THE GRB

George BettyArchitectural Portfolio

A collection of past projects.

Enjoy.

ARCHITECHTURAL

THE GRBARCHI

TECHTURALPORTFOLIO

“If architects weren’t arrogant, they wouldn’t be good architects. I don’t know a good modest architect.”

-Philip Johnson

TABLE OF

CONTENTSDESIGN 3 –CONCEPT PROJECT: “Ecclesia Legis”.……............[2]

DESIGN 4 –CONCEPT PRJOECT: Assateague Ecoforms...…...[4]

MATERIALS&METHODS 1: Mock Condox ……………………....[9]

MATERIALS&METHODS 2 : Wall study……...............................[11]

CONSTRUCTION DOCS.: Artist’s Shed ……………….…..……[13]

ENVIRO SYSTEMS–FINAL PROJECT: AACC Building Study ....[15]

DESIGN 1 –FINAL PROJECT: Artist’s Retreat…………………………...[18]

Projects.

Conceptual

Design

Technical

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TABLE OF

CONTENTSDESIGN 2/DIGITAL STUDIO : eGoli Visitor’s Center/eGoli Redux...[21]

BEGINNERS AutoCAD: The museum of Hip Hop………...........…...[26]

DIGITAL STUDIO: Contemporary comm. Project………...........……[28]

REVIT –FINAL PROJECT: Architect’s home office…………………..[31]

DESIGN 3 –FINAL PROJECT: Mixed use building……………..……..[34]

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that it would give me the most room to

inspiration

rough sketch

ECCLESIA LEGIS

The first major project given to us in design 3, the assignment was not to design a church but a public space, period. I chose a church because I felt that it would give me the most room to freely design. The name of the project is “Ecclesia Legis” mean-ing “church of the law” in Latin. I chose this name because the building was designed after Mt. Sinai, the mountain where Mo-ses received the 10 command-ments.

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ECOFORMS

parti model

study model

Final modelrough sketch

The confusion found within the varying elements of this ecosys-tem opens the window to discov-ery of beautiful new balance; this is the theme for the marsh ecoform. The marsh is a wild, ever changing landscape with it’s grasslands, ponds, rising and falling tides and when you look at a marsh you see these path-ways that may have solid footing or may not; when it comes to the marsh confusion is everywhere. But in life sometimes confusion is merely a precursor to the discov-ery of something new, as you feed your need for knowledge, your need to clear up the confu-sion you will discover the beauty and liveliness of the marsh land-scape. The design for this eco-form rides heavily on the con-cept; for this pavilion I wanted to design a maze that lead up to a viewing tower, placing you above the marsh allowing you to take it all in. So in the theme of the marsh, I decided to make the walls surrounding the maze in the shape of marsh grasses, and the viewing area is climbed using a coiled ramp rising inside of a glass tower.

Assateague island is a beautiful location running alongside the

coast of Maryland and Virginia, the wonders of this island are

found in it’s wildlife and it’s three natural sanctuaries; the life of the

dune, the life of the forest, and the life of the marsh. The task for

this project was to create a view-ing pavilion for each of these ar-eas, which would also conserve

and manage the seashore’s natural environment.

The overall concept for this proj-ect is working with the positive

within the negative, while many worked with positive and nega-tive spaces within assateague, I worked with positive and nega-

tive emotions. For each of the ecosystems of focus I decided to

pinpoint the negative emotions inspired by the surroundings and

the positive emotions that we find within the negative.

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rough sketch

final model

parti model

study model

study model

parti model

study model

final model

The overcrowded sensation induced by the numerous trunks, branches and leaves all around

you can also bring an eerie sense of protection. The for-

est is a dense crowded place where in some places even light struggles to make it through, but just how in life packed situations

aren’t always uncomfortable the crowding in the forest can also give a sense of protection within the density. I decided to keep the verticality of the trees

taking that density into a higher plane, and noticed a parallel

between that and the skyscrap-ers that pack our cities; so for

the main portion of the design I decided to make create these rectilinear structures that would

be staggered throughout the platform that would create the sense of overcrowding found in

the forest. These structures would have doorways on them even

more so pushing that skyscraper parallel and allowing you to walk

through them to navigate the platform, also they structures are

covered in a shiny metal material to reflect the forest around them

further making you feel as if it’s all around you.

