mcgee portfolio
DESCRIPTION
Selected academic and competition projectsTRANSCRIPT
ANDREW MCGEE SELECTED WORKS
YOSSARIAN 40N 73W
03 - 08
FISH FARM
09 - 14
PLAZA REPUBLICA
16 - 21
INVERTED HOUSE
22 - 26
FLOWER MUSEUM
28 - 32
PERFORMATIVE WOOD
33 - 38
SYMBIOTIC INFRASTRUCTURES
PIECEMEAL CENTRALITIES
THE DETAIL AS DRIVER
YOSSARIAN 40N 73W
FISH FARM
These projects operate with the notion that seemingly invisible or banal urban infrastructure - a highway tunnel, an island, a river - provide immense opportunity for architectural intervention that can address larger scales and functions within the city, beyond immediate site or context.
SYMBIOTIC INFRASTRUCTURES
Yossarian 40N 73W
The island typology is one that is not unfamiliar to the lifeblood of New York City. Many of the small islands that pepper the city’s shoreline have been utilized in the past for various utilities that required separation from the masses - quarantines, mental hospitals, prisons, iconic symbols of the city itself - and were artificially augmented in many cases to better perform these duties.
Willet’s Point provides an opportunity for the city to engage with a new island, one created for recreation and remediation. Positioning itself over existing highway infrastructure, the recreational facility and resulting island are intimately connected to the circulation of the region while remaining unplugged from the cacophony of the contemporary city, allowing for reflection on the urban condition and one’s place within it. Formerly a salt marsh, the site is remediated to return as such, stationing the facility within an augmented nature that prophesies the renegotiation of boundaries occurring with the onset of sea level rise and climate change.
Academic [Spring 2010 Architecture Studio]Professor Felipe CorreaRecreational Facility I 750,000 sfWillets Point, Queens, NY
Yossarian 40N 73WA Recreational Island for New York City
2010 Flood Condition
2050
2100
Island Viewed from the Air
06 I 07
The Islands of New York City and the location of Yossarian
Phase I: Transfer Development Rights to PeripheryPromote local engagement with regional project
Phase II: Bury Existing Highway Condition Reconnect fabric to waterfront site / marshland
Phase III: Excavated Soil Augments Island (160,000 m3 ; enough to fill 25% of Giants Stadium)
Axonometric of Island Components
Facade System
tensile skin
secondary structure
primary structure
Program
Field Condition
Island Access
+05 venues
exhaust stacks
subway entrance
+04 circuits
promenade
remediated salt marsh
+03 courts
mesh panels
freeway tunnel
+02 aquatic
structural glass barrier
subway
+01 parking
monumental sub-structure
00 entrance
-01 circuits
08 I 09
10 I 11
Figural Taxonomy of Programmatic Adjacencies
Entrance from Subway
View of City from Roof Deck
12 I 13
Longitudinal Section
Freeway View Underneath Recreational Facility
14 I 15
FISH FARM
The history of the Chicago Shipping and Sanitary Canal is one born on the back of Industry. Serving as a way point for water based cargo transport throughout the US, a staging space for the meat processing factories made infamous by The Jungle, or the threshold into the fishing and recreational markets of the Great Lakes Region, the Canal has deeply influenced the economy and lifeblood of the City and its constituents for over 100 years. The invasive Asian Carp now threatens this gateway.
This project attempts to utilize the unsettling characteristics of the Asian Carp as the driver for a new industry in Chicago: a biological resource with Agricultural, Fuel, and Food Implications. A Barrier Wall that stops the Carp from invading the Great Lakes is constructed in the waterway, and doubles as a recreational circuit and spectacular promenade for the surrounding neighborhoods. At its terminus, the Limnology Center acts as a destination and educational tool for the local population to engage with and embrace the new Carp Industry.
