Ian Korn Photo Industries » grad school

Re-Envisioning South Willamette

iank — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 11:00:11 +0000

In the Spring Term, my studio was about redesigning (or re-envisioning, if you will) South Willamette Street here in Eugene. The city is already involved in this process as they gear up for their next 30-year plan (an Oregon state requirement) and a possible expansion of the Urban Growth Boundary. South Willamette Street, despite having all of the components of a great place – interesting shops, all the necessities, a major transportation corridor, a large urban park, housing, and possible mixed-use space – is one of the worst places in Eugene to spend time, particularly if you don’t have a car. We were tasked, working with the city and the neighborhood, to come up with a plan that would make it a truly walkable, livable area that could be one of the best places in Eugene to live, work, and play.

Our job as architecture students was to present ideas for how the neighborhood could develop over time that would get residents and business owners in the area to think outside of their front yards and on a community scale. At times, this was scary for them, but it seems that they came around as we explained. The City is pursuing this as part of its Envision Eugene process, and has been using our work to help guide the conversation. The video above explains the whole thing in far more detail. For more information, visit this website: http://www.eugene-or.gov/oppsiting. If you click on Architecture Students’ Ideas, you’ll find my groups plan under “Vision 2.”

It’s nice to know that your work matters.

We were also asked to develop a prototype for a new development that would fit in the context of our redesigned South Willamette, and see how dense would could realistically get. I designed a 5-story, two building complex that contained apartments, offices, cafes and retail as well as creating a new pedestrian thoroughfare and two public plazas that connected the very popular Woodfield Station to Southtowne Shoppes. You can see two renderings below the fold.

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The Best Model Shot

Ian — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 00:41:37 +0000

It’s Spring Break! Thank God! I’ve been working to update my portfolio so I can start the hunt for a summer job. So I’ve been going through a bunch of photos of models I took over the last two terms, thinking about including them. This is, by far, my favorite: a close-up of the laser cut 1/16″ breakdancers on the corner across the street from my project. If you don’t make school fun for yourself, then what’s the point?

Assignment 5 – Final Facade / Perspective Rendering

Ian — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 20:51:13 +0000

Spring Term is finally OVER! This was the term that just would not end – or, if you prefer, the term that just kept on giving. I have two weeks of vacation over which, of course, I will be working, picking up the shattered pieces of my life.

Anyhow, above you will find a scanned copy of the first page of my 7-page pin-up for the final review a week ago. I created it using Revit (which is a wonderful program I taught myself this term), then exported it to SketchUp for a few missing pieces and to put it into context (streetlights, people, walking down the boulevard, etc.). I laid this out in InDesign with the rest of the stuff on the sheet and printed that out as a backer. I added a hand-drawn element (the diagram in the lower left-hand corner) and traced the whole thing to vellum, then added color with marker. So, part digital, part hand media. Click through for an 11×17 pdf file, if you’re interested in seeing it bigger or reading the text.

Facades

Ian — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 02:04:51 +0000

For your viewing pleasure, two facade studies from my current studio project. Not sure what the final thing will actually look like – probably something in between these two. These are hand-drawn, not digital, just so you know. Click through to embiggen if the mood strikes.

Assignment 4 – Plan & Section

Ian — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 05:18:07 +0000

Here’s a (hastily digitized) plan of the Third Floor of this term’s studio project as of the last midterm. A section is below the fold. To see them in their full 1/8″ scale glory, click on either image. Be forewarned: they’re big.

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Assignment 3 – Diagrams

Ian — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 00:48:16 +0000

I wish I had something interesting to say about diagrams. But I don’t. Not really. They’re one of many ways to organize thoughts and are damn important to any architectural presentation. After all, no one reads the words accompanying the images. Well, at least no one in architecture does. Have you ever read an architecture school publication? No? Don’t bother. They’re full of words like “architectonic,” “juxtaposition,” and “fenestration.” I mean, are you still reading this, or did you just scroll through the rest of the images?

For this assignment, we had to prove we could use Illustrator by taking some of our diagrams and recreating them on the computer. So here are a few from my current project, keeping in mind that a) I am much better at doing these by hand and b) these are still in flux.

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Assignment 2 – SketchUp Site Model

Ian — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 05:46:45 +0000

Assignment 2 for Digital Media is to create a site model in SketchUp. This site, at NW 8th Ave. and Couch St. in Portland, is where we will be designing our studio project.

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ARCH 610: Digital Media

Ian — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 20:02:24 +0000

I’m going to start doing something a little differently here, at least until March. Right now I’m taking a class called Intro to Digital Media. As part of the class, we need to create a web journal to post our assignments. I figure, why create an entirely new site when I’ve got a perfectly good one right here? Besides, I’ve done the two-blogs-at-a-time thing already. It doesn’t work for me. Besides, this way you’ll get to have a taste of what I’m doing in school (and why I’ve been too busy to post more regularly).

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Portland!

Ian — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 03:07:44 +0000

Just two from our class field trip to Portland last week. It’s a really cool town. Glad I finally had a chance to visit.

A Couple of Holidays

Ian — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 18:32:19 +0000

It’s been a while since I put up a real post. So I’m going to do that now, right before I start vacation and you don’t hear from me again until January. Let’s make this one about holidays, and we’ll start with Thanksgiving…

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