p o r t f o l i oa p r i l G R A Y

abridged version | thesis

“Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood.” Daniel H. BurnHam

t h e s i s

t h e sketches

t h e c o n ceptual m o d e l

t h e s i t em o d e l

ATTACHMENTS of Nests

STRUCTURE of Nests

James Cutler • Paulk Residence“Construction was designed to create a minimal distubance of the forest. At one point, the roof and rafters were notched to preserve a tree.”

Grain Storage BuildingThis vernacular builing, now an abandoning, in Otter Tail County, Minnesota, was built with wood, celebrating time passed through grayed and patched materials

Marlon Blackwell • Moore HoneyHouseBlackwall called this “a volumetric response to the confluence of natural and rational processes,”addressing a number of hive conditions of varied transparencies.

Renzo Piano • New CaledoniaWood slatting remarks these structures designed, like birds’ nests, to be absorbed into the landscape, incorporating wind, light, and vegetation.

Nest • Great Blue HeronThe nest expresses a dwelling that is adaptable to its environment over time, yet still transcends time, and one that is seasonally subject to these factors. This translates into an architecture that is organic, meeting the needs of the human dweller yet still retaining the meaning of the place, and also instrumental in defining the place as perceived by the human occupant. nestinG

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MATERIALITY of Nests 1

23

4

56

7 89

10

11 12LANDMARKS

1 Walnut St. Bridge 7 Block bunkhouse 2 Hunter Museum of American Art 8 Picnic tables 3 Bluff View Art District 9 Heron nesting perch 4 Veterans Memorial Bridge 10 Observation platform 5 Ramp 11 Coolidge Park 6 Rain Shadow Desert 12 Girls Preparatory School (GPS)

VEGETATION

Rain Shadow Desert River Cane Colony Deciduous hardwood forest (dense, taller canopy, typ.)

Deciduous hardwood forest (sparse,shorter canopy, typ.)

FANNING PATTERNS TRAFFIC

Pedestrian Land Vehicle Sm. Watercraft (typ.) Water Taxi Barge

FLOOD ZONES

100-year Flood Zone 500-year Flood Zone

CHANNEL LINE

N

SITE SECTION | southeast-facinG

TREES AND PATHS SURVEY

locatinG enGaGinG1 2 3 54

McClellan Island

Walnut Street Bridge Hunter Museum of American Art

Veterans’ Bridge River Cane Colony

Existing Block Bunkhouse Observation Deck Great Blue Heron Rookery

NORTH

1” = 150’

NORTH

1/8” = 1’

FLOOR PLAN

NORTH

1/8” = 1’

GROUND PLAN

SECTION BSECTION A

AB

inhabitinG

NORTH

1/8” = 1’

ROOF PLAN

m i GratinGI went to the Woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and to see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. ~Thoreau

NORTH ELEVATION

dwellinGLEDGES | OUTCROPSbasic locations for nests

CISTERNwater, basic necessity

WEDGEprotector, shelter

REMNANTScomposite of needs, that which is left after the ephemeral is gone

DOCK AND PATHmigration

DECK | PERCHelevation

COLONY | ROOKERYspace encapsulated

BOWERspace extended

STAIRS | WALKWAYconnectivity

NOMADIC ENCAMPMENTStemporality, migratory freedom