designing diversity.pdf

DESIGNINGDIVERSITYMASTER’S PRE-THESIS DOCUMENT

JAKE WEYRAUCH SPRING 2015


A study of how Architecture can serve as a

new armature for habitat and biodiversity

in the urban landscape.[ ]

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CONTENTS1.0 WHY 5 1.1 Urbanization 1.2 Biodiversity 1.3 Value 1.4 Biophelia 1.5 The State of Ecology 1.6 Reconciliation

2.0 WHERE 21 2.1 Milwaukee County Grounds 2.2 Resources of the Site 2.3 A Keystone Species 2.4 As Seen on the County Grounds

3.0 WHAT 43 3.1 Architectural Program

4.0 HOW 51 4.1 A Series of Nested Scales 4.2 Ecological Program Types

5.0 WHEN 69 5.1 Schedule of development and reviews

6.0 CASE STUDIES 75 5.1 Schedule of development and reviews

A.1 BIBLIOGRAPHY 78

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1.0 WHY

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1972

2011

Phoenix, AZ; Impervious surfaces such as roads, parking lots and roof-tops in years 1997 and 2011. Source: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

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1.1 URBANIZATION PAVING THE WAY FOR HUMAN HABITAT

The number of people living in urban areas is greater now than at any other point in human history. Even the last sixty-five years has seen a dramatic increase from 30 to 54 percent of the world’s population residing in these urban zones and by 2050 the number is projected as high as 66 percent. (United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects Report)

As the human population rises and concentrates to urban areas, so too does the architecture and infrastructure that are the human habitat. The hard, flat and impervious built environment that man has fetishized for the last century has amassed to nearly 50,000 square miles in the US alone, 65% of which is dedicated to the automobile.

“That the first 30 years of the 21st century is highly likely to experience more urban land expansion than all of history suggests a considerable—and limited—window of opportunity to shape future urbanization.”

(Seto)

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of amphibians threatened

of fishes threatened

of birds threatened

of mammals threatened

of invertibrates threatened

of reptiles threatened

33% 21% 12%

22% 30% 21%

Wyoming toad - Bufo baxteri Longear sunfish - Lepomis megalotis Yellow-throated warbler - Setophaga dominica

Cougar - Puma concolor Northern blue butterfly - Plebejus idas Queen snake - Regina septemvittata

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Urban and suburban developments are swelling to accommodate greater populations and it comes with a transverse response in the ecological environment. As natural habitats are consumed by the built environment the number of other species on the planet is diminishing. According to the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) it is estimated that the current species extinction rate is between 1,000 and 10,000 times higher than it would naturally be.

The world is facing a glaring depletion of biological diversity equivalent to the mass extinction that included the dinosaurs. As diversity is lost, the functions of healthy natural systems also begin to break down, changing the world as we know it indefinitely.

1.2 BIODIVERSITY FACING THE MASS EXTINCTION

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Humans are not removed from nor immune to the crisis of biodiversity. Nearly all life-sustaining aspects of man’s world rely on the health of ecosystems around him. Goods and services as basic as needs for food and medicine would not exist without these networks. These are the products of biodiversity that directly translate to both current and future economic value.

Conservation ecology is commonly argued for in terms of economic value because it appeals to the fetish of greater society. However, there is also a strong history of ecological philosophies, supported by transcendentalists like Emerson and Thoreau, which argue that nature has an intrinsic value outside of those assigned by man. This value is much harder to measure and often falls into the background when talking about the importance of biodiversity.

1.3 VALUE ECONOMIC AND INTRINSIC

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ALMONDSAPPLES

APRICOTSAVOCADOS

GRAPEFRUITLEMONS

ORANGESCRANBERRIES

GRAPESPEACHES

STRAWBERRIESBROCCOLI

CUCUMBERSCANTALOPE

$100

PERCENTAGE OF CROP BEE-POLLINATEDPERCENTAGE OF CROP POLLINATED BY OTHER SOURCES

$200 $300 $400 $500 $600 $700 $800 $900 $1,000 $1,100 $1,200

YEARLY US FOOD PRODUCTION VALUE IN MILLIONS

On September 26, 2011, about 12 million bees dropped dead in a single day in Brevard County, Florida.

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1.4 BIOPHELIA VALUE FEEDBACK LOOP

One major conception of the intrinsic value of nature was explored by E.O. Wilson in his 1984 book entitled Biophelia.

“The gravitational pull of Nature on the human psyche can be expressed in a single, more contemporary

expression, biophilia … the innate tendency to affiliate with life and lifelike processes. From infancy to

old age, people everywhere are attracted to other species. Novelty and diversity of life are esteemed …

the more we come to understand other life forms, the more our learning expands to include their vast

diversity, and the greater value we will place on them and, inevitably, on ourselves.” (Wilson)

Wilson argues that with urbanization and technological development, man is losing the opportunity to stimulate a primal piece of the human psyche. We have not lost the ability to emotionally connect with nature, we have simply adopted the arrogant notion that we no longer need to in our daily lives. Significant resources are now being put into studies to show that a reconnection of man with the natural environment can reclaim benefits to human health, productivity, and happiness.

