Senior Year, Judson University
Essential Practical Design
Our final semester was tasked with designing a multi-use midrise building in downtown Elgin, IL.
- Wind & Water: a concept midrise for Elgin, IL.
- This project was just pure fun. My first real attempt at a full design, from concept to structures and pricing, and I think I did well. There were some interesting conditions here: we were at the end of a busy commercial street, flanked on both sides by heavy foot traffic, and we were to build a building larger than those immediately adjacent to the site. Obviously, questions of permeance, stability, and symbolism ravaged our class. My response: a fluid ground floor.
- Inspired by the near-by "Windy City" and the Fox River, which cuts through the heart of the city of Elgin, I designed a building which invokes imagery of fluid motion, of Wind & Water. The first Three floors are dedicated to commercial and communal use, with the first two being comercial or retail spaces, the first specifically having covered areas for outsoor seating for a restaurant, and the third being a communal hall—an assembly space with a sloped floor and ceiling designed for sound and sight. Floors four through seven are open offices (see bottom plan, next page) and eight through fourteen are various types of residencies (see top plan, next page).
- To create the floating effect, I lifted the building up onto a too-large structure of steel supports connected to a strong central core. You'll see here the typical residential and open office plans, where the columns and structures fall, and then on the next page, the structural system on the bottom floor of the tower element.
- Pictured: a standard electric plan (for this project, we developed electric, HVAC, and general, approximate, pricing), and the tower support structure.