beret_dickson|work

15.3.08

textile museum

_program
The production of textiles is an ancient art practiced throughout the world. Located on an open site within Fort Totten State Park, the museum contains research and preservation labs, loading and storage facilities, offices, event and educations spaces, galleries and a cafe.

_the site
Fort Totten; Washington, DC

_the solution
The museum is shaped by a series of retaining walls that carved the galleries from the earth and comprise the exterior skin. The retaining walls are also integral to the building's sequence, as they are traversed on the approach through the site as well as in the descent to the below-grade and light-protected galleries. Multiple entrances, terraces, and vertical cores mediate the two-story topography change. The primary structural system, an offset three-pinned arch, recalls the dynamic frames of a loom and supports a series of fabric-like layers that comprise the high-performance building envelope.

weaver's guild

_program
Located at the end of Roosevelt Square, the major commercial and entertainment center of Greenbelt, MD, the Weaver's Guild will be a place of interaction between the master craftsmen and the public. The building is asked to create a new image for the art and profession of weaving. Packed into 4000 sf, the program consists of a library, a gallery, an event space, offices and a loom loft.

_the site
Greenbelt, Maryland

_the solution
This scheme, entitled The Slip, utilizes the one-story grade change at the end of the square to create an overlap between public and private. Enclosed by a wood-louvered wall system, the private zone cantilevers out over the public space of the green below. The gallery, a logical extension of the adjacent loggia projects beyond the envelope and into the public realm. An aluminum skin that wraps the primary structural frames extends down over the entry and peels back to receive the lower level. The gridded landscaping of the public green reaches into the event space over which the louvered wall system hangs.

5.10.07

Recreation Center

_program
The gymnasium is an ancient typology, the contemporary manifestation of which is remarkably commercialized and image-driven. The quest for health in mind, body and soul has been replaced by a quest to look good.

_the site
Tenleytown; Washington, DC

_the solution
The fractured geometry of the facade, plan and section mirrors the fractured geometry of the site. A central core serves as a place of planned and chance interaction as well as a platform from which to view into all of the exercise spaces. An upper level event space projects over the pool, sharing the natural light brought in through the skylights in the folded ceiling. The exterior is engaged in voyeurism as well, as the cafe is sited along the street and the transparent facade allows continual views into the pool.

17.3.07

Alumni Center_Johns Hopkins University

_the program
Remembering is a dynamic event where the time and space of a singular event becomes distorted according to its perceptual importance. Phrases such as, "time flys when you're having fun" are a reflection of this distortion. The memory of a four year academic experience is full of such distorted memories and can be reflected in the archtitecture of an facility dedicated to the alumni of Johns Hopkins University. Here, the regular rhytym of the organizing and structural frames is distorted by the significant spaces in the same way that significant events warp the time and space of ones memory.

_the site
Johns Hopkins University; Baltimore, MD

_the solution
The building acts as a threshold for both the immediate physical context as well as the conceptual context of one mediating between his/her identity as a student and an alum. Sited in the in-between spae between the University proper and the alumni-oriented Decker Gardens. The path between these two zones passes through the building, allowing it to subtly act as an extended transition between a student and alumni experience.