Chicago Vertical Mausoleum.
Second Semester of second year was the first semester long project as well as the first that dealt with a realistic context and site rather than an abstract one. Set in the heart of Chicago, this project asked for a space that would hold 10,000 bodies. 6000 of these were to be urns and the other 4000 were to be caskets. Because of the limited square footage of 80'x100', a vertical 'house for the dead' was necessary.
This proposal takes on the ideas of a traditional cemetery in which the markers of the buried are both physically and visually accessible to the public or whomever enters the property. The primary goal of this design was to express and celebrate the people of the past. This is done mostly in the layered facade which consists of an aluminum and glass curtain wall and a second, interior vitrine wall which houses all 6000 urns. The ground level is completely accessible to the public, and the vitrine wall meets the level of the sidewalk so that the passersby can get a full idea and experience of an urban mausoleum. This studio was very drawing intensive, and all drawings and process work were done by hand. The final section is approximately four to five feet tall, and the final axon is six feet tall. Below is a small collection of both process and final drawings.
This proposal takes on the ideas of a traditional cemetery in which the markers of the buried are both physically and visually accessible to the public or whomever enters the property. The primary goal of this design was to express and celebrate the people of the past. This is done mostly in the layered facade which consists of an aluminum and glass curtain wall and a second, interior vitrine wall which houses all 6000 urns. The ground level is completely accessible to the public, and the vitrine wall meets the level of the sidewalk so that the passersby can get a full idea and experience of an urban mausoleum. This studio was very drawing intensive, and all drawings and process work were done by hand. The final section is approximately four to five feet tall, and the final axon is six feet tall. Below is a small collection of both process and final drawings.