Silas Haslam architecture portfolio

HealthcareUNC Family Medicine Center

Clinics Renovation

This renovation is UNC Healthcare’s first incorporation of the new LEAN model for outpatient treatment emphasizing patient self-directed check-in and way-finding, thus resulting in shorter wait times and staff needs for in-take processing. The interior design highlights efficient, easy to read wayfinding using a spatial heirarchy of corridors which, from the main entry, branch off and guide patients to unique destinations.

EYP Architecture & Engineering, Raleigh, NC

-UNC Family Medicine Center Clinics RenovationCosmetic outpatient procedure rooms, General practice exam rooms, LEAN healthcare model

-UNC Clinics at Meadowmont RenovationHyperbaric oxygen remodel including oxygen farm, Heart and vascular clinics, Diabetes clinic

-UNC Hospital Vascular Interventional Radiology ProjectAdvanced medical imaging, Level 1 trauma center code compliance, Coordination of advanced MEP systems

projects at a glance...

Retail McCall Design Group, San Francisco CA

Philz Coffee Westborough CenterCombining San Francisco’s Mission District aesthestic in a newly built shopping development for the city’s #1 ranked coffee producer presented a great design challenge with unique results. Much of the FF&E was a mix of furniture from Oakland-based craftsmen utilizing reclaimed materials and contemporary color pallates. The interior shell also maintained the character of an exposed industrial lumber ceiling and concrete floor, thus joining the site specific materials and eclectic sensibilities of the region.

UVA MArch 2012 portfolioSilas Haslam

History Planning Urbanism Landscape Architecture Detail Collaboration

Studios4 Seminar2+

History + Planning Thesis Studio_Peter Waldman

Indoor/outdoor theater with vertical stage

C e n t r a l pedestrian road

E x t e r i o r i n d o o r /o u t d o o r circulation

Culinary studios Durham Central Park

Built in 1936, the Liberty Tobacco Warehouse is the last of what once was a multi-block complex of auction warehouses where regional farmers would periodically gather to sell their tobacco to the local processors such as Laramie and American Tobacco. The warehouses of a single large covered floorspace of 100,000+ sf. and numerous skylights provide large amounts of direct natural light. The warehouse closed its auctions in the 1980’s and in 2010, during a thunderstorm, a portion of the roof caved in resulting in the building being condemned by the city.This project sought to respond to a growing need in the city for a multi-use arts center which began by incorporating the neighborhood programs into various portions of the structure. The building gradually transformed into an urbanized complex for culinary, performing, and visual arts classes and venues.

Durham Arts Plug: Densifying the Liberty Tobacco Warehouse

Planning + Urbanism Architecture Studio_Vishaan Chakrabarti collaboration with Stuart Andreason + Jack Cochran

Hyperdensity in Manhattan: The Vertical CityWith more than 50 percent of the world’s population now living in cities, the 26 acre Hudson Yards in west Manhattan represents an opportunity for adopting large-scale, hyperdense sustainable building practices. After the area was re-zoned for mixed-use residential and commercial, a program was proposed calling for a total of 13.5 million square feet which would house 15,000 people and accommodate an additional 35,000 workers. The site would incorporate a light rail system into nearby Penn Station and Javits Convention Center as well as having a variety of building program at the street level. In addition, two super-tall towers draw from local block typologies which are oriented vertically, thus re-creating a city-based infrastructure in the sky. An agricultural element was included on the south-facing upper halves of the towers that supply food for the residential population and an additional 25,000 people, thereby reducing the need for importing food and the transportation costs that come with it.

Agricultural program on upper-southern sections of towers.

Office, residential, and park programs on northern sections of towers and at street level.

Network of horizontal and vertical public spaces and thoroughfares .

MU-C Mixed Use Commercial

MU-N Mixed Use Neighborhood

MU-R Mixed Use Residential

OPEN Open and Public Space

INS Institutional

MU-C

MU-N

MU-N

MU-N MU-N

MU-R

OPEN

INS

INS

INS

INS

OPEN

Lease of Development Rights ProgramIn order to encourage appropriately high densities and retain the possibility of future density increases, a lease of development rights is proposed.The MU-C and MU-R zones must lease development rights from the MU-N and INS zones to build to the maximum heights allowed in the zoning (1-2).The MU-N and INS properties will recapture building rights after 20 years which will provide an opportunity to reassess the local market for increased density and development (3).

Javits/Subway

Ferry Penn Station

Connection to 3rd phase of High Line

Connection to northern greenway park system

Outdoor theater/exhibition space

Elevated light rail connection to Penn Station with terminals at the main towers and other key points.

Tower

Tower

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Light Rail

RetailSchool

Office

Residential

Park

MU-Office

MU-Residential

Agriculture

Typology of the Vertical City1. Hierarchies of streets, from broad streets to allies serving local residents.2. The mixing of residential, commercial, and other uses for a diverse and activated urban fabric.3. Interstitial spaces for wind movement and solar access.

