for such a “tower of babel,” its exterior is a veil with two layers of slender columns which from a distance obscure, and from within them reveal a center void. Natural light at the base of the tower and within the site is virtually undisturbed.

1 Pezo von Ellrichshausen, Project Brief, Illinois Institute of Technology, 2014.

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“Flat-pack” design strategy: parti sketch and model.Roadside Culture Stand, Sweet Water Foundation, Chicago.

“Flat-pack” design strategy: rendering-in-context and model.Roadside Culture Stand, Sweet Water Foundation, Chicago.

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Skylar Moran : Edificio altamira

Edificio Altamirarosario, argentinaMCHaP 2014

Model, structure and volume, for MCHAP 2014 Awards.Edificio Altamira by Rafael Iglesia, Rosario, Argentina

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Edificio AltamiraRafael IglesiaRosario, Argentina

In 2014, IIT College of Architecture held the first Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (MCHAP). Established with the intent “to recognize the most distinguished archi-tectural works built on the North and South American continents,” the first nominees were chosen from projects built between 2001 – 2013. Among the old-est finalist projects was Rafael Iglesia’s residential tower from 2001.

In my building ... beams do not become, as ele-ments, subjects with intrinsic properties, but with properties derived from their situation ... they will “act” their roles, to support something, and those roles will depend on the place they occupy in the space.

The persistent beam moves around, con-structing, destroying, skirting, going up and down, supporting, lingering, going away and disappearing when least expected, without altering the unity. Within “the Work” the beam may become the hero or the butler, appearing or disappearing only when that is required for destiny to be fulfilled.1

As a member of the team researching this building’s merits through study models, I collaborated with Aimee Dewante to fully grasp the significance of the struc-ture. The tower is a true cantilever; by surrounding the rear stair core with mass, and pinning lateral rotation about the fulcrum with the elevator core, the front corner floats and walls facing the Paraná River open wide. All of this is made ambiguous by masonry infill and the front beam which touches grade to “act” as a structural column. This is done, according to Iglesia, to direct the occupant’s awareness to the space made within, rather than the structure which defines it.

1 “Rafael Iglesia: Altamira Building, Rosario, Argentina 1998-2001.” 2009.A + U: Architecture and Urbanism (5): 36-41.

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Skylar Moran : Housing Block

Section through site following the reflected view from the bridge above the canal to la Petite Ceinture beyond. (Continued)Housing block, 19th Arrondissement, Paris.

Housing Block19th arrt, ParisFall 2013

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(Continued) Section through site following the reflected view from the bridge above the canal to la Petite Ceinture beyond.Housing block, 19th Arrondissement, Paris.

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Reflected view through site from the bridge above the canal.Housing block, 19th Arrondissement, Paris.

Housing Block19th Arrondissement, Paris

Under the guidance of architect Andrew Schachman, this project is located in the nineteenth Arrondissement of Paris, an area experiencing rapid, sustained growth. In the last thirty-five years, density has increased twenty-two percent, taking it from the seventeenth most dense part of Paris to the ninth.

The site is distinguished by two large, defunct pieces of infrastructure. North of the site lies Canal de l’Ourcq, ordered by Napoleon Bonaparte to provide for both transportation and drinking water needs. Crossing above the canal and forming the site’s eastern boundary is a train right-of-way known as la Petite Ceinture (“little belt”). Built during the administration of Napoleon III, it runs for 23 kilometers around the city, and may be the earliest form of public transportation in history.

Beginning with a question about how to create more interesting, desirable spaces, I focused on the proces-sion into and through an unfamiliar space, attempt-ing to develop a language to analyze which spaces are introduced (visually) before entering, at the same time, or not at all. This led to additional studies using cinematic devices (mystery, suspense, and dramatic irony), and theatrical devices (frame, scrim, and mirror).

