Kathryn Littlestudent works

P E N N S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y

Envisioning Hudson SquarePost Flood: Restitching the Urban FabricTussey Mountain Ski LodgeState College Bus StationArchitectural Analytique: San Nicola in CarcereLee Tree HouseSuburban Retrofit: Growth through AccretionArchitectural Analysis: Palazzo Valmarana

student worksEnvisioning Hudson SquarePost Flood: Restitching the Urban FabricTussey Mountain Ski LodgeState College Bus StationArchitectural Analytique: San Nicola in CarcereLee Tree HouseSuburban Retrofit: Growth through AccretionArchitectural Analysis: Palazzo Valmarana

PORTFOLIO 2009

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11-1213-1617-1819-2021-24

Envisioning Hudson Square

3 Weeks

Spring 2008

Hudson Sqaure, NYC

Professor: Lisa Iulo

Partner: Robbie Tunon

We are rising to meet the challenges posed by climate change and its impact on the urban environment by taking the threat of sea-level rise and turning it into a generator for positive site renewal and a way to improve the community’s relationship to their habitat . Our vision for Hudson Square is that it can be a model for redeveloping the Manhattan shoreline by regenerating the soft-edge condition.

Global warming threatens the community of Hudson Square with coastal storms and a rising tide. Located at one of the lowest points on the island, Hudson Square needed a response to ensure that the ecological systems at stake are no longer in danger of destroying one another (i.e. Humans would no longer be able to inhabit flooded zones and the Hudson would be contaminated by human waste products).

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ENVISIONING HUDSON SQUARE2

Post Flood: Restiching the Urban

Fabric

3 Weeks

Spring 2008

Hudson Square

New York City, NY

Through proposed multi-use, mixed density residential, this project seeks to generate a community awareness of the environmental and climate change issues on the urban environment, as a result of human impact. It reconnects the urban with the organic through a relational architecture that allows both to co-exist and respond to the other’s needs.

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POST FLOOD: RESTITCHING THE URBAN FABRICG

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40’-0”

30’-0”

20’-0”

10’-0”

0’-0”

Predicted 5m Sea Level Rise

Predicted 3m Sea Level Rise

Hudson River Manhattan Island

Average High Tide

Average Tide

Average Low Tide

Sea Level

Site Relationships

Sea Level Rise

ANALYSIS

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Urban Planning Analysis

ANALYSIS

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“The settlement is good which enhances the continuity of a culture

and survival of its people, increases a sense of connection in time

and space, and permits or spurs individual growth development,

within continuity, via openness and connection.” – Kevin Lynch

CO-E XISTENCE External Forces

Based on the premise of sea level rise affecting cities across the globe, this project recognizes the neighborhood of Hudson Square as part of a larger ecosystem. The proposed wetland within the master planning scheme is used as a termination of the eco-boulevard. My proposed site is the empty lot next to the St. Johns Building which was manifested as the wetland in the urban planning scheme. It suggests taking over empty sites for bioremediation and wetland restoration to allow for the regeneration of the natural landscape. The proposed architecture seeks to structure the urban environment while allowing a natural landscape to flow underneath. With the isolation of building elements within a flowing landscape, the issue of how to reconnect the city grid is also important and was addressed in this project.

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Tussey Mountain Ski Lodge

8 Weeks

Fall 2005

Boalsburg, PA

The ski lodge design enhances the levels of circulation of the ski slopes to allow the users to be participators as well as observers. The Lodge and the ski lift are the two most interesting points of observation; so combining these two programs brings together the observers and participators and allows them to interchange in succession with the uses of the building.

Ski Lodge Perspective

Outdoor Gathering Space

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TUSSEY MOUNTAIN SKI LODGE

Ski Lodge Perspective

Outdoor Gathering Space

Longitudinal Section

First Floor Plan

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State College Bus Station

State College, Pa

Fall ‘06

The State College bus station contains a large and complex programming of a bus station for the town of State College, commercial space, and the housing of offices for the Human Resources and Faculty Services departments for the campus.

The bus station’s site is on the path of an old railway that used to connect State College to other important resources. It is also along a major pedestrian route to the growing west side of campus. The project is based on this conception and occupation of the axis. It is at once rooted in the ground and also part of an infinitely continuous space.

East ElevationStructural Detail

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Structural Detail

STATE COLLEGE BUS STATION14

Basement PlanThird Floor PlanStructural Diagram

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Architectural Anal

San Nicola in Carcere

Rome, Italy

Fall ‘07

Construction of plans elevation and section through site analysis and drawing. Utilizing the columns and foundation of three pagan temples, San Nicola is a representation of modern, Baroque, and ancient Rome. The analysis examines the co-existence of these three spaces in the modern structure.

Temple of Juno Temple of JanusTemple of Spes San Nicola in Carcere

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ARCHITECTURAL ANALYTIQUE18

Reconstruction model of a tree house in Singapore wherein a steel-framed, multi-level timber-slatted house and a tree are allowed to co-exist, without impinging on the other in any way.

Wood Framing

Lee Tree House

Joseph Lim

Fall ‘06

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LEE TREE HOUSE20

Suburban Retrofit: Growth through Accretion

5th Year Thesis

Fall 2008

Completion Date: May 2009

Georgetown South

Manassas, Virginia

Library Section

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SUBURBAN RETROFIT: GROWTH THROUGH ACCRETION

The recent foreclosure crisis brings awareness to many architectural issues that are pertinent to the way we practice architecture and interact with our built environment.

My thesis explores opportunities for growth and accretion in the suburban environment. Urban development and the growth of cities is said to be a gradual accretion over

time as opposed to instantaneous change or development. Failing communities across the country are in need of redevelopment; therefore it is my goal to define how this

re-development can begin to take place in the suburban context as a gradual growth, using the resources already in place. The strategy is to minimize impact through a

gradual, rather than sudden growth. My project couples social programming with repurposed senior citizen residences as a way to rehabilitate communities while they un-

dergo the process of growth or change. The housing foreclosures are an opportunity to regenerate communities, however their dispersed nature makes it difficult to interact

with a single architectural element. As an alternative to most senior care facilities, the program elements are dispersed widely across the community, in which my project is

sited, planting smaller social structures around the area.

First Floor PlanSecond Floor Plan

Library Section

Library Facade Elevation

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Georgetown South is a community in Manassas, VA composed of approximately 800 town homes. Of those, about 300 are vacant or foreclosed. The negative impacts inflicted on the surrounding community are numerous, and the goal is to seek to create an architecture that might improve this condition and strengthen the community. The program seeks to break down the highly privatized boundaries of this landscape, and create more of a sense of interdependence and community awareness. Deconstruction, materiality and aging, and the power of landscape are each important in the expression of architecture in the suburban environment. The exploration for the fall semester involved proper siting of the building and opportunities for public interaction within the highly dispersed and privatized landscape.

“Flex Space” Paired with Senior Residential Units

Senior Care Pods/Vistor Housing

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Elevated Walkway Connecting Community Center Functions

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Architectural Analysis

Palazzo Valmarana

Spring 2008

Vicenza, Italy

Architectural Drawing and Sketching

This investigative analysis facilitated a greater understanding that traditional drawing is a way to represent, visualize and communicate architecture. Through reading architectural images and ideas produced by others, this work enabled a greater sensitivity towards architectural space, form, proportion, texture, matriality, and the effects of light, shade and shadow. The course instruction included an in depth understanding of Sciagraphy, rendering techniques in a variety of media, perspective architectural drawing, paraline drawing, and traditional ortho-graphics.

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ARCHITECTURAL ANALYSIS