Landscape Architecture Studio_Julie Bargman + Kendra TaylorUrbanism + Landscape

New York HarborFerry DockFerry TerminalCanopied plazaOpen plazaRichmondTerrace

Courthouse

Civic threshold Transient threshold Maritime threshold

Staten Island’s North Shore: Renewal of St. George’s Waterfront

Prompted by New York City’s Vision 2020 waterfront plan, this project proposed a comprehensive pedestrian thoroughfare aimed at increasing recreational diversity and densifying the water’s edge while keeping in mind a gradually rising sea-level. Key characteristics of St. George’s shoreline, specifically the Staten Island Ferry Terminal and docks at the Bay Street Esplanade were redesigned to include a new terminal plaza and mixed-use pier buildings thus encouraging tourist traffic along the shore and into downtown St. George. The shore to the north of the ferry terminal would be converted to a large park with a staggered series of elevational conditions anticipating the effects of sea-level rise. Both approaches of landscaping and increased densification were intended to address a multi-part strategy for a major metropolitan area’s changing shoreline.

Clockwise from upper-left: section perspective of landscaping for Northshore Park, section perspective of Bay St. Esplanade and Staten Island Ferry Terminal and Plaza, section of ferry terminal and plaza to downtown St. George.

mobilize the residents

Clockwise from upper-left: St. George waterfront site plan, perspective from terminal to downtown St. George, diagrams of circulation and building strategies, perspectives of dock reconditioned as a new ropes-course, physical model of ropes course in plan.

Architecture Studio_Charlie Menefee + Karolin Moellmann collaboration with Jack Cochran

Manchester, Richmond’s Industrial Parkland: How to Grow Anything

Manchester was once Richmond’s industrial competitor and a thriving independent township. Bordering the southern edge of the James River, the area is now absent of any significant business; this fact is most apparent in the abandoned five-block Reynolds Aluminum Factory complex and neighboring vacant, overgrown lots. However, the popularity of Richmond’s river park system coupled with the local notable universities inspired a project which reoccupied the factory with highly adaptable spaces for vocational schooling and converted the open lots into an extension of the park system. Due to the factory’s location along this chain of lots, the building over time would become part of the park and feature a large vegetated rooftop which would take advantage of the views across the river to downtown Richmond.

Clockwise from left: Model of Manchester Park System and redesigned Reynolds Aluminum Factory, section model of mixed-use class and office space, conceptual model, bird’s eye of factory and lots, diagrams for phasing strategy.

Landscape + Architecture

Clockwise from upper-left: Perspective from roof park, perspective from ground-level park corridor, details of greenroof construction and corridor-facing wall assembly, section perspective of park corridor and interior mixed-use spaces.

Design Development Seminar_Charlie MenefeeArchitecture + Detail

OffThis project was framed by two o b j e c t i v e s : 1 . understand the dynamics of a c o n s t r u c t i o n project from beginning to end and 2. design within those limitations. The 1500 sf. class space combined two construction types, wood and pour-in-place concrete. The concrete c o n s t i t u t e d the formal and structural backbone from which wood panel wall systems extended and wrapped around to create interior and exterior spaces.

set

Collaboration

Family friends and artists were looking for a unique approach toward observing the Appalachain Mountains. The outcome was a house which combined multiple perspectives of long-revered elemets of this environment. The main bedroom angles upward to the sky for nighttime study. The rear of the house carves into the earth for temperature regulation and water collection. The living area projects laterally into the surrounding tree canopy for a unique connection to the life of the surrounding woods.

Independent StudyObservatory House_Asheville, NC

Art + EnvironmentSilas Haslam

Studies8Detail Art Phenomena Site

Competition1+

Detail + Art

Why is the gallery such a safe place? My undergraduate thesis installation (above) was inspired by artists such as Richard Serra and Gordon Matta-Clark who forced the audience to be conscious of their bodily presence in relationship to and as a part of the artwork. Titled Aw{e}ful: Circumspection in Art, the solo show consisted of several large multi-part sculptures based on building materials in the gallery as well as drawings that were informed by these materials (1:1 scale drawing of brick below). I wanted to explore the reaction of the viewer and their changing perspective as they moved through the space by creating works that at points had elements of potential danger (i.e. spikes and projecting threaded rods) and at other moments threatened to collapse in on themselves (a freestanding brick dome, a delicately lashed lean-to).

Clockwise from upper-left: wall sculpture “Passions of Self Preservation,” brick sculpture “He Who Hath Made the Wilderness,” multi-perspective digital photograph of UVA physical plant, 1:1 scale graphite brick drawing, detail of graphite brick drawing, 1:1 scale “incomplete” graphite brick drawing, figure drawing (graphite).

Meticulous StudiesThe deconstruction of a composition, be it a figure study or material, asks one “how far can you go?” Abstraction is one method while extremly detailed representation of a comonent’s parts is another. I attempt to work with both perspectives simultaneously and spur discussion regarding one’s ability to identify what it is they see; meticulously half-drawn bricks often more resemble landscapes and the process needed to render ralistic proportions of a figure require markings that are often confusing and seemingly unrelated.