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For instance, a study by Roger Ulrich, a Professor of Architecture at the Center for Healthcare Building Research at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, measured the influence that a connection to nature had on patients recovering from gallbladder surgery. While some patients were provided views of nature from their recovery bed, others were provided only views of man-made surfaces. The study found that those patients with a link to nature recovered nearly ten percent faster than those that did not. The economic implications of this alone are astonishing. With the average cost of $5,060 per patient per day spent in the hospital recovering from major surgeries, the healthcare industry (and consumers) stand to save nearly 100 million dollars annually if the average stay is reduced by a single day. (Machlin and Carper) An extensive look at the known benefits of biophelia was published by Terrapin Bright Green entitled 14 Patterns of Biophilic Design: Improving Health and Well-Being in the Built Environment. In it they compiled research that articulates the relationships between nature, human biology and the design of the built environment and note 14 specific relationship patterns. (See table 1)

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Table 1 from “14 Patterns of Biophelic Design” illustrates the functions of each of the 14 Patterns in supporting stress reduction, cognitive performance, emotion and mood en-hancement and the human body. Patterns that are supported by more rigorous empirical data are marked with up to three asterisks (***), indicating that the quantity and quality of available peer-reviewed evidence is robust and the potential for impact is great, and no asterisk indicates that there is minimal research to support the biological relationship between health and design, but the anecdotal information is compelling and adequate for hypothesizing its potential impact and importance as a unique pattern.

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1.5 THE STATE OF ECOLOGY A TRADITION OF TWO R’S

The paradigm of modern ecological conservation strategy is broken down into two categories, Reservation and Restoration or “the two R’s”. Reservation takes functioning habitats and stakes out a boundary around them, barring most human use of the land. Restoration on the other hand takes ecosystems that are no longer functioning but mostly still present and revitalizes them back to functioning systems. While these strategies are incredibly important they alone are failing to reconcile the vast need for human habitat with the dire consequences of destroying what was there before. Even if we were able to reserve all of the untouched land left on the planet we would still be facing a drastic loss of biodiversity. There is a need for habitats where they no longer exist to be preserved. Restoring failed ecosystems is a second line of defense but the complexity of naturally occurring systems is incredibly hard to recreate.

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Figure 1:Total area covered by the National Wildlife Refuge System in the continental United States. 150 million acres of land and water from the Caribbean to the remote Pacific.

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1.6 RECONCILIATION A WIN WIN ECOLOGICAL STRATEGY

Understanding that man must find a way to reconcile the realities of needing more space and needing what already inhabits that space is the foundation of Michael L. Rosenzweig’s book Win Win Ecology. He explains that there simply is not enough land available to successfully segregate us from other species and while adjusting to the shared use of our spaces is a start, the ultimate goal must be to design them for all living occupants.

“Yet even if this 5 percent [of natural habitat] could be saved, he argues, the remaining 95 percent

would remain severely compromised. Indeed, even if conservationists use standard reservation ecology

together with restoration ecology to achieve their ends, we will be left with biological ―crumbs, that

is, small islands of biodiversity precariously connected (or not) with conservation corridors.” (Geisler)

Many of the examples Rosenzweig gives are cases of environmental stewardship in formally unprotected landscapes. Many species have adapted to human generated habitats that were not necessarily designed for their benefit. When engineers constructed the Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin Texas they had no idea that expansion joints beneath the bridge would make an ideal bat roost. Now, years later, thousands of Mexican free-tailed bats make their nests within it every year.

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Every summer night, hundreds of people gather to see the world’s largest urban bat colony emerge from under the Congress Avenue Bridge in downtown Austin, Texas.

What we know now as a result of these happy accidents is that designers have the ability to supply resources back into our environment - often with very little additional effort. The appropriate steps to take now are deliberate moves to create a new armature for nature within our built environment.

“Degrading our environment causes us to expect less of it. But improving our environment will cause

us to expect more.” (Rosenzweig)

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2.0 WHERE

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2.1 MILWAUKEE COUNTY GROUNDS A LANDSCAPE IN TRANSITION

One of the few large pieces of undeveloped land remaining in the Milwaukee metropolitan area is the Northeast Quadrant of the County Institutions. Now referred to simply as the County Grounds, this piece of the Institution lands is at the heart of the city of Wauwatosa and is greatly valued by the people for its naturalized lands and access to wildlife. Unlike the other parts of the Institution lands, which were completely developed over the last 50 years into the County Medical Complex and more a recently installed research park, the Northeast Quadrant has survived major development attempts on numerous occasions (including a bid to locate Miller Stadium on the site in 1988).

