P O R T F O L I O

“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they

will never sit”

-Greek Proverb

28 Lefferts Place #3FBrooklyn, NY 11238

816.752.3188elmahoney11@gmail.com

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My master’s report on the St. Roch neighborhood in New Orleans, LA came as a response to the explosion of vacant lots after Hurricane Katrina. It was a practical approach to redevelop these vacant lots into greenspaces that restore the local ecological processes and develop a sense of self suffi ciency through local food production. The end product was a collaborative process that was broken down into three phases; a planning phase, construction phase, and maintenance phase. In each phase the community at large held some authority or role in moving the project.

professor lee skabelund & huston gibson | May 2011

https://krex.k-state.edu/dspace/handle/2097/9161

ORGANIZERS

DECIDERS

CONTRIBUTORS

SPONSORS

ANALYSTS

FACILITATORS

AFFECTING STAKEHOLDERS

CITY GOVERNMENT

NGOsRESEARCHERS

LABOR TEAMS

DESIGN TEAM

EFFECTED STAKEHOLDERS

The goal of the report was to develop a collaborative process that would involve the community throughout a project’s lifespan. Designers would be more visible in the public to develop a stronger relationship with the community. By decentralizing the design responsibilities, there is more opportunity for residents to develop their own schemes and programs. By giving the community more responsibility, they achieve a sense of stewardship and fulfi llment.

The

collaborative process was developed to involve and integrate all parties in a project, and allow them to be more visible to one another. The designer will orchestra and focus the discussion as needed to

ALPHA: A COLLABORATIVE DESIGN PROCESS

CONCEPTION OF IDEA

SITE VISIT & EXPLORATION

DELIBERATION

SHARED VISION &

DESIGN DECISION

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The diagram

illustrates the collaboration and

interaction between the parties and community groups that

are involved in a project’s initial phases. In the same way that ecosystems initially begin to respond after a shock or change in state, this process is designed to react and adapt to shocks and changes throughout the social and built environment in the St. Roch neighborhood.

This phase is the initial development, design, and planning process for a

given project’s

lifespan. Throughout this

phase community organizers, non-profi ts, and

the public come together through the guidance of design professionals to bring their schemes to life. There is an active community engagement process that allows these projects to be made public through workshops, charrettes, site visits, and art installations. The idea is to transition the leadership responsibilities from professionals to the public. These projects are typically small in scale and can be implemented rapidly.

Through this process, the public slowly becomes self suffi cient in their creative process, and develop a momentum that allows the community to have control over their environment and truly develop their sense of place.

Site selection

Hydrology Suitability Soil Suitability Social Composite

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Site selection is a big part of the collaborative process. Sites can be selected on high visibility to other community assets, and their program needs. For instance, wetlands were selected on water needs, soil quality, and vegetation. The three diagrams to the left show the analysis for each

of the previous categories mentioned. There should be highly visible elements put on each site. Shade structures and fences can be used to show that the site is owned by the community, and should be treated as such to promote safety.

ALPHA: A COLLABORATIVE DESIGN PROCESS

Constructing these sites provides a real life learning lab to educate the community members of the St. Roch neighborhood. The labor is broken up into three work forces; professional construction crews who will aid in the heavy construction and education, workforce development teams that are searching for job skills, and public volunteers who aid in small tasks. Throughout the process of construction there will be opportunities for public volunteers to participate, learn, and

invest in their community, Workforce teams will be given specifi c projects assigned to their requested job skills to be learned. In this way, the sites can be an example of construction in the

BUILDING PLACES TOGETHER

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Community gardens

VEGETABLE PLOTS

COMMUNITY IDENTITY

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RAIN GARDENS

SHADE STRUCTURES

MARKETPLACE

Wetlands

URBAN FOREST RESTORATION

BOARDWALK

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NATIVE WETLAND RESTORATION

FLEXIBLE GREENSPACE

The Apiary is a collaborative nursery operated entirely by residents of the city, so they might foster stewardship and ownership in what the city becomes. Participation is encouraged through fun elements such as merry-go-rounds and hand pumps, which operate like a Rube Goldberg Machine to care for the nursery’s plants.

top 15 finalist FOR THE SIXTY NINE SEVENTY URBAN IDEAS COMPETITION

Team member: Violet whitney | april 2013

http://www.sixtynineseventy.com/urban-ideas-competition

The apiaryThe Apiary seeks to revitalize Salt Lake City through this idea of working collectively towards a common goal. By introducing a collaborative nursery operated entirely by the citizens of the city, residents become active participants in what the city becomes. Visitors fi nd appreciation of this venerable morale of stewardship on an intimate level through active participation. Through its implementation, propagation, and ongoing maintenance and production, the Apiary will foster a new sense of stewardship in Salt Lake City.