Academic [Spring 2011 GSD Architecture Studio]Professor Jeanne GangRiver Barrier + Limnology Center I 400,000 sfBubbly Creek, Chicago, IL
FISH FARMRemediating Chicago’s Waterway
Carp Infestations of the Mississippi since 1980
The Pest: Asian Carp
Possible uses to mitigate overpopulation of Carp in local waters
18 I 19
Phase I: Construction of Barrier and Limnology Center as Spine for future development
Phase II: Development of parcel infrastructure supporting re-routed shipping and new Carp Lagoon industry
Phase III: Remediated Waterfront brings industries that take further advantage of the edge, allowing extension of public access
Future Urban Vision, with Barrier and Limnology Center as Anchor Points of New Waterfront Industry and Programs
20 I 21
Barrier Connection to Limnology Center
Axonometric Detail of Section of Barrier
22 I 23
Viewing Spur for Carp Lagoon Collection
Roofscape of Floating Programmatic Volumes
Limnology Center Straddling Barrier
24 I 25
Exploded Laboratory Components
Section AA’
26 I 27
PLAZA REPUBLICA
34 - 45
INVERTED HOUSE
46 - 55
These projects find themselves confronted with reassessing notions of public space, both in the city and in conventional architectural typologies. Adopting a fine grain, complimentary approach to existing conditions, access to and activation of these public spaces as new centralities becomes possible.
PIECEMEAL CENTRALITIES
PLAZA REPUBLICA
PLAZA REPUBLICAA New Fine Grain Open Space
This proposal transforms a derelict urban surface into a new, cultural landscape that provides the city with a high quality fine grain open space.
The project restructures the old plaza into three new interconnected spaces - an open lawn that faces the existing park, a new courtyard and gallery space that redefine the entry to the existing underground theater, and an elevated platform that holds a small botanical garden made up of endemic Andean species and offers expansive views towards the park and the historic core.
These three elements act as anchors for a multiplicity of social and cultural activities to unfold within the spaces of the project.
Competition Finalist (August 2011)Collaboration with Somatic Collaborative, Mariusz KlemensPublic Plaza Renovation I 50,000 sfPlaza Republica, Quito, Ecuador
Site Plan
View from Adjacent Building
32 I 33
Create a new type of public space complimentary to the park, where A+B can generate a new centrality in the city.
The space can then serve as an anchor for other institutions and cultural activities in the area.
Ultimately, the space can be a point of entry to the district when a new metro line is completed in the next few years.
How to generate a quality public space adjacent to important city park ?
Phase I: Remove existing platform over street
Phase III: A low lying T-shaped building inserted at corner holds gallery, cafe, and service spaces
Phase IV: Raised platform and new bridges are constructed
Phase II: Recast Plaza surface to new contours
Axonometric of New Plaza34 I 35
Time scale diagram showing a multitude of uses during different portions of the day and week.
36 I 37
Uses, Circulation, and Water Management
Roof Plan
Ground Plan
38 I 39
View approaching from HIstoric Core
Elevation from park across the street
40 I 41
INVERTED HOUSE
INVERTED HOUSEA New Dormitory for Harvard
Conventional notions of the student dormitory often conjure visions of narrow halls flanked by cell-like rooms and book ended with over-sized and under-utilized common space. To complicate matters, the nature of the Harvard House system is rooted in notions of secrecy and a manufactured tradition that undermines the utility of its spaces.
Inverted House projects the events of its interior outward and dissolves traditional unit aggregation strategies in favor of a clustering approach that maximizes interaction between its inhabitants, while offering a new perspective on notions of common space. Broken into smaller typological bits, these shared programs are appended to each unit type, allowing sophomores, juniors, and seniors to play host to one another in a more dynamic academic and social setting. On a large scale, the sacred courtyard typology is unhinged to allow for larger scale urban events and interaction to occur while still maintainig a staging space for formal student activities.
Fall 2009 Core III Architecture StudioProfessor Jonathan Levi200 Bed Student Housing I 150,000 sfRiver House Quad, Cambridge, MA
9 River Houses + Inverted House
Hotspots of Pedestrian Circulation
Public and Private Open Space
Site Map near the banks of the Charles
CHARLES RIVER
44 I 45
Conventional Harvard Brick promotes isolation
Inversion creates transparency to interior
Disintigration designates public and private
Distortion accomodates large scale programs
Cross Section
Typical Unit Floor Plan
Various Class Units form Micro Aggregated “Neighborhoods”
Circulation within Neighborhoods promotes constant interaction with students from other years and units
Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors play host to one another in an environment that fosters new forms of collaboration.
