AARON HONSAKER

PORTFOLIO

AARON HONSAKER

PORTFOLIO

Photo: the Machines & the Gods, Rome

Contents

Academic WorkNortheastern University | Room for Repose..........................................................................................................................................................................

Northeastern University | Curutchet House Analysis.....................................................................................................................................................

Northeastern University | BPL Branch Library......................................................................................................................................................................

Northeastern University | Watchtower.........................................................................................................................................................................................

American Institute for Roman Culture (AIRC) | Field Sketching...........................................................................................................................

American Institute for Roman Culture (AIRC) | Rome beneath Rome...........................................................................................................

Northeastern University | Southie....................................................................................................................................................................................................

Northeastern University | BSA Design & Research Center..........................................................................................................................................

Northeastern University | Experiments in Public Housing..........................................................................................................................................

Northeastern University | Master’s Thesis: Back to the Land[scape].................................................................................................................

Photography.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Professional WorkLineSync Architecture | RGN Residence....................................................................................................................................................................... LineSync Archi | Chesterfield Garage............................................................................................................................................................ LineSync Ar | Mount Snow.............................................................................................................................................................................. LineSync Ar | Campus Dome......................................................................................................................................................................... LineSync Ar | Sink Design................................................................................................................................................................................ LineSync Ar | Bus Shelter..................................................................................................................................................................................

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This room is meant to address some of the changes occurring around airports worldwide, specifi-cally, current trends where people are waiting in and around airports for extended periods of time. The room for repose becomes a temporary place of occupation for one person who is pausing after, in between or prior to a flight. The traveler will use the space for bathing, changing clothes, making phone calls and relaxing.

Room for ReposeManual Representation

NORTHEASTERN04 MANUAL REP. ROOM FOR REPOSE

In 1949 Le Corbusier built a house and office for Dr. Pedro Domingo Curutchet, a surgeon in La Plata, Argentina. Being a place for both living and work, the building offers great insights on the separation of use. This project explores the spatial relationships of the pro-gram through physical models and drawings.

Curutchet HouseAnalysisStudio 1

NORTHEASTERNSTUDIO 1CURUTCHET HOUSE 05

NORTHEASTERN STUDIO 206 BPL BRANCH LIBRARY

Anchoring a corner of a new de-velopment, this library brings new life to Government Center Plaza in Boston. The library itself occupies the ground floor of a larger host building and connects Congress Street to the plaza above. A court-yard and exterior garden break up the large footprint and bring light into the interior.

BPL Branch LibraryStudio 2

NORTHEASTERNSTRUCTURES 2WATCHTOWER 07

This simple structure culminated an exercise in standard wood-frame construction, a generic watchtower typology being the starting point. The roof of the tower is a coupling of two ruled surfaces, resulting in a system that drains at a singular point.The cantilevered second floor gives shelter to the entrance below.

Model: basswood + chipboard

WatchtowerStructures 2: Tectonics

NORTHEASTERN08 AIRC ROME FIELD SKETCHING

From left to right, top to bottom:

Necropoli at Cere; Campanile of Pisa; Temple of Hera II, Paestum; Urban Orientation Map, Rome;S. Maria Josepha, Rome

Field SketchingAIRC Rome

NORTHEASTERNAIRC ROMEFIELD SKETCHING 09

NORTHEASTERN10 AIRC ROME STUDIO 3 ROME BENEATH ROME

Along Via delle Botteghe Oscure there is a rectangular plot where two columns can be seen protrud-ing from a partially excavated site. Somewhere beneath the surround-ing buildings rests the foundation of the Temple of the Nymphs. This archeological mystery is the focal point of a project involving a library, a metro entrance and a museum. All of these parts are significantly different yet they con-verge on a single location in space. It is the piece of ancient Rome that ties them together.

Both an excavation and construc-tion, this project reaches in two directions at the same time. The library on the floors above are pro-tected from the hustle and bustle of the ground level. Pedestrians entering the Metro are traveling back in time as they descend from the modern surface.

Rome beneath RomeAIRC Studio 3

NORTHEASTERNAIRC ROME STUDIO 3ROME BENEATH ROME 11

and income-wise, this development uti-lizes an assortment of housing types and configurations.

141 total units50 units/acre168 parking spaces (37 on grade, 131 structured)1.2 parking spaces /unit

South Boston is a densely populated neighborhood in Boston proper well-known for its working-class Irish-Ameri-can community. While vibrant in certain areas, other locations have suffered. This new housing development seeks to revitalize a large block between West 1st Street and West 2nd Street where the existing residential fabric dissolves into a decaying industrial zone to the north. In order to attract a diverse community, age

SouthieStudio 4

NORTHEASTERN12 STUDIO 4 SOUTHIE

NORTHEASTERNSTUDIO 4 SOUTHIE 13

Building Type Strategy:

There are two main building types for this site - a row house type and a double-loaded apartment type. The apartment units are ag-gregated in five bar buildings and are placed predominately along 1st Street where the depth of the site is the greatest. The row houses were developed to fill in the area on the South side of Dresser St. This creates a denser urban fabric and gives Dresser St. a solid edge, which it would be lacking other-

wise. Another small aggregation of row houses caps the south-ern end of the block to create a well-defined edge on Dorchester Street. Each row house is provided with a one-car garage, as do a good portion of the ground-floor apartments in the bar buildings. The rest of the parking is tucked away underneath the plinth that runs along 1st Street. A significant grade change in the terrain allows for two levels of parking without significant excavation.