BLOCKS SIXTY-NINE SEVENTY

CONCEPTUAL SKETCH

WIDEN PEDESTRIAN SPACE

PRESERVE CULTURAL ELEMENTS

RECONNECT THEM

WITH VERTICAL GARDENS

CREATE IDENTITY

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The Apiary be completely operated by the people and visitors of Salt Lake City, rather than hired hands. The goal is to incorporate maintenance and operation in such a way that any visitor to the site will be encouraged to participate in the procurement and propagation of The Apiary’s plants. By mechanizing this process, visitors explore The Apiary as a Rube Goldberg machine, playing with inputs whose outputs help care for the plants. From this open interaction, all users who come to the site will have an invested interest in Salt Lake City, and will be encouraged to return.

The Apiary is malleable by all types and sizes of groups. An offi ce employee can tend his sapling till it grows to a mighty tree, a family can plant a group of wildfl owers that will be transplanted to their neighborhood, and even an entire class from Washington elementary can develop an tire grouping of plants that will help restore habitat areas around the city. Goldberg Machine to care for the nursery’s plants.

SITE PLAN

Main St. gardensThe production spaces feed into Main Street,

which acts as market space for the nursery,

but also for other local venders. The amount

of vehicular circulation is minimized to a

single lane way with no parking. This creates

a more vibrant streetscape for pedestrians,

rather than the automobile. In this way,

more interaction between the retailers and

pedestrians can occur, restaurants can

have more spacious outdoor seating, and

the theaters will have more ample spillover

space before and after shows.

Main Street will regain its traditional

Main Street appeal again. The

collaborative experience continues

throughout Main Street as well.

Amid the hexagonal structure there

are projectors that exhibit ideas,

questions, images, that anyone can

text to exhibit their ambitions and

concerns. The apiary becomes a

more vibrant space that exposes

real time information and issues

from anyone passing by allowing

the question of what Salt Lake

City becomes to be constantly

evolving by its participants.

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The alleys, vacant lot and open spaces of 69 70 will be the main production areas for the nursery. Mechanical water pumps will shower various vast areas of vertical gardens, creating a sense of curiosity in the visitor. Merry-go-rounds are attached to gears which slowly

rotate the vertical gardens, allowing all plants to reach sunlight and allowing plants to be moved and maintained on the ground plane. All of these mechanics harvest kinetic energy for use in the outdoor furniture.

Apiary systems

kinetic elements

water pump overhead structure

vertical gardens

merry-go-round attached to vertical gardens

charging station lounge

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The apiary plaza

laptop station shade community gardens kiosk performance platform

Laptop and cell phone hookups add another layer for participation

with the machine. Alleys become quiet gardens, a space for someone

to retreat from work during lunch to fi nd solace, whereas larger open

spaces become areas for high activity and collaboration. These areas will

house large lounging benches for people watching and a plethora of other

community geared furniture.

professors blake belanger & jon hunt | may 2009The Denver Metro Studio was one of the more intensive studios in the Kansas State curriculum, but the challenge was one of the appeals of this project. The site was an old medical campus in the Denver downtown area that had been uprooted and moved to Colorado University’s campus. The fi rst phase of the project was a masterplan for the entire site. Some of the dilemmas presented in this fi rst phase were integrating the two different grids north and south of the site along with breaking up the superblocks effectively. The second phase was a focus area, such as a plaza or streetscape to detail further, in which some design detail was required.

sunrise suns

et

The site for the Denver Metro Studio is located at the intersection of 9th & Colorado in downtown Denver. The purpose of the project was to create a urban infi ll project that responded to its context and create new and meaningful spaces in Denver’s urban fabric. The issues with the site were various and pertained to recreating a neighborhood amenities that had long been blocked by the old hospital. This site is a critical piece of real estate in the Hale neighborhood of Denver. The above diagrams and sketches provide initial thinking in developing the overall masterplan to the right.

SITE INVESTIGATION

Existing hospital sketch

sun wind walk ideas

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The masterplan seeks to reintegrate the site with its context. By developing a central green space that is centered around the most historic buildings of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, it allows the history of the site to become an integral part of the new development, creating a staple of the site. The fi rst critical issue to address was the massive size of the original block. The original block was consumed by the hospital, and appeared massive at the pedestrian scale. In this plan, retail is brought out in storefronts, and mixed with highly traffi cked streets and open space.