The emptiness and isolation of this, by comparison, dry and barren landscape, introduces a feeling of solitude. The dunes of assateague are a dry area with signs that lean to it once being an area vibrant with life, this leads to the area giving off an empty isolated feel. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing though, just how sometimes being by yourself isn’t the worst thing, sometimes it grants you solitude and much needed separa-tion; time for yourself. So for the design of this pavilion I decided to create a series of structures to serve as abstract dunes but also being stripped down versions of the original further pushing that dry, absent of life theme. These lead up to three giant, empty, isolated tents, that keep the look of the dune while complimenting the theme.

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Projects.

Conceptual

Design

TechnicalT

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1st SEMESTER CON DOCS

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3

WALL STUDY

This project was my first semes-ter Materials and Mehtods final.

My first ever technical project, this project was my first crack

at drafting construction docu-ments. The task was to take what

we’d learned from that class and develop the set. The pro-

fessor warned us to not design too complex a house because

aesthetic was not the main focus of this project, but how well we documented the building. This project put to test our then lim-

ited understanding of dimension-ing, schedule making, floor plan drafting, and a number of other skills that our later classes would

develop. The set included:Floor planElevations

Section (including foundation)Site plan

Door, window and finish sched-ule

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model

ARTIST’SSHED

This project is from my second se-mester materials and methods class; unlike in the first semester where we

were to draft a set of mock construc-tion documents, this time around

we focused primarily on wall struc-tures. The entire semester we had

been learning about wall structures so the task for our final to take an

already existing building and do a study of the make, and construc-

tion of its walls form cap to founda-tion. As a big fan of Richard Meier, I knew exactly what walls I wanted to be my focus. The gigantic multi-

dimensionally curved walls of the Jubilee Church in Rome had always

amazed me, and if I were going to have to do a project on walls, they were going to be the coolest ones I could find. The large concrete walls

had always confused me, how were they supported? How were they

constructed? These were questions that I now had to research and an-

swer as part of the project. The three giant walls of the Jubilee Church or Church of 2000 conceptually repre-

sent the trinity according to Meier, physically the walls are constructed of giant precast blocks of concrete

with metal cores for housing the rebar that not only strengthens the

concrete but also connects the different segments. These segments

were put into place by a three-dimensional crane system that was

able to place the blocks in a way giving the walls their unique curves.

The foundations of each wall are no more than the segments continued

into the ground with the x-axis curve of the wall helping it support its own

weight.

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floorplans

elevations

sections

wall secitons

details

AACC BUILDINGSTUDY

This was the final project for my construction documentation

class; our job was to take what we’d learned throughout the

semester to put together a set of construction documents to

the best of our ability for a shed. We were to design a space that would act as a workshop for an

artist, including a bathroom stor-age room, and large doors big

enough to move giant pieces in and out. We were supposed to come as close as we could to

creating documents that could actually be used to build our cre-

ation. We were to include floor plans, sections, elevations, ceiling

plans, a site plan, plat plan, de-tails, schedules, a CSI formatted

book, etc.

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Projects.

Conceptual

Design

Technical

DE

SI

GN

.This was a study conducted in my Environmental Systems class

and served as the class’ final. The task was to choose a building on

our school’s campus and make it more environmentally friendly by adding different sustainable

systems. The building that my partner and I were chose to gre-enwash was the Careers Center, the largest building on campus. Th is was agroup project so my

parnter and I deicided to foocus on different things. The sustain-

able features I worked with were about conserving water and us-

ing it in better ways.