However, as the urbanization of the metropolitan area pushes outward from Milwaukee, Wauwatosa is running out of sites for economic expansion and in 2009 it sold the southwest corner of the land for development. The community backlash has been extensive citing concern for the ecological and biophilic resources. The tension between the economic value of developing the site and the ecological value of reserving it suggests that this site is an opportunity to implement reconciliation ecology and design.

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WISCONSIN MILWAUKEE COUNTY CITY OF WAUWATOSA

THE MILWAUKEE COUNTY GROUNDS

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2.2 RESOURCES OF THE SITE ECOLOGICAL AND OTHERS

The County Grounds is bordered by two major roadways (Watertown Plank Road and Highway 45) to the south and west and two waterways to the north. Swan Blvd bisects the quadrant running east-west and the newly completed Discovery Parkway divides the southern half roughly into develop-able land and natural reserve. The site boundary for this project is the one piece of newly develop-able land east of the parkway.

[1] Underwood Creek is the small waterway that flows about 8 miles east from Brookfield and turns north along the county grounds to flow into the Menomonee River. The Underwood Creek sub-watershed encompasses approximately 19.8 square miles and includes portions of the communities of Brookfield, Elm Grove and Wauwatosa. Much of the creek was converted in the 20th century to be concrete line channel which destroyed nearly all of it ecological value and contributed to significant flooding problems in the last two decades.

In 2009 the MMSD completed the first phase of a waterway rehabilitation plan for the creek and restored parts of it near the grounds back to naturally flowing waterway - restoring the ecological value to the area’s citizens and wildlife.

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2007 2008

Graph 1: Underwood Creek rehabilitation stream bed profile showing eliminated barriers and improved mobility for aquatic life. (MMSD)

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Menomonee River water shed. Urban hardscape shown in red.

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[2] The Menomonee River is one of the three major waterways in the Milwaukee metropolitan area and is 33 miles long, with a watershed that covers approximately 140 square miles of urban landscape and is home to a population of more than 336,670 people. It flows south-east along the northern edge of the County Grounds and is the major feature in the landscape that allows wildlife to move from northern woodlands, grasslands, wetlands, and agricultural lands into the more urban areas.

As the watershed urbanized, the percentage of the landscape covered by impervious surfaces increased as did the accompanying underground network of storm sewers designed to rapidly deliver storm-water into the river. Flooding became a growing problem, leading to stream channel lining, deepening, straightening and relocating to move storm-water downstream more swiftly. These activities, especially channel lining, have destroyed miles of habitat for animals and plants that live in or along rivers and streams (WI DNR). A large stretch of the river that had been concrete lined and impassible for most aquatic life since 1965 was removed in 2013 and the resulting movement of wildlife up stream from lake Michigan has been drastically improved.

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[3] In addition to the rehabilitation of the waterways adjacent to the site, the MMSD implemented another large strategy to manage the storm-water flooding problem that has been plaguing the region. Completed in May of 2011, MMSD installed a 90 million dollar basin consisting of two lobes on the north-east part of the grounds. An underground tunnel that is 17 feet in diameter and a half mile long diverts excess water from Underwood Creek into the basin. From there it slowly releases into the Menomonee River. Designed to perform in a 100 year storm event, the basin could fill in about four hours and If completely filled, it can take four days to drain into the river. The basin essentially functions as a constructed wetland and provides value both to the city and wildlife.

[4] The Wisconsin DNR owns a 67 acre hardwood forest just north of Swan Blvd and helps manage the Forestry Exploration Center just to the east of it. It is considered a natural area of local significance as well as a Class II wildlife habitat within the southern Lake Michigan coastal ecological landscape and it is one of the largest wooded tracts remaining in Milwaukee County.

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Figure 1: Milwaukee County Grounds site resources key. (1) Underwood Creek, (2) Menomonee River, (3) MMSD flood management basin / constructed wetlands, (4) DNR forest and Forestry Education Center, (5) Existing wetlands, (6) Monarch butterfly habitat, (7) Prairie grasslands / community recreational trails, (8) Echelon Apartments, (9) UWM Innovation Campus.

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[5] As part of their environmental survey of the site before starting the storm-water management plans, MMSD surveyed the existing patches of natural wetlands. The patches were given ratings in eight categories to understand their level of functionality. (See Figure 2)

[6] At the heart of the County Grounds is a 60 acre swath of grassland prairie. While some of it is plagued by non-native invasive plant species, the rolling hills that were created with fill from the storm water basin were reseeded with a mixture of native prairie plants and further efforts to eliminate the invasive plants is currently underway. This prairie serves as a recreation area for people as well as habitat and hunting grounds for a wide array of species.

Figure 2: Existing wetland analysis. Overall the majority of the wetlands on the site were ranked in most categories as “medium.” Seven of the wetlands were characterized as having a high function or value. Three wetlands have high functions and values in five categories. Overall, the highest value of these wetlands are provided through the attenuation of floodwater/stormwater and through the protection of groundwater.

