J O H N H O M E R

Boathouse on the AnacostiaNavy Yard, Washington, D.C.John Nahra, criticFall 2013

Houston HousingI-45 & US-10 Interchange, Houston, TexasJames Tilghman, criticFall 2014

San Pietro in Vincoli AtriumOppian Hill, Rome, ItalyVyt Gureckas, criticSpring 2014

Library of PoetryH Street Corridor, Washington, D.C.Christina Cole, criticSpring 2013

SketchesPersonal Projects

4

12

20

24

32

3

Boathouse on the Anacostia This project is an analysis of Wright’s Yahara Boathouse and its application on a fragmented site. It is an exercise in working with two grids and an attempt at matching the monumentality of our capital city. The larger plan of Washington begins at the Capitol and fans out along distinct axes. On the cardi-nal points lie temples to our past (presidents) and present (sports). To the Northeast sits Union Station, the city’s land-based transportation terminal. Mirroring that line

along the East-West axis one arrives at the Boathouse, the maritime terminal of the Capital. The spire at the project’s east end marks this line along New Jersey Ave. The boat launch canal sits at the mouth of one of the original canals on the L’Enfant Plan. Flanking masses and the massive span of the roof frame this inlet as a gateway between Washington and the Anacostia River.

5boathouse

1 Historic pump house2 Kayak storage3 Launch dock4 Boat yard5 Concessions6 Existing park7 Administration8 Boat storage and lockers9 Boat construction10 Existing boardwalk

8

43

9

10

2

5

7

6

1

7boathouse

Solid cubic masses fall along the orthogonal grid of the city, concealing boat and material storage. The eastern mass works with a historic pump house to the north to create the boat yard, an urban space that remains immediately accessible to the Anacostia. A wood and glass frame interlocks with these masses, but orients instead toward the river, run-ning parallel to its course. In this way the

two portions of the site are joined in a cohesive whole, directing attention away from extraneous adjacent structures. At the heart of the composition, the launch canal serves as the hub of activity. The site no longer lies along the waterfront, but brings the shoreline in as an integral part of the experience.

9boathouse

11boathouse

It presents the possibility of a seamless lifestyle, highly mobile but unburdened by the details of transit. In expressing this potential, it seemed fitting to de-sign a structure as part of the automotive infrastructure. The complex serves as a beacon for the interchange, a monument to the technology which brought it about. It rises from purely utilitarian to something that captures the spirit of the car, its great mobility, and the freedom that flows from it.

Houston Housing Americans have frequently found themselves moving in pursuit of better prospects. From the Pilgrims to the waves of immigrants, homesteaders to suburban flight, success in this country has often been measured by one’s mobility, or the ability to leave. Nowhere is this captured quite as effectively as in American car culture. The average citizen is free to go

where he wishes, no longer bound to the confines of his locale. This is especially advantageous in the nation’s interior, where wide expanses of open land provide for both a fierce individualism as well as an isolation brought about by distance. And so this project looks to that class - the Marl-boro Men of the world - and provides a framework for living. The future car is driverless, no longer a tool of transportation, but a room which may leave the house.

13housing

1 Observation deck2 Open air stairs3 Car elevator4 Landing deck5 Unit living space6 Unit bedroom wing7 Street/Concourse ramp8 Car elevator lobby9 Retail kiosks

3

5

6

2

4

7

8

9

9

9

9

7

1Observation LevelElevator Terminus

Typical Unit Level

Concourse Upper LevelsConcourse Retail Level

15housing

The concourse spans the freeway from one spire to the other with the tower firmly rooted in the center. Drive through kiosks provide motorists with banking, food, groceries, and all manner of pre-ordered goods. Residents pulling off the grid into the ramps at either end may bypass the

main level and move directly to the eleva-tor deck. They are lifted in their car up to their unit, where the automobile becomes the nucleus of the domestic life - audio, entertainment, and relaxation all within a sculptural centerpiece. An overlook at the top provides panoramic views of Houston’s skyline.

17housing

Unit living space. The kitchen and bedrooms lie along the central spine to the right.

19housing

Basilica di San Pietro in Vincoli – Atrium The atrium was designed as part of a larger project to frame urban space with a housing unit in front of the Basili-ca. The church’s existing facade, a 16th century portico, provided a thin thresh-old from profane to sacred and masked the ancient character of the building. Instead, the portico was removed to expose the original facade. A fore-

court, drawing from the typology of early Christian basilicas, takes its place as the zone of preparation - the purification be-fore entering the temple. Pilgrims enter from the street to a dim, muted corridor and ascend to the atrium, lined entirely in travertine. Col-umns morph into statues of the Martyrs, turned in witness toward the sacrifice of St. Peter held within the Basilica. Once reminded of the requirements of a Chris-tian life, the faithful pass through the court into the basilica proper.

21atr ium

1 Apartment wing2 Existing rectory3 Entrance to apartment block4 Public square5 Muted entrance corridor6 Atrium7 Exposed original facade/location of demolished portico8 Basilica di San Pietro in Vincoli9 La Sapienza School of Engineering

43

5

5

6 87

1

9

2

23atr ium

Library of Poetry The program calls for a library for the reading, contemplation, and com-position of poetry. This is met through a weaving of programmatic spaces, situ-ated in a similarly woven parti of inter-locking masses. Library functions lie on the second floor, leaving the ground plane open for use as a park. Two bars, one for physical

circulation and the other for digital, run the length of the library. Between them run several bridges, reading rooms set within the encircling park. The massing of the structure navi-gates between DC rowhouses on the side street and a larger, commercial scale at the front. A rhythmic column grid breaks up the span of the bars, creating a more residential scale as it meets the neighbor-hood behind it.

1 Arcade2 Terraced park3 Recital space4 Circulation

5 Stacks6 Reading rooms7 Digital space8 Meeting room

1 2

3

4

5 6

7

6

8

6 6

6 6

7

7

25l ibrary

27l ibrary

The organic plane slips in from the street and turns up the central wall to form a datum for the project. Within the park, the library masses open to the exterior in dialogue both with the oasis on site and the city beyond. Behind the datum, the structure turns inward, shut off from the world in spaces suited for isolation and introspection.

29l ibrary

31l ibrary

SketchesAbove: Pieta in the Basilica of the Immac-ulate Conception, Washington. Drawn 7 September, 2012 for a watercolor class.

Left and Following Page: Architecture surrounding Loring Park, Minneapolis. Drawn during lunch breaks over the sum-mer of 2012 while working in a firm nearby.

33sketches

35sketches

The Michaeltor in the Hofburg Palace, Vienna. Watercolor executed for a watercolor class from a photo taken on prior travel. October 2012.