My proposal calls for a multi-story residential block with interior public space: long, narrow corridors cut away from the block, creating green space to be shared by residents and the surrounding community. To do so without compromising the privacy of residents, a section of mirrored wall at each bend in the corridor continues the view, past the windows into homes, to the other side of the site.

The strategy is repeated within the building, where corridors bend and views are reflected back out to the street. Finally at the unit level, the same strategy focuses the observers view on the gathering spaces, away from bedrooms.

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Plan of housing in Graz (Lehnerer, p.86) and reassignment of use.

Step 01 : Co-opt a language

Seeking a similar strategy for analysis of residential plans, I tried using a study on polyvalency by Riegler and Riewe, found in Alex Lehnerer’s Grand Urban Rules (2009). Their study, applied to housing in Graz, identified rooms by use (S=sleeping, C=cooking, etc). Attempting to decode the diagram to identify rooms was not always straightforward, but I developed an approximate system which sometimes used letter combinations.

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Step 02 : Test new language on same plans

Using the same floor plans from Graz, I analyzed the possible paths one could take through each unit, beginning at the entrance, without entering the same space twice. Because these plans are indeed poly-valent, spaces appear more than once, and in some cases many times, indicating the number of possible procedures.

Analysis of procession through Graz plans.

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Diagram of Graz plans, ordered by polyvalency.

Step 04 : Revise the language for effectiveness

By reordering the diagrams according to polyvalency of rooms, from most to least, each room appears only once. Areas of the plans where choice of procession is most limited become more apparent.

Diagram of Villa Savoye, ordered by polyvalency.

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Plan, partial floor of building with reflected views.Housing block, 19th Arrondissement, Paris.

Plan, unit with reflected views.Housing block, 19th Arrondissement, Paris.

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Site model from bridge over canal, la Petite Ceinture, and above.Housing block, 19th Arrondissement, Paris.

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Skylar Moran : Fire Station

Perspective rendering at front facade.Fire station, Printer’s Row, Chicago.

Fire StationPrinter’s row, ChicagoFall 2012

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Fire StationPrinter’s Row, Chicago

Under the guidance of Thomas Kearns, this project is sited south of Chicago’s Loop, in a neighborhood who’s name recalls the presses which once filled its blocks. Since transformed into a mix of residential conversions and commercial space (largely data centers), the area is pocket-like, isolated from otherwise cozily adjoin-ing communities by the redeveloped Dearborn Station rail yard and the South Branch of the Chicago River. A rare offset grid overlays the nearly universal street grid, producing long, narrow blocks in this small area.

Apparatus bay: vehicle bays, open storage, turn out gear lockers, command center / tower, tool room, hose tower, restrooms.

House: kitchen, pantry, dining, day room(s), quiet room, training, officer’s quarters, sleeping room, locker rooms, bath rooms, private office, workout room / gym, classroom / training room.

Building support: mechanical room, janitorial closet, electrical room, fire protection room, trash room, storage.

Exterior: patio, garden, on-site parking.1

My proposal calls for a two-story steel-frame building divided in two halves, separated by circulation: to the north is the apparatus bay and associated spaces; south of the corridor, the house. With street frontage on three sides, the west long side of the site is treated as the front and the east side as the rear, with vehicle bay doors on the shorter north side. With an objective to connect the station with its community, program was weighed by its effect on public image, and spaces with the most importance are held to the front side. I developed a front facade system to modulate thickness and transparency according to the activities within.

1 Tinucci, Andrew and Architecture V Professors, Project Brief, Illinois Institute of Technology, 2012.

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Material investigations: site model (deformed nails), orientation study (bent steel bars), and making design compact (compressed wood).Fire station, Printer’s Row, Chicago.

Companion diagrams: site model (change in use) , relationships be-tween program (coordinate locations), and massing study (fit to site).Fire station, Printer’s Row, Chicago.

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Perspective renderings from intersection and at building section.Fire station, Printer’s Row, Chicago.

Perspective rendering from outside corner and bird’s eye view.Fire station, Printer’s Row, Chicago.

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