On the eastern portion of the site, there is a major pedestrian spine that is angled to reconcile the grids to the north and south and sow them together. This spine is lined with shops as well as different plazas to provide different programs and various time intervals maintaining a constant activity on site.

masterplan

Colo

rado

ave

.

clem

ent s

t.

9th ave.

11th ave.

12th ave.

birch st. square

central green

open air market art museum

birch st.

pedestrian mall

The scale of the site is meant to

increase density without overwhelming

the surrounding neighborhoods.

The building heights are taller along

Colorado Ave. and to the east adjacent

to the remaining hospital. To the

north and south, the buildings step

down to reintegrate into the existing

neighborhoods. There is a mix of

uses that have been missing

from the

surrounding neighborhoods. There is

opportunity for new retail and leisure

spaces like a movie theater, shopping

district, and farmer market spaces.

The uses are meant to mingle and

build off one another creating a new

synergy.

31ground floors

floors 9+

land use

floors 7-8

floors 5-6

floors 3-4

SEASONAL USES

CULTURAL BUILDINGS

TEMPORARY PEDESTRIAN SPACES

RETAIL

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The focus of the open space was to create lively, active pedestrian space that engages residents at all times of the year. The con-text of plaza bora is cultural and retail space that fl ows out into the street. In winter there are opportunities for seasonal uses, such as temporary ice rinks, holiday shopping and activities. In the summer there are street festivals mixed with gallery exhibits on fi rst Fridays.

Plaza Bora and Birch St. Square are meant to bring new identity to the neighbor-hood, and serve as the cultural infra-structure to bring people together.

PLAZA BORA

OUTDOOR SEATING

Birch St. Square

Plaza bora

e. 9th st,

bora st,

11th ave.

chinook st..

birch st.

BIRCH ST. SQUARE

FARMER’S MARKET

IDENTITY

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VENUE SPACES

PHX Renews is an ongoing collaboration between Keep Phoenix Beautiful, Collier International, and the City of Phoenix. The site is 15 acres of vacant land in the heart of Phoenix. The result has been a mix of community gardens, temporary greenspace, learning spaces, and a testing ground for how we develop vacant lots in the City of Phoenix moving forward.

AZ forward environmental award honorable mentionnew york times covers phx renews

smithgroupjjr | ongoing

conceptualization

concept 1 concept 2 concept 3 schematic design

SmithGroupJJR was approached to develop a master plan for the site as a pro-bono project. What started as a simple planning exercise grew into one an extensive project that had us planning out each part of the site as partners of the project bought into the site. Above are the initial concept diagram exercises to develop the masterplan.

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Master planning the site proved to be tricky because of the constant motion of the project. There are constantly changing components and partners coming and going across the site. To fi t all of them in an effi cient and orderly matter required setting up a framework that would support that.

The most important thing for us was to develop a solid circulation system that would provide a skeleton for new programs to build on-site and take down as needed. The masterplan to the right illustrates the full buildout of the project as it was intended a year ago. Much has changed since then, but the overall circulation system has stayed in place.

PHX RENEWS AERIAL

The aerial best illustrates the main promenade as it would be on a active day. The idea is that this main drag can be a place for vendors and farmers to sell their goods and interact with the community in a pedestrian friendly environment. The original idea was to include a tree farm with the existing irrigation, thereby using this space as a depot for nurseries across the city as well as

provide tree inventory that could be donate to community spaces. In the background there is the Public Works site the came along early this year. It is a demonstration for several different sustainable techniques, most importantly landfi ll divergence.

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main promenade

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The main promenade is the central spine of the site and provides access between the different partner areas throughout the site. This image illustrates the site on a festival day with people enjoying shade under boxed trees and gutted storage containers. The site is completely temporary and must vacate in 180 days should Collier International decide to develop their land.

