This term's studio project was a group project centered on creating a welcoming urban design; we created a new campus for Cornish College of the Arts in the Uptown neighborhood of Seattle. As part of the project, we had to work in teams to create our campus, with each individual taking on a different school. I designed the School of Digital Arts, while three others designed the schools of Ceramics, Music, and Glass.

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Working as a team was a wonderful experience. We decided to center out project centered on the diagonal, and arranged around an ADA accessible path that carved through the campus. The accessible path had extra significance for us due the extreme elevation change on the site. Seattle as a whole is very topographic, and this campus sits between Elliot Bay and the Sculpture Park, and Seattle Center and the Space Needle, all popular destinations for tourists. Without our pathway, there is no accessible way to get between the two areas.

 

My school served as the entry to the campus from the southwest - the lower side, and the side closest to Elliot Bay. I chose to center the entire building around the ramp and pathway, as well as creating a rooftop open to the public that looks back over the water. My design also focused on the use of CLT and Mass Timber. I felt this was apt for a school of digital arts, which is by necessity forward thinking; to my mind, sustainable, regenerative materials like wood are the future.

 

To create a cohesive final project, myself and my three team members decided to split up the work in a unique way. We were all responsible for our own plans, sections, and elevations, though we created templates and used the same images and color palettes. For the renderings and physical models, we split things differently. Two people created all of the renderings, and two of us (myself included) made all the physical models. This meant that in the final presentation, or full design looked like a true, cohesive campus.