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ARTIST’S RETREAT

compliment his eccentric style. One of those areas

windows. My first experience outside of high school

My first full project ever, this proj-ect was my first semester design final; the task was to design a retreat home for an artist of our choosing. The artist I chose was Pharrell Williams, of N.E.R.D. Since we were to design this home as if chosen artist were our client working with us the entire way, it was also my first experience the-oretically designing for someone else, even if he actually wasn’t there. So I formed the entire proj-ect with him in mind; for the site I chose the Virginia Lakes, Virginia being his home state it’d be not too far from home but still a nice getaway. Pharrell is a very un-conventional person whether it be in his fashion or music, so after doing research of all things Phar-rell including his actual home, I added features to the house that would compliment his eccentric style. One of those areas was the personal/ studio room that we had to include for the artist as a room to do music, relax etc. It includes checkerboard pattern tiled floors and is surrounded by bubble shaped windows. This was my first experience outside of high school designing a build-ing

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EGOLIVISITORSCENTER

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site + rough sketch

model

This project from my second semester design class is a visitor’s center for the South African city of Johannesburg or as some of it’s natives call it eGoli, the city

of gold. The project was a wrap up a semester long study on a city of our choice, starting with research on the city and doing stippled renderings of some of it’s most famous buildings. The

original idea for the building came from the shape of the land

after gold has been mined. The city started off as a gold mining

colony and that was it’s main source of income many for many years. So the task was to take the shape of the gold mines and ab-stract into a functioning façade. The overhead appearance that the building has of two conflict-

ing structures is representative of the very troubled past of the city

and how they changed direction to move forward.

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Here is my digital studio redesign of the original visitor’s center. For

our digital studio class we were given the opportunity to chose a past project to redo as a means to showcase our understand of

digital design. I instantly thought of this project to redo because I always thought that while the

concept was good the product was not too attractive so I modi-

fied the floor plans a bit to be more structural and work better

together and I completely gave the building a facelift. This new look much better captures the

gold mining feel from the wood paneling along the building to

the golden crown of angles glass above it.

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THEMUSEUM OF HIP HOP

This was a project from my begin-ners AutoCAD class. It was my first experience designing with the program and was an op-portunity for me to learn a good amount about the process. The project was to design a museum of our choice, so I decided to go with hip hop. The teacher told us to create the building on grid which is why the design may seem blocky. i chose hip hop be-cause hip hop culture has always played a big par tin my life and I’ve always thought that there should be a museum dedicated to it.

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MYCONTEMPORARY HOME

This was our first project for digital studio, the task was to design

This was our first project for digital studio, the task was to design a home in the contemporary style for a new community. Because contemporary was a new style for me this project became a fun learning experience allowing me to play with a new style of archi-tecture

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HOME/OFFICEFOR THEMODERNARCHITECT

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This project comes from my first ever revit course, another pro-

gram new to me at the time. The goal for this project was

to build a home/office for an architect using revit software by

autodesk. Once I heardof the project I thought to the eubie

house in downtown BaltimoreThe office section was to have room

enough for four architects, so I decided to designate an entire

floor for the office. The office would be on street level while

the home portion was below. The site for the building was sloped so that the home below could

be accessed from behind, one could also find their way into

the home via a private staircase near the office reserved for the

owner.

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MIXED USEAPARTMENTBUILDING

the goal was to design a mixed use building to

LA fitness) of the building take on the industrial

becoming a lively hub for young professionals,

site

This was the final project for my design 3 class, the goal was to design a mixed use building to add a new apartment space to the area. The professor pointed us toward designing a building that sort of matched the style of the surrounding buildings as not to take away too much from the Baltimore look. So in that vein I decided to make the commer-cial levels (an LA fitness) of the building take on the industrial façade but with a more modern look. For the rest of my design I was inspired by the new growth direction that the city was taking becoming a lively hub for young professionals, aspiring artists, and new companies alike.so I decid-ed to use the top portion of the building to show that new bright future coming form the form of the old city

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-Elevators -Staircases-Lobby

-Gym area-Apartments-Corridors

the goal was to design a mixed use building to

LA fitness) of the building take on the industrial

becoming a lively hub for young professionals,

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