Chun Sen Bi An Housing Master Plan

Dan J on November 17, 2023

This riverfront mixed-use development provides 4,000 residential units for approximately 20,000 inhabitants, along with commercial, office, and retail uses at a prominent site in the Chongqing municipality of China.  The site is a prominent, dramatically sloping 30-acre site at the meeting of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers in the interior port city.

Our design created a mix of high-rise towers, curved low-rise buildings and mid-rise buildings, ranging from 7 to 50 floors, with all units oriented toward sweeping views of the water. A central pedestrian path features retail shops and draws traffic down through the site to the river and along an ancient waterside path. This central axis is animated by a grand flight of steps that echo the traditional street-stairs of the region.

The total building area on the site reached 8 million square feet. Intelligent landscape design with permeable surfaces, along with other water conservation efforts, were incorporated to contribute to the healing and nurturing of the adjacent river ecology. This new urban community has profoundly impacted how the modern urban dweller can live in Chongquing into the future, improving the quality of life in the entire region by providing sustainable solutions for living near the water.

Tacoma Campus Master Plan

Dan J on November 17, 2023

This new branch campus for the University of Washington became the centerpiece of an urban renaissance. The 46-acre site includes a major portion of Tacoma’s historic warehouse district, which had been neglected and largely dormant since the 1920s. It also encompasses a hillside residential area to the east, with commanding views of the harbor, surrounding city, and Mount Rainier in the distance.

The master plan for this campus evolved through site analysis from multiple viewpoints: Tacoma’s urban grid, significant slopes, and the site’s rich mosaic of historic railway infrastructure and building forms. An overlay of urban geometries and view axes reinforces the existing street grid, frontages and building heights, and preserves view corridors through the upper site. Initial phases of implementation focused on adaptive re-use of the warehouse lofts into classrooms, auditoria, library, faculty offices, and computer labs. New buildings have provided science research and teaching, library expansion and a central auditorium.

One of the major features of the planning is accessibility. A network of “hillclimb” paths, stairs, and ramps is augmented by the coordination of building lobbies that provide continuous elevator service along main pedestrian sequences. Together with neighboring State Historical Museum, Museum of Glass, and Convention Center, the campus has fostered economic revitalization and authentic urban placemaking. In recognition of its commitment to sustainability, UW Tacoma was honored with a Sustainable Campus award from the Sierra Club in 2006.

Summit House

Dan J on November 17, 2023

Summit House is poised on a ridgetop overlooking the Berkeley Hills with an expansive view of San Francisco Bay. As a radical make-over of a 1956 shed-roofed bungalow, the house transforms its downhill site as well, with a small courtyard carved into the steep slope to provide a dramatic, quarry-like entry sequence. Exterior materials are restrained and fire-resistant, with exposed concrete, cement plaster, and raised seam metal cladding, complemented by thermally treated hardwood decks and trellis-work. Interiors are equally quiet, with cool-tinted oak set off by black, white, and gray surfaces that allow the ever-changing light and weather outside to be highlighted. Sustainability features include extensive sun-shading and 1800 gallons of treated rainwater storage for laundry and bathroom use.

The program of the house supports ‘aging in place’ with elevator access to the main house and an auxiliary dwelling unit on a lower level to offer supplementary income and potentially house live-in assistants in later life. The design draws on classic modernism with distinctly Japanese influences to craft a serene center from which to contemplate the panorama of the Bay.

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