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(Eddee Daniel)

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(Michael J Matusinec)

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[7] One of only four documented roosting sites for monarch butterflies in the state of Wisconsin is located on the county grounds and its displacement by new development has been one of the greatest controversies concerning the area. The site offers geographic and landscape features that have attracted thousands of butterflies to the land for years. The proximity to the Monomonee river allows for the north/south migration and because the area is the highest point in Milwaukee County it gives the Monarchs the advantages of gauging wind speed, direction, and temperature. The Monarchs have already lost over 200 acres of habitat in the area and only about 11 acres of viable habitat have been reserved near the historic Eschweiler Buildings (8). (See 2.3 for more information)

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[8] Built in 1912 and under construction summer and fall of 2015, the historic buildings of the Milwaukee School of Agriculture and Domestic Economy (the “Milwaukee poor farm”), which were designed by revered Wisconsin architect Alexander C. Eschweiler, are being restored and reused as part of a new apartment complex which adds six new buildings (188 units) to the site.

[9] UWM became the center of the controversy over developing the county grounds when it purchased the land in 2011 from the city. The first piece of the development was completed in 2013 with the opening of Discovery Parkway. There are currently two completed new buildings on what was named the Innovation Campus. The UWM Innovation Accelerator, conceived as a place where business and industry meets academic research and ABB inc. (a technology and engineering facility) were both constructed on the west side of Discovery Parkway. The master plan for the campus calls for four additional facilities on the west side of the site (two educational and two private sector) and four new private buildings on the east side of the road, one of which being an extended stay hotel.

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Top: Milwaukee County School of Agriculture and Domestic Economy (1912-1928), Middle: Rendering of Echelon Apartments’ reuse of Eschweiler buildings and the six new apartment buildings (Mandel Group), Bottom: UWM Innovation Accelerator.

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2.3 A KEYSTONE SPECIES FIGHTING THE FALL OF THE MONARCH

One of the most relevant aspects of this site to the notion of reconciling human and fauna habitat is the struggling monarch butterfly population and its loss of natural habitat both abroad and specifically at this rare Wisconsin location.

“The result of decades of data collection, gained through tagging, mapping and many other methods,

concluded that we, as a nation, as a people, have so radically altered the landscape of the American

Midwest that there is no longer enough food for monarchs to eat. That is, monarchs are running out

of milkweed.” (Jim Price)

While adult monarchs survive on a strict fluid diet of water and nectar, the one and only place they will lay their eggs and the one and only thing the larva will eat when they hatch is milkweed. The decline of the milkweed plant as natural prairies have been overtaken by pavement and lawns has directly correlated to a drastic drop in monarch butterflies - down from 1 billion in 1997 to only 57 million in 2015 (NRDC). Milkweed contains a variety of chemical compounds that make monarch caterpillars poisonous to most vertebrates but does not hurt the monarch caterpillar.

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The biggest step to revitalizing the monarch population is relatively simple compared to some other species - plant more milkweed. However, locating that milkweed and generating more roosting and nectaring sites that are integrated with the built environment will give an opportunity for ecology and the needs of the butterflies and plants to shape the design of the architecture.

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The current resources on the county grounds for the monarch butterflies are what makes it one of only four locations in the state that harbors them during their migration.

“While a small 11 acre area is preserved, multiple secondary roost sites have been destroyed or

removed by the development on the Grounds. Yet another will be taken down in 2015 to make way

for a parking structure. The importance and urgency of recognizing these areas, restoring, protecting

and managing them, is a responsibility we embrace as stewards of our natural world.” (Friends of the

Monarch Trail)

Friends of the Monarch Trail is a non-profit organization that was formed in 2011 to advocate for the species as development moved onto the site. They have maintained the trail system that winds through the habitat and host community and educational events focused on the preservation of it. They currently are working on a large habitat restoration project in the area west of the new apartment buildings which is owned and had been cleared of roosting habitat by the DOT.

“At a time when monarch populations are at an all time low these types of larger projects are critical

for their recovery. Setting good examples of blending natural landscapes with development is the way

of the future. Native landscapes are being planned for the new developments, yet the roosting sites

are in need of additional space. Blending these together creates a more realistic amount of space to

restore the monarch migration on this site. The public, surrounding land owners and building tenants

will all benefit from the value that is added to their businesses and homes. (Friends of the Monarch

Trail)

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Left: WI DOT Butterfly seed mix for the replanting of monarch habitat. Right: Friends of the Monarch Trail gather, separate, and spread native and local milkweed seed on the County Grounds.

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2.4 AS SEEN ON THE COUNTY GROUNDS A FRACTION OF THE EXISTING USER GROUP.