NORTHEASTERN14 STUDIO 4 SOUTHIE

Unit Type Strategy:

Three out of the four units in the bar buildings are floor-through, split level units. The other is a studio. The split-level configura-tion works with the raised plinth along 1st Street and negotiates the level change. Fitting together as interlocking pieces, the 3rd and 4th floor units exist in a complex sectional arrangement in which each unit has both Southern and Northern views. All units abovethe 1st floor are accessed from a single corridor that runs the length of the buildings.

NORTHEASTERNSTUDIO 4 SOUTHIE 15

This project is a new headquarters for the Boston Society of Archi-tects containing research facilities, classrooms, office space, an audi-torium and public gallery space. Located at the Southeastern edge of the Fort Point District and the undeveloped Seaport District to the East, this building is designed to be a beacon for the area and a catalyst for future development.The design includes a public eleva-tor and stair to connect the raised Summer St. to West Service Rd. below - a critical link between the two levels.

The sequence above illustrates the design process and how the changing forms reacted to dif-ferent environmental conditions. Integrating all the external factors such as wind patterns, sunlight and pedestrian circulation with the internal programmatic require-ments was key for this project.

BSA Design & Research CenterStudio 5

NORTHEASTERN16 STUDIO 5 BSA DESIGN & RESEARCH CENTER

NORTHEASTERNSTUDIO 5BSA DESIGN & RESEARCH CENTER 17

The first floor level on Sum-mer Street serves as the main entrance to the BSA building. The auditorium is located on the West side, sitting above the hygrothermal lab which is visible to pedestrians walking along Summer St. The gallery space in the middle can spill out onto an urban balcony when sliding glass doors are opened.

NORTHEASTERN18 STUDIO 5

A design and research center for the BSA is a place in which the sharing and communication of knowledge is essential. Designers, scientists, academics, students, ar-chitects and the general public will all share the use of the building, so it is natural that they should mix together. A large atrium in this project was chosen as the central location where these meetings can

happen. It is the central organizer of the building and is designed for its social function as well as its environmental utility. In the hot summer months, breezes from the southeast are able to pass through the building and the hot air is carried out through the top of the atrium via the stack effect and helped along with fans.

BSA DESIGN & RESEARCH CENTER

NORTHEASTERNSTUDIO 5 19BSA DESIGN & RESEARCH CENTER

PHOTOGRAPHY20

S. Maria delle Presentazione, Rome

PHOTOGRAPHYSTUDIO 4 21

PHOTOGRAPHY22

Mount Vesuvius, from Naples, Italy

Unidentified Building, Verona, Italy

PHOTOGRAPHY 23

PROFESSIONAL WORK24 LINESYNC ARCHITECTURE RGN RESIDENCE

Two brownstone homes were joined together in this project on the upper west side of New York City. Bringing light into the center of the building was one of the primary objectives, as was carrying the outdoors through the building.

Project Role: rendering and graph-ics

RGN ResidenceLineSync Architecture

PROFESSIONAL WORKLINESYNC ARCHITECTURECHESTERFIELD GARAGE 25

The economics of a small town budget drove the design of this new town garage. An environmen-tally friendly and cost-effective solution involved the re-use of certain structures and new prefab-ricated elements. Saving energy through super-insulation, passive solar collection and low-mainte-nance design all factored into the needs of the client.

Project Role: design team member, schematic design through con-struction documents, rendering & graphics

Chesterfield GarageLineSync Architecture

Mount Snow LineSync Architecture

As part of a larger master plan, this new base area at Mount Snow ski resort incorporates six condo-minium buildings as well as a base lodge. Over one hundred units are planned with slope-side access to the mountain’s Carinthia area.

Project Role: design team member, schematic design through design development.

Initial concept sketch

PROFESSIONAL WORK26 LINESYNC ARCHITECTURE MOUNT SNOW

PROFESSIONAL WORKLINESYNC ARCHITECTURECAMPUS DOME 27

Campus Dome LineSync Architecture

Campus Habitats, located in Car-bondale, Illinois, provides upscale residences as an alternative to typi-cal college dormitory housing. The envisioned Student Lounge offers full amenities including gym, spa, and tanning facilities, cafe areas, study pods and even a beach sand lounge. The choice of a dome gave a unique identity. In the case of Carbondale it was a perfect fit for students at Southern Illinois

University where the geodesic dome inventor Buckminster Fuller actually taught and built the world’s first geodesic dome.

