A Playful Designer

The Fulcrum was my thesis project at University of Cincinnati.  My thesis was an opportunity to have freedom to design my own program, budget, client etc. I chose to use this as an opportunity to explore how both artists and architects had inspired me.                                                                             I would have to say I. M. Pei is the architect who inspired me the most. I had the privilege to visit the addition to the National Art Gallery in Washington, D.C. that he designed, prior to my senior year in college.  I experienced a 'spirit' to the design that made me marvel at the playful way he involved the building user with the building and the site that the building was situated on.  His  clean use of geometric forms was also very powerful.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               One example is a view of the Washington Monument framed by the Window from inside the building, as documented on the cover of the AIA Journal. Another example would be the reflection of the capitol building in a facade on the outside in the glazing as documented in the Museum's Brochure.  Both RE illustrated in the top two pictures below.  One of my favorite design features is the way the concrete wall, a few feet above the users head on the escalator, is sculpted out as though the individuals movement had a force of its own. This same sculpted affect occurs at the handrail.  

In the Fulcrum I began by providing a lineal ramp, with a rounded end to guide the visitors through a direction reversal of the ramp. This ramp rose  to the next floor platform.  Later in the design process, I realized that a more successful solution would be to carve a circular ramp out of the floor platforms. Perhaps subliminally influenced by I. M. Pei, but after graduating, I found it was very similar to Frank Lloyd Wrights Guggenheim Museum's (in NYC) circulation treatment, including the skylight above the atrium. The second row of pictures are of the Guggenheim's circulation and atrium.

Richard Meir's rotation projects, Le Corbusier's breil solie,  Mondrian's gridded art patterns all played a strong influence on the design. 

The third row of pictures is of the braille solie of the Fulcrum which allowed views out into the park and changing views into the Fulcrum as the visitor walked around the exterior of the building. The final row of pictures show's the Fulcrum's circulation ramp and the skylight above.