(Debbie Kaap)

(Eddee Daniel) (Peter Zuzga)

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(Flickr user brooksmelk)

(Evan Barrientos)

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3.0 WHAT

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3.1 ARCHITECTURAL PROGRAM THE HOTEL GENUS

The UWM Real Estate Commission has a vision for their development. Even though that vision faces great opposition and many in the community whom value the county grounds would rather see it completely preserved, the reality is that the buildings are and will be built there. Accepting the conditions of urban expansion is part of the foundation of reconciliation ecology and is also part of this exploration. For this reason the architecture program for this project will remain prescribed by the current master plan of the campus and will focus specifically on designing the proposed extended stay hotel and a convention center to the east of Discovery Parkway.

The site and surrounding community has numerous amenities that stand to benefit greatly from a facility that can accommodate out of town researchers, patients, and businessmen and the building itself is to be a destination of its own, providing a place for innovators to gather, brainstorm, and present cutting edge science. Incorporating a hotel on the campus will elevate the national exposure, increase economic growth, and solidify the area as a significant nodal point in the scientific community.

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The typology of a hotel is an ideal catalyst for exploring reconciled design. In a typical hotel, guest rooms account for about 80 percent of the total square footage of the building and because they are modular elements, less time is required to program and design that chunk of the architecture. This will allow the design to focus on and detail the parts of the building that will be accessible for the public and wildlife.

The public spaces of a hotel are generally the most thoughtfully designed and only account for 12 percent of the square footage of the building. For the purposes of this project and its emphasis on the proximity of living things the public space will account for 20 percent of the square footage.

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Table 1: Typical hotel program proportion of guest room net to gross square footage and typical resulting hotel gross per room. (deRoos)

Table 2: Typical hotel breakdown of the three main program elements by percentage of total hotel area. (deRoos)

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128 rooms x 590sf = 75,520sf Gross Rooms(75,520sf) / .72 = 105,000sf Hotel____________________________________________________________________________________________

.20(105,000sf) = 20,100sf Public Space

.08(105,000sf) = 8,400sf Back of House

The current plan for the hotel calls for 128 guest room suites. Using that number and deRoos’ tables for calculating hotel program, the estimated square footage of the hotel portion of the program will include 75,520sf of guest-rooms, 20,100sf of public spaces, and 8,400 sf of back of house and offices.

Figure 1: Typical hotel program spacial relationships diagram. (deRoos)

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Exhibition space diagram for McCormick Place, Chicago, Illinois.

The second half of the program for this exercise is a convention center that can provide exhibition, meeting, and presentation space for the Innovation Campus, The Milwaukee Regional Medical Center, and the research park. This too is a typology that is fairly simple to conceptualize and again puts emphasis on more public spaces and the integration of habitats.

“In the most general sense, a convention center consists of the combination of a few basic elements:

exhibition space, meeting room space, ballroom(s), theaters, public circulation (concourses), and

service areas. Any given convention center may include any or all of these elements… The pattern

that does emerge across convention centers is the ratio with which these elements are combined and

the subsequent adjacencies, sub-adjacencies, and relationships that form when these elements are

organized into a complete building form.” (Newman)

Exhibition space diagram for Cobo Center, Detroit, Michigan.

(Newman)

Exhibition space diagram for Javits Center, New York, New York.

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This program is modeled loosely after The Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas designed by RMJM with proportions driven by the convention center typology study by Brett Newman.

The sum of the major program elements to the right totals at 105,800 sf. Proportionally that should be about 75% of the gross square footage. Assuming 10% for circulation and 15% for back of house the total square footage of the convention center should be around 142,000 sf.

Exhibit Hall (40,000 sf)Expansive, column-free Exhibit Hall can be divided evenly into two

rooms or used as an uninterrupted convention space. The hall also

features a drive-in loading dock, and an upper-level room that allows

show managers to overlook the entire exhibit space with ease.

Exhibit Hall Pre-Function Space (14,000 sf)Open space offers multiple grand entrances into the Exhibit Hall and

supports the convention center as the general building lobby.

Meeting Rooms (1,000 sf)For smaller gatherings, meeting rooms each large enough to seat

attendees in round-table, theater and classroom styles.

Boardroom (800 sf)Formal Boardroom offering single “round table” seating, privacy glass,

and professional furnishings.

Grand Ballroom (18,000 sf)Space for medium - large banquet or meeting events including

corporate events, weddings, receptions, dances, class reunions, formal

dinners, musical performances, seminars, workshops and other special

occasions.

Grand Ballroom Pre-Function Space (8,000 sf)Support space for Grand Ballroom events.

Terraces (24,000 sf)Public gathering / support spaces including indoor/outdoor cafe.