REALIZATION

42%

On September 21, Keep Phoenix Beautiful organized with several different partners to get volunteers to come together to build the site. Several hundred people showed up to demonstrate their support for the project. PHX Renews represents the current largest redevelopment of a vacant lot into community gardens in the country. The people of Phoenix have demonstrated that this is something they want to continue to happen with their city as it pushes to become more environmentally friendly.

of Phoenix land is Vacant

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While at SmithGroupJJR, I worked on several design teams from Schematic Design into Construction Documentation. Projects included sites in Phoenix, AZ, Tucson, AZ, Fayetteville, AR. I was also able to help develop the Phoenix Campus Community Waterfront studio’s graphics by instructing courses on Sketchup, and Vray. In some instances, I worked on interview teams to develop designs and graphics quickly to help win projects.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS CHAMPIONS HALL

CONCEPT 1

CHARRETTE SKETCH

Fayetteville, AK | Education Building | 3 Acres

The University of Arkansas Champions Hall is a general classroom that includes classrooms and labs for the math and sciences. The University of Arkansas is located in the Boston Mountains of the Ozark bioregion, which provided signifi cant topography challenges for ADA and cost. The campus standards were explicit abount minimizing the amount of retaining walls and hardscape elements used. Since there was an elevation change of 40 feet over a 300 foot run we were required to make up grade as effi ciently as possible.

Our team started with a charrette to fl ush out ideas and sketch different scenarios. What followed was a rigorous schematic design phase with the architects to develop site schemes for each of the different massing strategies that they developed. The images on this page illustrate the fi nal sketches for each of the building options.

Project Manager: Mike Faulkner

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SITE SECTIONS

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

In the design development phase we combined the three schemes into one design based on feedback from presentations with the client and students. We developed the entry plaza and restored the adjacent Oak Ridge running through the Northeast corner of the site. Our planting strategy was

to recreate existing native ecosystems found throughout the Boston Mountains. The plant palette consists of Oaks, native understory plants, and native grasses. The hardscape is reminiscent of the local character and campus.

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We also worked with architects and structural engineers to develop outdoor spaces for students over structure. The sections located below were further investigation into how to treat the topography along the site.

SITE SECTIONS

4TH FLOOR OUTDOOR SEATING

CONSTRUCTION DOCUMENTATION

The project is currently out to bid. For our permit set we developed details further, while also maintaining the project within budget. The plan above

demonstrates the hardscape and layout plan we developed. Our details were designed to minimize the amount of retaining wall used throughout the site.

PERMIT SET

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PERMIT SET DETAILS

SCOTTSDALE RD. SCENIC CORRIDOR STREETSCAPE

The Scottsdale Rd. scenic corridor revegetation and trail restoration project is 7 miles of scenic road in the high desert of North Scottsdale. We worked alongside Civil Engineers and the City of Scottsdale to identify vegetation typologies and areas of disturbance from vehicles off-roading. SmithGroupJJR was commissioned to develop the trail alignment, intersection treatment, and methodology for revegetating areas of disturbance.

Scottsdale, AZ | Trail & Revegetation Project | 7 miles of Rd.Project Manager: Rick Jones

Saguaro

Carnegiea gigantea

Creosote

Larrea tridentata

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Foothill Palo Verde

Parkinsonia microphylla

Buckhorn Cholla

Cylindroptunia acanthocarpa

In the initial site investigation we went out to the site and inventoried the vegetation. This included photographing and tagging signifi cant trees, saguaros, and other specimen vegetation. This also included outlining the areas where revegetation

was necessary as well as defi ning the change in plant types throughout the corridor. Three typologies were developed from the initial landscape inventory which guided our plant selection and quantity for the revegetation plans.

LANDSCAPE INVENTORY AND ANALYSISThe graphic below is an excerpt from the inventory and analysis from our initial investigation phase.

SITE PHOTOS

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Senna

Senna Artemisioides

Scottsdale Rd looking north

Specimen Saguaro

Scottsdale Rd looking south

We were required to develop a trail alignment that preserved specimen vegetation while also minimizing the need for excessive grading. The team also developed intersection

treatments for major streets. There was also a need to design the trail and treat it for equestrians, biking, and pedestrians.

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Our team developed standard details for the streetscape based off previous streetscape projects in the area, as well as developing utility cabinet designs to house the existing and proposed utility boxes to be placed along the corridor.

PARK CENTRAL HEALTH AND WELLNESS COMMUNITYPhoenix, AZ | Mixed Use Urban Infi ll | 60 Acres

Park Central is Phoenix’s fi rst mixed used development in the uptown neighborhood of Phoenix. The site study covers the adjacent St. Joseph Hospital, the 1950s Park Central mall, and several high rise buildings from Phoenix’s 1980s oil boom. We were commissioned by the Pederson development group to envision an urban development that values walkability and a healthy holistic lifestyle. The site combines distinct districts that focus on shop, live, work, play, and heal.

Project Manager: Mark Soden & Paul Johnson

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SCHOOL OF MEDICINE PARK

LOCAL GROCERY

HEAL

SHOPPING PLAZA

WORK

SHOP

LIVE

DISTRICTS

HEAL

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