selected works by

robert i brainardin the fi eld of architecture

Contents

table of contents personal statement

entry

8 SpaceChicago Children’s Museum

Universal CafeBusiness Incubator

Nan Mitan PitonsOld Sheriff’s House & Jail

Photography | WoodworkingCurriculum Vitae

page

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I have always been interested in the built environment, so I explored the fi eld of architecture. It began with high school coursework in drafting and engineering. After high school, I enrolled in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to further study architecture. This resulted in a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies degree in May 2009. Next, I enrolled in graduate school at the University of Illinois and received a Master of Architecture degree with a concentration on structures in May 2011.

My goal is to obtain a position with an architectural design fi rm in which I can expand my experience while contributing to the success of the fi rm and complete the requirements for licensure through NCARB.

Temple Buell Hall staircase

8 Space

1southeast perspective

The 8 Space project was done during the spring of sophomore year at UIUC. The assigned program required 8 different space types, each with different requirements of square footage, proximity to other spaces, and privacy.

The project is on a fi ctional site created by the instructors. It is narrow and has a steep hill that runs across the length of the site.

My design is a concrete load bearing structure that is clearly articulated on the interior and exterior. I chose to accentuate the verticality of the site by emphasizing the continuity of vertical elements of the building, such as the stair core and vertical structural elements. The vertical supports are extended beyond the roof to exaggerate the height. The facades have varying degrees of openness for each fl oor.

2northwest perspective

fi rst fl oor plan

second fl oor plan

third fl oor plan

north

0 4 8 16

Chicago Children’s Museum

3

The Chicago Children’s Museum project was done during senior year at UIUC. The objective was to design a new facility for the Chicago Children’s Museum currently located at Navy Pier. The new site was on State Street in the south loop just a few blocks from Grant Park.

The Chicago Children’s museum is a complete building study on a large scale with an extensive program, and sustainability was an important concept to the design from the beginning. One of my design goals was to create an aesthetic building that would be simple to build and that would minimize energy use in its operation and construction.

northwest perspective

4perspective section

Chicago Children’s Museum

5

The driving concept of the building design is the layering of 5 distinct masses from State Street back to the alley behind, as seen in the aerial view. It has a low retail mass along State Street, a raised circulation mass in the middle, an exhibition mass in the rear, all anchored by the construction zone mass at the north end and the atrium and administration mass at the south end.

Sustainability is evident throughout the building in several ways. First, daylighting is used via west curtain walls and skylights to provide natural lighting, reducing energy use. Flooring materials are ecosurface tiles made from 100% recycled tires. Solar gain is controlled by operable shading fi ns across the entire glazed west facade. Photovoltaic solar

northwest aerialsecond fl oor interior

panels cover the roof to generate some of the energy necessary to operate the building. The two accessible roofs are green roofs to collect rainwater and reduce the urban heat island effect.

6

ground fl oor plan fourth fl oor plan

n

0 16

Universal Cafe

7

The Universal Cafe was done as an independent study during senior year at UIUC. It was completed as an entry into the annual student design competition sponsored by the Tilt-Up Concrete Association. The competition program required entrants to design a prototype for a sustainable coffeeshop that explores the possibilities of tilt-up concrete. My entry was awarded fi rst prize in the competition.

The design is largely driven by the ambiguity of the program regarding the site. Entrants were not given a specifi c site, only that it was a 180’ x 130’ corner lot in the outskirts of Pheonix, Arizona. Because of this ambiguity, I chose to design a building that would work with minimal changes on any corner site with similar dimensions.

My project takes the form of a pinwheel, with 4 spaces revolved around the central coffee service space. Sustainability is evident in the project through use of daylighting, shading, and water collection, among other things. The seating and bookstore spaces also have adjacent outdoor spaces to enjoy the nearly year-round pleasant weather in Pheonix.

seating perspective

8

fl oor plan

n

0 8 16

southeast perspective

southwest perspective

Business Incubator

9

The Business Incubator was done during graduate school at UIUC. The semester was split between master planning a roughly 20 acre technopark and building design for an incubator building in the park located just off Hosur Road near Electronic City in Banglore, India.

The concept for my master plan was a transition between two extremes. The two extremes are density of built environment and orientation for solar gain and daylighting.

The incubator building is a facility to house small start up businesses. It is located at the north end of the master plan, in the denser and east to west orientation zone of the master plan.

10ground fl oor plan

n

0 14

southeast perspective

corridor perspective

The building is organized around layers of daylighting. The offi ces are on the north side to receive indirect light while the ‘interaction spaces’ such as conference rooms and copy rooms, occupy a corridor on the south facade to receive direct light.