Project Role: renderings, graphics

PROFESSIONAL WORK28 LINESYNC ARCHITECTURE SINK DESIGN

Zinc Box Sink LineSync Architecture

This sink is one of two custom fixtures designed and fabricated specifically for a renovated house. The sink is designed to be cut from a zinc sheet, then folded and soldered at the joints to create an impervious basin.

Project Role: designed & oversaw fabrication

Concrete Sink LineSync Architecture

This sink was designed for an amenities center at a Vermont resort. The frame is reinforced con-crete, supporting two glass basins that converge at the center drain. Removable and adjustable wood slats serve as surfaces for toiletries.

Project Role: design and drawings

PROFESSIONAL WORKLINESYNC ARCHITECTUREBUS SHELTER COMPETITION 29

Bus Shelter LineSync Architecture

This competition entry is for a bus shelter located in Brattleboro, Ver-mont. The objective in this design was to re-use an object that might otherwise be thrown away or sold for scrap. Sections of the culvert are cut and bent upwards and downwards to open up the shelter both visually and spatially. A solid wooden bench fastened along the back of the space provides seating.

Project Role: sole designer

NORTHEASTERN30 GRADUATE RESEARCH STUDIO EXPERIMENTS IN PUBLIC HOUSING

Experiments inPublic Housing, Vol. 1Graduate Research Studio

Public, affordable and subsidized housing is a topic that has been thoroughly studied and examined. Experiments in Public Housing focuses on the architecture of housing projects over time. In ad-dition, this publication recognizes other associated realities of public housing and their potential influ-ence on design. Through the careful analysis of mostly local precedents, this study searches for points of departure for innovation within the typology. This book is not an outright biased critique, nor is it a detached survey. Where warranted, a position is taken to provoke new ideas and possibilities. The main objective is the identification of themes, issues and patterns that could possibly bear fruit in terms of generating new ideas for public and subsidized housing.

NORTHEASTERNGRADUATE RESEARCH STUDIOEXPERIMENTS IN PUBLIC HOUSING 31

Experiments inPublic Housing, Vol. 2Graduate Research Studio

The second volume of Experiments in Public Housing is a catalog of mostly local precedents, acting as the basis for this publication’s research. A myriad of housing projects located in Boston’s Lower Roxbury and South End are used as a lab for research due to its diverse mix of projects spanning many periods in housing history. A total of sixteen housing projects were isolated and analyzed, rang-ing from post-war construction of super-block developments to present day town homes directed at individualism. Architectural plans were re-drawn according to a graphical and scaled standard so that they could be evaluated side by side of each other. In addition, text and diagrams supplement the drawings and begin to analyze the different features of each project.

NORTHEASTERN32 GRADUATE THESIS BACK TO THE LANDSCAPE

Back to the Land[scape]

Re-animating public housing from the Outside-In

Graduate Thesis

There are still a staggering number of housing projects currently in use, left over from the heyday of public housing in the 30s, 40s and 50s. While they have been renovated and ‘modernized’ over time, most of these projects still suffer from flaws embedded in their original site design. Poor relationships between public and private zones and a lack of defensible space still causes seri-ous issues to this day.

My exploration focuses on the Lenox Street housing project in the Lower Roxbury neighbor-hood of Boston. Built in 1939, this superblock development consists of point-loaded, 3-story walk-ups. With public streets confined to the periphery, the interior spaces have become a no-man’s land devoid of activity - an unwelcoming and unsafe environment.

While it is tempting to tear down problem projects and build anew, residents become displaced and existing communities dismantled. Many of these housing projects are still in good shape physically and are quite inhabitable, so I ask the question: What if these projects could be rejuvenated through major landscape operations that significantly altered the way the neighborhood is perceived? What if these same landscape opera-tions could also begin to affect the organization and access of interior spaces? This strategy has the po-tential to be economical, sustain-able and repeatable.

NORTHEASTERNGRADUATE THESIS BACK TO THE LANDSCAPE 33

NORTHEASTERN34 GRADUATE THESIS BACK TO THE LANDSCAPE

The intervention began by creating three new cross streets connecting Lenox to Kendall St. In doing so, all units acquire a well-defined front and back. Along with the addition of private front and rear entries, the access and safety problems are effectively eliminated. An interior pedestrian/bike pathway running perpendicular connects one end of the site to the other, provid-ing more public access points. A catalog of landscape and architec-tural operations was then utilized to pinpoint and tackle specific issues across the site at a finer grain. Raised landforms, grade changes, plantings, and outdoor structures all contribute to a rejuvenated pub-lic housing project.

NORTHEASTERNGRADUATE THESIS BACK TO THE LANDSCAPE 35