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4.0 HOW

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4.1 A SERIES OF NESTED SCALES A TIME / SPACE RELATIONSHIP

On a given site the reservation of natural habitat will only go so far. The threat to most species is not only a loss of acreage, but the staggering fragmentation of that habitat. Viable population sizes require far more land than what will typically be set aside on a single site so wildlife corridors must be present as the connective tissue between pieces of reserved habitat. Riverbanks often serve as this connective tissue on large urban scales because they allow passage in and out of the urban zone to greater swaths of naturalized land. In some regions up to 70 percent of all vertebrates use the riparian zone at some point in their life cycle. This connectivity becomes increasingly important as you consider that most species operate at multiple habitat scales both in space and time. Spatially a given species might move from a nesting site to a feeding range to a migratory range and all three scales must be linked in a physical way. Temporal habitat scales occur at both the individual level and the species level where daily, seasonal, and generational implications can shape the need for habitat. Ultimately the spatial and temporal scales are linked both in concept and in practice. (Mayor, Schneider, Schaefer, & Mahoney)

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The County Grounds site was chosen because it already exhibits traits that support the connectivity of habitat scales. One of the goals of this project is to harness that value and reconcile habitat on it at the scales of the architectural detail, the building proper, and the immediate site surrounding it.

Figure 1: The link between spatial and temporal scales of habitat selection. The spatial units reflect organism mobility; the axis units would be appropriate for a long-lived, wide-ranging species like caribou. (Mayor, Schneider, Schaefer, & Mahoney)

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4.2 ECOLOGICAL PROGRAM TYPES EXAMPLES OF EXISTING HABITAT INTEGRATION

[1] The green roof is the most common way ecology has been integrated with architecture. One of the main benefits to the use of a green roof is off setting the displaced ecology from under the footprint of the building. However, nearly 75% of green roofs installed currently are extensive (mostly sedum) systems that do not support much biodiversity or habitat.

“After nearly 15 years of research, Dr. Gunter Mann established meaningful results with regards to

green roofs serving as permanent and temporary wildlife habitat. The height and exposure of the

building are less relevant than the size of the green roof, the depth of the growing media, rooting

volume and plant varieties... it is possible to support the upper tiers of the food chain by installing

large, inexpensive, standardized extensive green roofs with 5% - 10% intensive islands. Such designs

support higher ecological value than the sum of all corn fields.” (Jörg Breuning)

However, green roofs as they are typically designed today do have limitations to their effectiveness in replacing the ecological footprint of the building. The inaccessibility to most ground dwelling species and the limited substrate depth makes them inherently less diverse than a similar ecosystem on the ground. A major design challenge for this project is to leverage the architecture to increase accessibility and soil depths of any green roof incorporated.

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[2] A biodiversity roof (sometimes called a brown roof) is a different type of system that often incorporates both extensive and intensive green roofs as well as banks of sand, rough stone, tree limbs and nesting habitat, water and other micro environments one would typically find scattered throughout an ecosystem.

As the name suggests the main purpose of this system is to provide the highest amount of biodiversity possible. Where some species might thrive in the plant-rich environment of an intensive green roof other species that desire different types of micro-environments will likely be left without habitat on a typical green roof.

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Top and Left: The biodiversity green roof at the University of Melbourne (52 m²) has been designed to attract and provide habitat for lizards, insects and birds. Features on the roof that are known to encourage and sustain biodiversity include: Indigenous plants representative of Victoria’s endangered native grasslands, including known larval food plants or nectar sources for butterflies and native bees, a small ephemeral pond and shallow creek bed, different substrates to facilitate micro-habitats for invertebrates, and specific habitat features.

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[3] Insect hotels have long been popular in Germany, where forests are highly managed, leaving few suit- able nesting sites for wood-nesting bees and wasps. When declines in these insects became evident, instead of restoring habitat, forest stewards provided “hotels” of drilled wooden blocks and hollow twigs, designed to attract hymenopteran guests. Soon, hotels included accommodations for overwintering insects and became increasingly common in the Netherlands, the British Isles, and elsewhere in Europe. They have only fairly recently crossed the Atlantic, popping up occasionally in private and public garden settings. (Lavoipierre)

A typical insect hotel has two simple components, an armature constructed vertically from the ground which is subdivided into cells and organic material at various stages of decomposition which infill the cells. The traditional hotel was only focused on the functionality of the structure for providing habitat but contemporary designers have found that aesthetic value can be designed into the armature without compromising the habitat within. Arup Associates designed one of these modern hotels using the patter from a dragonfly’s wing as the organizing armature and it serves as a good example of how reconciled habitat can be ‘wild’ without necessarily looking ‘wild’.

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Top: Common garden insect hotel using refuse wooden pallets as the organizing armature and various organic material as nesting and feeding habitat. Bottom: Arup Associates ‘Beyond the Hive” competition winner hotel constructed using CNC routed MDF as the armature and similar organic material as habitat.

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[4] Bird houses are one of the oldest examples of man made habitat structures for wild animals but they have traditionally been segregated from the buildings we constructed for ourselves. More recently the approach to avian habitat is becoming more and more aligned with the reconciliation philosophy as designers are looking for ways to integrate bird ( and similarly bat) boxes into the different modular building components and assemblies.