Larger common spaces are broken into bits and appended to each unit type, allowing different students to play host to various functions within the Neighborhood cluster
-1 0 +1
View of Sophomore Common Space and Neighborhood Stairwell
48 I 49
Approaching Dormitory from Riverfront Side
Approaching Dormitory from Harvard Campus Side
Activities within project outward into unhinged public coourtyard
50 I 51
FLOWER MUSEUM
PERFORMATIVE WOOD
These projects attempt to utilize the scale of the detail as a generator for large scale implications on site and production practices.
THE DETAIL AS DRIVER
FLOWER MUSEUM
This proposal sites a flower museum and a demo production center in the equatorial Andes Mountains. Scalar diagrams of this global trade are juxtaposed with a new, more sustainable greenhouse typology and a post harvest demonstration gallery exposing visitors to all stages of the production process.
A recreational circuit and a small hostel is attached to the top of the museum, allowing visitors to explore the surrounding terrain and enjoy grand views of the Andean Mountain range in the distance, giving a new context to the scale of operations occurring on site.
Research and Speculative Proposal (July 2010)Collaboration with Professor Felipe CorreaFlower Museum / Prototype Staging I 35,000 sf Tumbaco, Ecuador
FLOWER MUSEUMGreenhouse Production and Exposition
Exploded Axonometric of Program and Circulation
Greenhouse Space
Recreational Circuit
Post Harvest Viewing Space
Post Harvest Gallery
Lobby / Gallery
Gallery Space
Hostel Space / Roof Deck
Site Plan
56 I 57
Building approach from the West
Section through Greenhouse space
58 I 59
Detail Test of Plywood Facade Condition
60 I 61
Overall View from the East
62 I 63
PERFORMATIVE WOOD
This project seeks to engage the novelty of kerfing and wood bending in a broader discussion regarding Architecture’s current agendas in form-making and fabrication technologies. While the desire for formal novelty has pushed technological advances within the field of design to a blinding pace, the intelligence regarding methodologies of production remains in its infancy.
The solution to this disconnect first requires asking the right questions, not about geometry, but about material. The disconnect between designer and fabricator are proliferated, perhaps even magnified, when digital fabrication meets biological composite in the form of wood. This project promotes the notion that the calibrated discontinuity of wood fiber can be the code and form enabler of a complex wood system.
Fall 2010 Options Architecture StudioProfessor Achim MengesCollaboration with Brad Crane, Marshall Prado, Yang ZhaoWood Research / Prototype Installation Gund Hall, Cambridge, MA
PERFORMATIVE WOODDynamic Kerfs as Form Finding Device
01 06 11
02 07 12
03 08 13
04 09 14
05 10 15
Steam Bent Kerfed Test Member
Kerfing Tests
66 I 67
Unkerfed Test Piece only slightly flexes
Kerfed Test Piece flexes greatly without failing
Network of kerfed pairs creates potential for larger formal system
1/8” Basswood Test Pieces
Single Piece of 1/8” Basswood, Laser Cut with Dynamic Kerf Pattern
Kerfed Basswood has extreme flexibility, unlocking potential of Wood not as a dimensionally defined unit, but as a robust and dynamic material
68 I 69
Robot Saw allows for fast and accurate production of highly varied kerf patterns
Robot Saw Cut Kerf Pairs
Steamed Full Scale Test Pair, in Jig to reinforce distortion
Steamed Full Scale Test Pairs, in Jig to activate distortion
70 I 71
Dynamic Kerfing allows for double curvature distortion
Final Installed Prototype
72 I 73
Final Installed Prototype
74 I 75
ANDREW MCGEE
Contact: 917.456.7116 [email protected]
18 W. 95th Street, Apt. 1B New York, NY 10025
Academic: Harvard University GSD (2009 - 2012) Master of Architecture with Distinction University of Michigan (2003 - 2008) B.S. Architecture with Distinction B.A. English Literature with Honors
References available upon request