The interaction spaces are pods that pop out from behind the horizonal shading fi ns and present themselves to the south.

Nan Mitan Pitons

11

Nan Mitan Pitons was done during graduate school at UIUC. We were asked to design a 24 room lodge at our choice of world heritage sites. I chose the Piton Management Area in southwest St. Lucia, in the Caribbean West Indies. I chose this site because of the stunning natural beauty of the area. My solution is nestled between the soaring twin peaks of the Piton Mountains and is designed as a romantic getaway retreat.

Nan Mitan Pitons, from the local dialect meaning “among the pitons,” is accessed only by water taxi from the nearby town of Soufriere. The taxi picks guests up there and brings them around the base of Petit Piton to the retreat on the bay.

The master plan is a 480’ x 480’ square organized around the concept of privacy. The retreat has two levels, private units form a circle around the perimeter and among the banana grove, while the semi-private units all occupy one building located along the volcanic sand beach.

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entry building perspective

entry building plan

entry building section

The form of the entry building is derived from a sail. A sculptural concrete shell forms the walls and roof, while a western facing curved curtain wall addresses the sea and entry dock.

The building houses the lobby and check in areas, as well as a bar and restaurant. Above the kitchen are administrative offi ces and a small caretaker’s apartment” for the retreat manager to live.

atrium perspectivebar perspective

Nan Mitan Pitons

13semi-private building perspective

semi-private building plan

semi-private building section

The semi-private building consists of eight lodge units. Four accessible units are on the ground fl oor and four additional units are on the second fl oor. Each unit has a northwest view out to sea and across the bay at Petit Piton.

Each unit’s fl oor plate is raised up above the adjacent unit. This allows the building to fi t into the contours of the hill along the beach better and provides visual interest to the elevations.

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The private unit buildings house a single isolated room. Each building is located in a private clearing in the banana grove and is oriented to views out of the site. Each has a private facade and a public facade, with varying degrees of transparency to promote isolation.

The plan centers on the sleeping area, with wings on either side for bathing and eating. Each unit is raised above the ground several feet to improve natural ventilation, as the units do not have air conditioning. Large overhangs allow doors and windows to remain open, even in the very common light rain.

private building perspective

private building plan & sectionprivate building interior

Old Sheriff’s House & Jail

15

The Old Sheriff’s House & Jail was done during graduate school at UIUC. It is a study in adaptive reuse and historic preservation of an old sheriff’s house and jail building in Crown Point, Indiana. The jail is famed for housing notorious gangster John Dillinger briefly before his escape in 1934.

The project was done with input from the Old Sheriff’s House & Jail Foundation, a group of citizens aiming to preserve the Jail. It required particular attention to structural needs since the jail has been out of use since the 1970s and much of the structural steel jail cells are rusting and several places of the load bearing masonry walls are severely damaged.

southwest entry perspective

16

ground fl oor plan

perspective section at light court east courtyard

My solution for adaptive reuse of the Jail is to convert it into a law enforcement museum and restaurant on the fi rst fl oor and hotel rooms on the second and third fl oor. I inserted a new structural system of steel beams and columns with precast concrete plank fl oors. Due to the existing masonry wall foundation conditions, some of the new steel columns had to be placed externally from the building, creating a steel grid on the north and south facades. This allowed for seamless integration of shading elements on the south facade.

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Photography | Woodworking

checker boardcherry, maple, & ash

wine rackoak

corner pocket

apple ipod

Curriculum Vitae

personal academicexperience

robert i brainard257 washington streetcambridge, ma 02139

robert.i.brainard@gmail.comc. 740.815.2521

software summaryarchicadautocad

revitphotoshop

indesign sketchup

microsoft offi ce

personal interestsphotographywoodworking

educationaugust 2009 to may 2011university of illinois urbana-champaignmaster of architecturestructures optiondegree granted may 2011

august 2005 to may 2009university of illinoisurbana-champaignbs in architectural studiesdegree granted may 2009

academic interestsstructural engineeringarchitectural computer technologysustainable building technology

awardsfi rst prize entry in 2009 tilt-up concrete association’s student design competition, the sustainable coffee shop

architectural experienceseptember 2011 to current

botticelli and pohl architectsnantucket, massachusetts

boston, massachusettsfull time project manager

september 2010 to may 2011kennedy hutson associates

monticello, illinoispart time intern

may 2008 to august 2010scott john kozak architects

barrington, illinoispart time intern

may 2007 to january 2008swanson + donahue architects

lake forest, illinoispart time intern

other experiencejanuary 2008 to may 2009

champaign centennial high school

champaign, illinoisvolunteer assistant

lacrosse coach18