Project Description
This research will catalog and categorize vacant suburban office park locations in the Milwaukee area for the purpose of creating a document outlining common traits and diverse contexts of the building typology to be used in identifying suitable design interventions to reduce vacancies. The first element, cataloging, will involve initial identification, site map drawing, plus the creation of floor plans an other descriptive drawings. The second element, categorization, will involve analyzing the completed catalog drawings through an additional set of drawings combined with the development of descriptive texts grouping the cataloged buildings under a series of common themes. The collection of the cataloging and categorizing work will be compiled into a single booklet which will support future design studio course teaching and will form a component of a future publication on problems and potentials of office architecture amid changing work/inhabitation patterns in the mid-21st century.
Tasks and Responsibilites
: Students will spend approximately 3 weeks contacting commercial real estate agencies to create a comprehensive listing of vacant suburban office park properties in the Milwaukee area. After creating this listing they will be guided in selecting paradigmatic examples from this listing for documentation. Documentation will involve developing measured site drawings that will allow comparison of the different office parks. Students will spend 6 weeks producing a further set of documents detailing typical floor plans for each of the selected buildings. This may require on-site measurements or further contact with brokerages to obtain rental unit plans which students will then combine and redraw to create comprehensive plans. Following documentation, over 3 weeks, students will create several draft categorizations of the documented office parks which they will support through the creation of additional analysis drawings to be complemented with short written descriptions. Finally, students will spend 3 weeks compiling their work into a designed booklet and prepare drawing/text assets for future publication.
Desired Qualifications
None listed.