Houston Drum discuss his recent project and the use of ParaCloud Modeler:

Like much of the world, the United States is experiencing intense growth in and around its cities. As natural land gives way to strip malls and suburban housing, the environmental balance of exurban and countryside areas in America becomes increasingly uncertain. It is apparent the built environment continues to grow, and urban sprawl in Los Angeles is getting worse. As a consequence, land resources in Los Angeles are rapidly dwindling as more structures are realized. It comes a time when the skyscraper is evolving from its near universal perception as a device of economic speculation into the more established realization that it alone will permit us to achieve the urban densities needed to live sustainably on this planet.

The city of Los Angeles lacks both a city icon that represents the modern skyscraper trend, and a vibrant Downtown experience of retail, culture and other attractions. An iconic skyscraper hosting a vertical university implemented into Downtown would begin to reverse the symptoms of urban sprawl by significantly increasing the population within the city’s central core, which would in turn spark the growth of retail and culture development.

A new university is necessary in Southern California in order to prevent the undeniable future of overcrowding issues in institutions that will have no choice but to prohibit qualified individuals from obtaining a higher education. Due to the depleting land resources and the rising commute times, Los Angeles must begin to develop vertically once again in order to discourage urban sprawl and encourage densification of the city core. The vertical university is the answer to these present issues in Los Angeles and is a proactive agent against foreseeable concerns of the future.

Site Strategy:

The building and site are arranged to draw people into the site from the main entertainment area of the Staples Center and L.A. Live, the main entertainment locations adjacent to the site. The main pathway draws people toward the atrium inside the skyscraper. This path steps down into an area intended to become the main interaction location on the site which represents the university quad. This connection between the urban surroundings and the university are key to the survival of an intercity educational institution.

Vertical Circulation:

The atrium extends throughout the entire university, in order to provide a connecting element between all levels of the institution, as well as be the mediator between the building and the university quad. A skip-stop elevator system is implemented, forcing students and faculty to enter and exit the elevator system every three floors. Sky lobbies are placed on these levels, as the occupants are forced to circulate through these spaces, creating a level of interaction desirable for a university. From these sky lobbies located within the atrium, the occupant can then take a stairway to his or her desired level. All occupants of the building must first take the set of elevators located within the atrium and then proceed to pass through the transitional floor located on level four. This public set of elevators extends from the parking levels underground up to the fourth floor. It accesses all the student center levels and the administration. The transitional floor contains the access for each set of elevators going to the university, professional offices and residential facilities.

The main structural system of the building is a space-frame structure derived in Paracloud. This structure serves as not only a means to realize the form, it serves to aid in the unification of the skyscraper as one entity with multiple uses housed within.

• ParaCloud Modeler at Work: Urban Purifier Towers by LaN associate CarloMaria Ciampoli
• ParaCloud at Work: Digital extension of the National Library of Austria, Phillip Reiner
• ParaCloud GEM at Work: Residential Symbiotic, Lilach Cohen, IL
• SIGraDi 2009: Call for Abstracts
• ParaCloud Modeler at Work: Disaster Preparedness + Relief Center, Santa Monica, California - by Stephen Nieto

1. Whoa, that’d be a cool building.

   Posted by Adam @ College | April 29, 2010, 10:36 pm