CityStudioSTL - Final

We finished up the CityStudio with a BBQ/open house celebration. There is still a lot to be finished on 1415 Mallinckrodt, but we did accomplish a lot for just 3 weeks. Near the end the majority of efforts were focused on the back garage door, the landscape and garden work, and the long side wall. I spent a lot time working on the back door that accordions vertically up. In a couple weeks, a fancy, all glass, rollup fire house door, so we wanted to create a secondary door to protect the glass door when the building isn't being used. Seems like a little overkill? Maybe. There will also be a stage built off the back of the house so we wanted to be able to free up as much open space as possibly so we didn't want swinging doors or anything that would impede on the stage.

We built the wood frames for the door on campus in the shop and then transported them to the site where we covered them with green corrugated fiberglass panels, which by the way were not easy to find. The door works on a counterweight system the operates on reused garage door tracks. We're still figuring out the exact weights for the door but it opens and closes so that is successful.

The sitework group cleared the site of all the broken concrete and pavers, built raised garden beds, repaired the front fence and laid a ton of mulch for the party. The site looks infinitely different from what it looked like when we first arrived.

Although working in the heat everyday was insanely hot, I still had an amazing time working on this and would do it again in a second. I'm also hoping to be able to stay involved with ReBuild while I am still in St Louis.

Here are a couple links to more photos that I took:

https://picasaweb.google.com/100568573423954962423

And to an article about the class:

http://blog.art21.org/2011/08/01/creative-rebuild-theaster-gates-in-hyde-park-st-louis/

ReBuild ReBlog:

http://rebuild-foundation.org/blog/?p=261

CityStudioSTL - Week 1

CityStudioSTL is a 3 week summer program that is being ran by Theaster Gates, who is an artist from Chicago, Ill. He started a foundation called ReBuild Foundation that is working to revitalize neighborhoods and instill art programs in Chicago and St Louis. Our project is a house at 1415 Mallinckrodt in the Hyde Park neighborhood in North St Louis. The neighborhood itself has a really rich history that extends back to the very beginnings of St Louis.

Once completed the house will be used as an art house or center for an after school program called Urban Expressions being ran by the ReBuild Foundation. The past week we've been working on stripping the building of old siding and recladding. Our main project will be to work on the back two rooms of the building. I'm including some pictures but you can find more at https://picasaweb.google.com/100568573423954962423

318

318 is the second of the core studios. this semester, we worked on the one project the entire term. the project was a research facility sited in mississippi, just north of new orleans. we did a weekend site visit at the beginning of the semester to new orleans, which was really fun. the forms of our projects were derived from a climatic investigation. i was investigating wind flow and how to capture that for natural ventilation in the building. so the building opens and closes in places to allow wind to move through the building and ventilate the interior spaces.

317

317 is the first of three core studios focusing on design strategies. it consisted of three projects, one was a material composition that was made of a single unit. the second project was the application of these compositions to create an urban park. the third project was an urban theater. these are some pages that i made for my professors portfolio of student work.