The end of second year.

Preliminary investigations for our final project of second year studio have commenced. After the last project, it's nice to have a new start. But, as all of us in studio understand, the project's success will heavily influence our final grades for the semester, making this project incredibly important. At this point, I think I have a lot to make up for after the last two projects; if not for the sake of my studio professor, definitely for my own personal reasons. I'm feeling optimistic though. The project is similar to the final project of last semester. Although that project was well-received, I had accumulated [many] failures throughout the course of the project. It's not that they were failures maybe, more just things that I knew I could find a better solution for, but never cared enough to push towards something that was actually better. [Such as undesirable public stairwells, problematic room layouts, and the like.] Since I've potentially already make these mistakes, I think that will help me dwell more on things more architecturally interesting. At least, that's the hope.

The project is single room occupancy housing [intended for low-income residents, etc. a.k.a SROs] with a public market somehow integrated into the typology. The project is sited in Cleveland adjacent to Shaker Square in Shaker Heights at the corner of E 130th St and Shaker Blvd. We did a site visit prior to spring break and got a good sense for the community. The site itself is in an awkward place, sorta wedged behind the formal commercial building within the square and adjacent to a residential neighborhood comprised of single family residences. Whatever we design, it seems it will somehow loom over both the square and the houses. Across the street is the Rapid Transit system and a tall apartment building. I'll post more soon on the beginnings of our design process.

store fronts within shaker square.

the site.