[5] Bats have a more uphill battle when is comes to public acceptance of their living in proximity to people. Often written off as pests or disease ridden, bats are actually one of the most important groups to maintaining a healthy ecosystem because of their insect heavy diet. Rain screen integrated bat boxes are becoming more common because of their ability to seamlessly provide roosting habitat and deter bats from infiltrating into the building proper.

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Both bird and bat boxes come with some inherent challenges that are potential design opportunities. Animal droppings can pose both health an aesthetic risks to the building and inhabitants and must be taken into consideration when making design decisions.

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[6] The barn owl is perhaps the best example of a species dwelling reconciled with our own, so much so that it takes its name from the architecture we share. For hundreds of years Barn Owls have lived mainly in farm buildings and help farmers by eating mice and rats but barn owls were around long before the first farmers built barns. They lived in rock crevices and hollow trees, and sometimes still do.

“Over the past 100 years most of the old traditional nest and roost sites have been lost. Old farm

buildings have been replaced with new ones or converted into houses with nowhere for Barn Owls to

live. Hollow trees have been ‘tidied’ away. Church towers are often netted-off to stop owls and other

birds making a mess.” (The Barn Owl Trust)

Barn owls are tolerant of living close to man, and they respond well to management. By packing nest boxes in areas with adequate feeding habitat, barn owls can have a secure nesting place. The important elements of a barn owl nest box are roominess (to accommodate the specie’s large broods) and seclusion from predation.

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[7] Towers provide the greatest level of efficiency for habitat - human or otherwise. That is why the concept of constructed wildlife towers has gained popularity among designers in recent (and not so recent) years. Species that have vertical mobility and tend to colonize are best suited for these types of dwellings and so many towers are designed for bats, birds, and bees.

What does not seem to have been embraced in any of these projects is the notion that architecture for humans and architecture for animals can be integrated into the same construction.

(Baghdad, Iraq) Originally built as a pigeon cove, this cone-shaped tower was built by Sadaam Hussein for one of his mistresses and is now home to hundreds of bats.

(East Otto, New York )To provide a suitably warm interior for bat roosting, dark wood panels cover this tower’s inhabitation zone in order to absorb sunlight. Designed by Joyce Hwang.

(San Antonio, Texas) Bat tower designed by Charles Campbell, who built several successful bat towers in the early 1900’s. Campbell believed colonizing bats would get rid of mosquito-borne disease.

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(Beijing, China) 24-meter high swift tower built to provide a home for more than 1,500 swifts. In recent decades, the population of swifts has declined as many traditional tower structures are demolished.

(Warsaw, Poland) Swift Tower by Menthol Architects. The European swift population is on the decline, largely because modern, well insulated buildings have fewer nooks and crannies for them to make their nests.

(Buffalo, New York )Tower habitat for a colony of honeybees, which originally occupied an abandoned office building. The tower provides protection, warmth and separates entry access between bees and humans.

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[8] Green walls can provide habitats for invertebrates which in turn provide a food source for larger animals such as birds and bats. They can also act as a transit route for wildlife between habitats at ground level and green roofs.

“The array of insects and the seeds produced by the flowering plants all provide good feeding

opportunities to a range of birds, from common garden birds, such as greenfinch, blackbirds and

wrens, to goldfinch, linnets and even the rare black redstarts in certain parts of the country”. (Williams)

In addition to the potential food sources that a vertical or roof garden produces, the use of habitat boxes coupled with carefully chosen plant species, can create fantastic roosting/nesting places for birds as well as hibernation opportunities for insects.

Green walls can be a design feature both inside and outside the building. The topic of inside versus outside will be a major challenge in the design of this project. For hundreds of years we have done everything we could to keep so called pests for entering our buildings which included eradicating them from the immediate area. There will be a significant amount of the building (the “indoors”) that should remain inaccessible to wildlife and there will need to be a specific design solution to hold that line.

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(Avignon, France) In 2006, the city cloaked a stark 1970s parking garage facade with a huge and dramatic plant wall designed by the botanist Patrick Blanc, who also created a similar installation at the Musée des Arts Premiers in Paris.