SuspensionWith an extremely strong magnet tied by fishing line in the center of a lashed wood frame, this sculpture would react to wind movement and metal objects up to 5 feet away. The work constantly swayed like a metronome and was very fragile at its joints where no adhesives were used, just string and friction. The lightest joint was the magnetic field which attracted a number of fishing hooks to the centrally-placed magnet.

Figure Sculpture of Upper TorsoBronze, steel

Art + Phenomena“Architecture connects us with the dead; through buildings we are able to imagine the bustle of the medieval street…” Juhani Pallasmaa Eyes of the Skin.

Proximity, Sound, MaterialI wanted to express the previous life and events of a building through sound as well as its material. Using the history of the Liberty Tobacco Warehouse and the tobacco auctions that defined its purpose, I found recordings of the auctioneers and programmed them into an arduino attached to a column. The metal strapping around the column and arduino hid an infared sensor that detects when someone moves within a certain range; this will trigger the arduino to begin playing the auction recording. The sound is transmitted, however, through a special speaker and into the steel, thus making the steel the speaker and distort the recording. As one gets closer to the column, the arduino is also programmed to both slow down the recording (making the tempo of the auctioneer more legible) but also decrease the volume, thereby making the experience of trying to listen to the materials’

history one which seems ephemeral and out of reach.

Sound TransducerTransmits sounds into a surface, thereby

turning that material into a speaker.

ArduinoProgrammed to interpret the proximity of a body and manipulate that data into a sound

as well as control the volume.

I n f a r e d SensorDetects the p r o x i m i t y of a person relative to a column.

Figure, Field, and the Spotlight TheoryMy interest in the science of biological perception led me to a somewhat contraversial theory in psychology called the “Spotlight Theory” which states that our brain uses the narrowest, yet most focused part of our eye as a kind of spotlight. This spotlight, in turn, reduces the quality of information from the our peripheral vision. I took this idea and concentrated on a particular object, then took photographs from various vantage points. I then overlayed these photos with the object being the centering point within the composition. This experiment yielded photos which interprets movement from the surrounding field. I then used photos from the Lawn and overlayed them based on multiple points of attention, thus generating other figure/field conditions.

Independent Study_Sanda Iliescu

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Phenomena + Site

Attention to ModelingPsychologists and neuroscientists have become proficient at analyzing how people physically view their worlds. I wanted to take that perspective and try to model and represent how one’s visual field responds to visual cues around them. I modeled four blocks in New Orleans’ Franch Quarter and sent a “subject” along a particular path to find how both peripheral and foveal vision were directed along that route. After making several animations of this process, I then assigned a grid which connected the visual cues together and from this grid was able to extrapolate geometries from these connections, thus giving form to a perceptual event.

Max. 90 dB

Max. 60 dB

Max. 80 dB

Max. 80 dB

Max. 60 dB50 fc 120 fc

wind directionssw 3.33 mph

reflectedradiance

87 deg. F80 deg. F

SUMMER DAY AVERAGEINTENSITIES AND RANGES

C u r r e n t c o n s t r u c t i o n /material study for western timber wall and roof.

Acoustic study/iteration for west wall.

C u r r e n t c o n s t r u c t i o n /material study for southern brick wall and roof.

Iteration with double wall for thermal regulation and double-height space for increased light access through skylights.

Durham, NC Program Influencing Local Phenomena

Getting PIM from BIMThe process of building analysis and performance modeling has largely occurred at the building scale. My research addresses how one might use BIM modeling techniques to interpret the [P]henomena BIM technology models and analyze it for the bodily/sensory scale. By understanding intensities associated with various sensory systems, my goal was to create a phenomenal map that represents the layers of information in a space as a supplement to the remembered experience and documentation of the site. Additionally, areas with strong overlap between various phenomena can be exposed and identified as potentially strong points for interventions.

Competition

The Grid, the Flourmill, and the Landscape LineThe Downtown grid and the Belmont neighborhood grid meet to create a new, at-grade surface road which acts as primary vehicular gateway to Downtown replacing the perceived need for the current Belmont Bridge. Once again we make the radical choice of walkability proposing to retrace the alignment of the historic bridge over the tracks as a new pedestrian and bicycle connection that extends Monticello Road uniting Belmont’s existing neighborhood center to the Mall’s East End plaza and amphitheater. At the intersection of the new pedestrian bridge and the Landscape Line is a new urban plaza around the historic Brown Milling Co. Flour Mill. The Flour Mill becomes a central icon along the diagonal axis of the Landscape Line. The Line, a diagonal axis, unites emerging development areas stretching from the Frank IX parcel to the south, through the Flour Mill, and terminating at the Martha Jefferson Development parcel.

Belmont Bridge Competition; Honorable Mention Best Urban Strategy_Project Leader with team 17_Faculty Advisor_Maurice Cox