The Mindrut House is built along the golf course in the University Club, a gated subdivision in Baton Rouge. The house is in a part of the subdivision required to embody the character of New Orleans’ French Quarter. In essence, this house had to adopt a row house exterior’s design strategy, even though the house would have a garage in front of the home. The owners, the Mindrut family, were more interested in more progressive interior designs than the required New Orleans architecture, exterior façade. The final design scheme presents a solid but quieter version of a French Quarter home. The main components of the exterior are a Greek revival frieze and entryway, Acadian shutters, and a Colonial styled courtyard expanding off the garage walls. Once inside the house you realize the aesthetic is just a shell to incase an open, contemporary home nestled inside.

The second complete project I'd get to work on was a house deep in a subdivision of Prairieville, Louisiana. Having seen my first project in the Parade of Homes, the owner wanted their project to be similar to the Oneal house. The main requirements of the design were that the house resembles the neighboring buildings (which were not yet built or even designed yet), that the house open itself up to view the woods behind the house (whereas at the Oneal house the design is self-contained), and that the master bedroom be located away from the main house (as it was in the Oneal house). As a problem solving exercise, my biggest task was bringing the home owners to a point where they understood why there house could not be just like the Oneals’ home.

When Highland Custom Homes, a Baton Rouge custom residential housing contractor group, was looking to subdivide some land for development, I worked with them to come up with several proposals to take to the department of public works office. The final plot plan resulted in four parcels of land available for new residence. Two of the lots would be claimed from the get go; one of the lots would go to HCH figure head, Al Nauck, and the other, more difficult lot would be used to design my father’s house. With two lots left to be sold, HCH asked me to produce sample designs for new houses to be built on the vacant property.

To see my father's house, click here.

With the growth of web-based shopping and digital media, Bluefly finds itself at the cutting edge of browser based shopping. No longer will people find themselves packing malls and shopping centers, rummaging through countless piles of inventory. Digging through the mad house of marked down clothing has been made simple with the help of Bluefly’s internet database of fine clothing. The only drawback to Bluefly’s operation is the problem of fitting the clothing to individual levels of comfort – both in physique and persona. With this project, I designed Fitting Centers where potential Bluefly customers can test-fit clothing to their unique body and personality. After doing so, they can order the clothes in the Fitting Center, or back at home online. The customer will then receive their garments directly at their doorstep. If the clothes don’t work out, just return them to your local Fitting Center for a refund or exchange.

In 2004 when Hurricane Ivan made landfall in Gulf Shores, Alabama, it would be the 10th most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded. In 2005 when Hurricane Katrina destroyed buildings and gnarled the buffer islands all along the Gulf of Mexico, it would go down as the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes in the US. The only project of fall semester, fifth year studio, asked students to design a new facility for the Mississippi Park’s Department to replace the heavily damaged Nature Center in Ocean Springs, MS. The building would house exhibits about the local ecosystem and the gulf islands national seashore program, offer a place of refuge for park rangers and visitors, and would be an exemplar of how a structure in such a hostile environment should not only survive, but flourish through the use of efficient building techniques in this coastal zone.

Occasionally I get the opportunity to do graphics. When that chance presents itself I use techniques similar to my architectural design process. While the disciplines of design are different, the principles are universal. The major difference between the logo and a building is that a logo is a singular composition, supporting itself without context. It has a graphic language instead of a materials language. It has form, both relative to the overarching whole and the disparate components. And perhaps most critical to a successful design composition, the logo can carry a communicative intent. Highland Custom Homes wanted there logo to embody the selling points of there company. The logo should be solid, able to stand on its own. The logo should be easy to relate to, which I translated as being easy to understand. The design should not be too complicated, but should not boring either. And finally, the logo should be adaptable.

When offered, I jumped at the chance to design a new house for my Aunt and Uncle. Having never designed a real building before – in the sense that what’s going to be built is what’s real – I made certain to work closely with the home owners in the design process. During the interview process I realized that they wanted to live in a park-like oasis but that they were really worried about privacy. Aside from the programmatic requirements, the bulk of the design process explored methods to enclose a private space that would be open to an exterior. The final design provides program clusters connected by a thin hallway.

Buildings are usually complex wholes made of disparate things – materials, technologies, concepts, knowledge, etc – brought under the auspiciousness of a singular intent. As a cohesive whole, the architecture does not indicate an aesthetic but rather, a regulating intent. To understand a building as an architecture one must undergo some form of analysis. Between the intention of the author (very difficult to find out and frequently irrelevant to the interpretation of the text) and the intention of the interpreter (who simply beats texts into a shape which serves their purpose), there is a third possibility – the intention of the text. This assignment asked students to analyze a building in its present state and to argue whether or not the building itself is effective in achieving its desired meaning.

Conventional history, for the most part, tells us that architects’ drawings are considered outside of the study of fine art. Normal architectural practice simply puts drawings to use without reflection. The assumption as it stands is that architects’ drawings present a thin description of reality specific to a singular subject matter, devoid of any objective interpretation. But why is the painter’s mark considered replete with all aspects of its stroke given meaning, while the line of an architect’s diagram has its meaning attenuated? The Mirror of Drafting course presented students with several assignments meant to unveil the expressive medium of drawing.

A designer’s work surface can be the most limiting component when working. More surface allows more things to be accessible at one time. We see this in productivity studies that result in employees being issued 17” monitors instead of 15” monitors, dual monitors, larger cubicles, and so on. We see this in the workplace when upper management gets a huge office with a ‘C’ shaped multi-desk arrangement, while the journeyman employee gets a 4’x6’ cubicle. A busy desk makes for a messy employee or an overloaded student. At school in DC, I created a non-invasive, ergonomic addition for my desk that would increase my productivity.