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5.0 WHENFull Committee Chair Meeting Committee member meetings

scheduled at convenience

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9.8.15 END CONTEXT MAPPING D1. Site Model D2. Site Analytics Drawing [SNAFU]

9.9.15 FULL COMMITTEE T1. Parameters and Calendar Review T2. Open Forum T3. Phase 1 Projection 9.10.15 PHASE 1 D1. Architectural Program Analysis and Description D2. Ecological Program Analysis and Description

9.16.15 CHAIR T1. Architectural Program Analysis and Description T2. Ecological Program Analysis and Description

9.17.15 PHASE 2 D1. Habitat Design Mock-ups, Models, Drawings, Details D2. Architectural massing and block studies

9.21.15 COMMITTEE MEMBERS* T1. Phase 1 Progress T2. Phase 2 Progress

9.23.15 CHAIR T1. Phase 2 Progress

A.1 SCHEDULE OF DEVELOPMENT AND REVIEW

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10.1.15 PHASE 3 D1. Final massing and block study D2. Guest room floor plan D3. Programmatic adjacency diagram D4. Schematic designs for major public spaces

10.5.15 COMMITTEE MEMBERS* T1. Phase 3 Progress


10.14.15 FULL COMMITTEE T1. Phase 1 -3 Review T2. Functionality of habitat T3. Functionality of design

10.15.15 PHASE 4 D1. Developed site plan D2. Developed floor plans D3. Developed roof plans D4. Developed building sections D4. Renderings of major public spaces





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11.11.15 FULL COMMITTEE T1. Phase 4 Review T2. Structural design review T3. Open forum T5. Phase 5 steering - request for detail

11.12.15 PHASE 5 D1. Presentation architectural drawings D2. Presentation architectural renderings D3. Presentation architectural+ecological diagrams D4. Presentation building model D5. Presentation detail/sectional model





12.9.15 FULL COMMITTEE T1. Phase 5 progress Review T2. Representation Critique T3. Open forum T5. Presentation Strategy

*Committee member meeting scheduled week of at convenience

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6.0 CASE STUDY

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4.2 THE ELMONTE SAGRADO RESORT AN EXAMPLE OF ECO HOSPITALITY

This AAA Four Diamond Award-winning spa and resort is competely surrounded by lush cascade of water features, hydroponic plants, and engineered wetlands, all of which are constantly working to cleanse wastewater and rainwater for re-use.

The major ecological features of this project were designed into the architecture as infrastructural water conservation systems but inheirently they act as reclaimed habitat for an array of native wildlife.

“The purpose of the resort is to allow its customers to experience ecologically innovative water

integration and management systems that reduce potable water consumption by 50% without

compromising comfort and convenience while providing “real greening” of the entire project. Social

conversion to “green concepts” meets high resistance unless lifestyle changes are kept minimal and

have greater benefits than costs.” (Szerdi)

Guests of the resort are invited to swim in natural ponds fed with rainwater, and stroll or lounge beside a working ecological wastewater treatment system. The blending of architecture, infrastructure, and ecology poses a profound challenge to the idea that human habitation and support systems must be divorced from our natural environment..

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4.2 CHICAGO CITY HALL GREEN ROOF MEADOW AN URBAN HABITAT FOR MONARCHS AND MORE

The 20,000 square foot green roof that was installed atop the Chicago city hall is a prime example of ecology and biodiversity being reconciled with urban architecture. The original intent of the green roof was to support a campaign against urban heat island effect (one of the many other great benefits of green roofs not focused on in this document).

The apparent rolling mounds of earth and plants are actually contoured layers of lightweight insulation topped with a typical green roof systems only 3-9 inched deep. The meadow is planted with a variety of native plants and prairie grasses and uses sedum throughout to the stabilize the environment and create better growing conditions. This project included a drip irrigation system, fed partially by water collected from the adjacent penthouse roof.

Home to a multitude of indigenous plants and flowers, the roof has beehives that produce approximately 200 pounds of honey each year and often support monarch butterflies in their migration. In addition to nurturing songbirds and insects, thousands of residents and office workers in the 30 skyscrapers surrounding City Hall also enjoy the garden’s beauty year-round.

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Roofmeadow ContractorFormer Roofmeadow Network contractor

Landscape ArchitectConservation Design Forum

ArchitectMcDonough + Partners

Area20,000 square feet

IrrigationBase drip

WaterproofingPVC

AwardsThe American Society of Landscape Architects

2002 Professional Merit Award

AssembliesType II - 3.50 inches of media

Type III - 9.00 inches of medi

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4.2 CARDIFF BAY ANIMAL WALL A MULTI-SPECIES CONDO

Conceived of as an ecological art installment by artist Gitta Gschwendtner, the Cardiff Bay Animal Wall is a 50 meter long wall running along the edge of a dense urban condominium development. The wall is designed with four types of integrated habitat boxes designed to meet the needs of different species of bats and birds.

Concerns over the environmental impact of Cardiff Bay’s extensive development inspired the artwork which matches the 1,000 newest apartment units built with 1,000 new nest boxes. The wall runs along the edge of private residential space and the adjacent public riverside walk. The nesting boxes are made from woodcrete, a wood/concrete mixture, and an ecologist assisted in their design.

The bottom most photo brings to light a design challenge that accompanies the design of wildlife habitats that have an aesthetic function - animal byproduct and waste can accumulate and serve as both a health and visual concern. A rigorous maintenance schedule may mitigate this problem but ideally there should be a design intervention that solves this issue.

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