This week was a whirlwind, because we had to meet with the Clemson City Council and we also had an in-house review.

Sunday and Monday were spent preparing for the City Council Meeting. I worked a lot organizing and putting together boards. The boards I worked on included photos of site analysis and process as well perspective drawings from photos to showcase all aspects of the design. I spent a lot of time on Sunday and early Monday working on drawings for the boards. Monday we put finishing touches on the boards and put all the elements together the model. The printing fell through, so at the last minute we threw together a power point presentation. The meeting went well and the council seemed very enthusiastic about our design. They gave us approval to move along with our plans.

Tuesday and Wednesday: Our group collaborated on how to continue after the council meeting and to prepare for the Lee Hall review and actual construction. We worked on ideas for designing the recycled material signage and interactive “tunnel”. I worked on some AutoCAD drawings of this tunnel, with rubber stepping stones and recycling bins.

Thursday: We worked on a diagrammatic site plan for the review. Sara and I wanted to clearly illustrate and work out our concept of threshold. We found that we have nine thresholds across the site. I worked on AutoCAD for a while trying to create some hard line perspectives and elevation. These weren’t fully completed in time for the review, but they were helpful. I really became interested in making the project as sustainable as possible. It really bothered me that we had waste in our wood and plastic textile material. I wanted to figure out a way to utilize the leftover scraps of materials. I used Mark’s files for the wood structure and plastic textile panels and laser cut them out. I then used the excess to make designs and gestural models of recycling bins, signage and the “tunnel”. I feel like material scraps are an important aspect of the project that can be utilized.

Friday and Saturday: I spent time doing last minute modeling and sketching. Sara and I set up the boards and food. We talked and presented to undergraduate, graduate students, professors and passer byers about our project. They all seemed very interested and impressed by our designs and use of innovative and sustainable materials. I believe the two presentations this week were successful. The review on Friday provided lot of feedback to think over and consider. We have a ridiculous amount of work to do in order to get out there and begin the building phase.

Week of 2/10-2/16

This week, I saw things start to come together. We nailed down a concept and started thinking and working towards a more unified goal. We also worked to prepare for our meeting with the Clemson City Council for approval.

Sunday: I looked into building outdoor furniture as an additional option for park seating. I created some study models from that research. We also had group meeting time.
Monday: We clearly defined the concept of “threshold” for our designs. This concept allowed us to make connections between all the elements. Sara and I worked on a diagrammatic site plan making these connections using the concept of threshold. We also completed the ¼” topographic site model from the week before.
Tuesday: From the diagrammatic site plan we used materiality and process to make these connections. We included two new connections. One of these was to input the tire pieces to clean the run-off water and then implement stepping stones to show that threshold from dirty to clean water. It also brought the wooden decking into the water from the stage to make a stronger threshold between the stage and creek. The other new connection was physically illustrating the process of recycling the plastic bottles to creating the canopy material. We wanted to create a connection of signage from the recycling bins at the entrance of the park to the canopy. We used some site photos to sketch perspective drawings of these new connections.
Wednesday: We did more collaboration as a group. We talked with Brad Putman about the idea of cleaning the creek through the use of recycled tire pieces. We started to prepare a budget. We also spent time at the site mapping things out. The Adams laid out the stage dimensions with surveying tape and we talked about that. It was interesting to some life-sized gestural models on the site.
Thursday: I made a compiled a schedule of times that everyone was available to work. I also made a ¼” model of the proposed material process “tunnel”.
Friday: We did a lot of talking as a group. John Thomas and I went out to the site and mapped out another life-sized gestural model of the retaining wall and seating with stakes and string. It was a very helpful and interesting way of designing. We continued the lines from the stage and really emphasized and continued the concept of threshold.
Saturday: The Berry, JT, Sara, and I spent time at the site, mapping all the aspects of ground-work. We really were able to be site sensitive and make a cohesive, united design on the site and by following geometric lines between aspects. We carried these over to the site plan.

Week of February 4-9

Sunday: A lot of time was put into collaborative design. I got some books to research structure, and we sketched different ways to support or hang our canopy. I made a couple study models or different structural possibilities. I also made a gesture model of a canopy shape.
Monday: I did some research on bales of recycled bottles. The Kitehill Recycling Center in Clemson was very helpful and informative. There is the possibility for showing process of our plastic textile panels with these bales.
We also spent a lot of time collaborating for our presentation on Tuesday to the Clemson Board of Architectural Review. We worked on designs for ground work such as the amphitheater style seating, prepared drawings and boards. I worked on boards and a section of the groundwork.
Tuesday: We fixed and edited the boards and our model for presentation. John Thomas and I spoke on behalf of the class to the Board of Architectural Review at City Hall. The board appreciated our work and gave their support to the project.
Wednesday: I worked on some gestural models of possible alternative seating for site. John Thomas and I worked on the possibility of the unfolding of a box to create opportunities for seating, play for children and signage. We also made a model of the amphitheater style seating. In making this model I cut my thumb resulting in a trip to urgent care and 4 stitches.
Thursday: Time was spent learning about surveying and surveying our site. We were taught about half a semester worth of surveying information in an hour and a half. We proceeded to the site to take the gain the topographic information. It took us a while to get the hang of things, but we collected over 200 points throughout the site. This gave us updated and more accurate topographic information. We spent the first long stretch of time on our site and learned that 1. It gets very cold at night 2. It is VERY well lit on our site at night 3. Papa Johns is going to get a lot of our business this semester.
Friday: We spent time on AutoCAD placing the topography on top of our site plan. There were some technical difficulties with the original site plan and this required a lot of time. We also did material analysis and research for the groundwork and site.
Saturday: We collaborated on groundwork and stage. We also continued to discuss materials. Sara and I went to the GIS lab and prepared the AutoCAD files for the laser cutter. We cut and glued a majority of a quarter inch scale model of our site with the new topographic and site plan information.