Montgomery’s Creative Arts CenterD o w n t o w n M o n t g o m e r y , A l a b a m a

submitted by Alexandra Peeples in partial fulfi llment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Architecture Degree from Auburn University

A special thanks to my parents Mike and Lisa who have always supported me and who made my education at Auburn possible. Thanks to my brother Scotty for always being a good example for me and challenging the way I think about life. Thanks to my sister Maggie for encouraging me to be a better person and showing me that hard work pays off . Thanks to my all of the teachers who stretched me beyond what I thought I was capable of, and a special thanks to my thesis professor Magdalena Garmaz who believed in my design abilities and helped me with one of my best projects yet. And lastly, thanks to my friends who have stuck with me through this diffi cult but incredible journey.

A c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s

Statement of Intent . . . . . . . . . p. 1 The Big Idea . . . . . . . . . . p. 2,3Site Analysis and Urban Planning . . . . . . . p. 5-11 Site Location . . . . . . . . . . p. 7 Views from the Site . . . . . . . . . p. 8 Urban Planning . . . . . . . . . p. 9-11Programming . . . . . . . . . . p. 13-19 Massing Models . . . . . . . . . p. 14 Conceptual/ Process Studies . . . . . . . . p. 15-18 First Semester Floor Plans and Sections . . . . . . p. 19Daylighting Strategy . . . . . . . . . p. 21-35 Screen Studies . . . . . . . . . p. 22-27 Light Studies . . . . . . . . . . p. 28-31 Facade Studies . . . . . . . . . p. 32-35Final Drawings, Models & Renderings . . . . . . p. 37-53Refl ections and Conclusions . . . . . . . . p. 55

T a b l e o f C o n t e n t s

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Montgomery was once known as the “Cradle of the Confederacy and the Birthplace of the Civil Rights,” but it has recently been re-branded as the “Capital of Dreams.” If Montgomery is going to continue to set precedents and start change, it has to be viewed as a growing organism, and I think it is time for some new icons in Montgomery. The city has undergone, and is still working on, many revitalization projects such as the River walk and the Alley. It also has plans for a park in the middle of downtown and more pedestrian friendly streets lined with trees and separated with medians. But those projects alone aren’t going to cultivate the type of city that the City Council dreams of. My hope is that my thesis project will fi t in to the already established goals and help be a catalyst for the desired change.

From the beginning of the year, I have proposed a place where every person in Montgomery regardless of age, race, or economic status can come and enjoy. A place that is engaging and inviting. Programmatically I have imagined a building that houses activities such as dance, art, and music as well as a few larger spaces that can be rented out for public events. There will be art galleries that everyone can contribute to and it will be completely open to the public. I have thought of it as a cultural center and as a community arts center, but neither title seems to fi t perfectly.

In our Thesis Research class we read that Architecture is always heavily rooted in culture, and that the essence of a culture cannot be learned, it must be lived. Culture is an inherent part of any design; it cannot be escaped because it is all around us. From the beginning of the year I have been talking about providing a place that people can come together and a place where culture can be created. That whole concept seems immature now, because culture cannot just be created.

After visiting Montgomery several times, I have started to understand that it is a rather diverse city in terms of race, and age, and it has a love for the arts. And that is what culture is; a mix of people and interests that make a city what it is. I cannot escape Montgomery’s culture, because it is constantly infl uenced by what is around it. Providing a place for Montgomery’s culture to be expressed is what I am actually trying to do. Specifi cally, I am design-ing a series of multi-use rooms that can change as the needs of Montgomery change but will at fi rst house spaces for art, music, dance, and theater to be taught and preformed at a small scale. My project is about people interacting, and culture being expressed.

S t a t e m e n t o f I n t e n t

_T h e B i g I d e a

This initial programming concept board shows the importance of the interaction and layering of people, activities, and social ideals in Montgomery. It was meant to show how culture can be cultivated through the careful blending of historically signifi cant icons and presently valued ideas.

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Site Analysis and Urban Planning Because of the empty parking lot I selected for my site, I had an opportunity and a responsibility to design with an urban goal in mind. The existing buildings on both sides along commerce street create an urban corridor all the way to the entrance to the riverwalk except for where my site is, and the street seemed to be asking for a building to fi nish that edge. Commerce Street is both one of the most historically signifi cant streets, and one of the most highly traffi cked streets in downtown Montgomery, and it is these factors that attracted me to developing this particular site.

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Interstate 65

Interstate 85

Comm

erce Street

Dexter Avenue

South Court Street

Clay Street

Herron Street

Bibb Street

Lee Street

Tallapoosa Stre

etWater Stre

et

Molton Street

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Embassy Suites

Commerce Street

Riverwalk Ampitheater

Union Station

Renaissance Hotel 8

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_U r b a n P l a n n i n g

Commerce Street currently has a strong street edge on both sides of the street all the way from the Court Square fountain to the entrance to the Montgomery Riverwalk except for on my site. It is practically beg-ging for a structure to complete this urban corridor, and I felt I had the responsibility to do this with my proposal.

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_U r b a n P l a n n i n g

My vision to develop this street edge was realized in my fi nal design of Montgomery’s Creative Arts Center. This monochromatic colored pencil drawing was done with the intention of showing how important it is to have a building on that corner. It was also meant to show the relationship between the large public ballroom on the interior and the large public corridor on the exteri-or. Urbanistically, my project had to be very much in the public realm while satisfying basic needs of the city.

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P r o g r a m m i n gBecause of the activities I wanted to house in my project, the program started to develop into something that you would see in a community arts center. The list included classroom spaces for art, dance, theater and music lessons, and from there I developed a series of massing models that would begin to show me how these programmatic elements could overlap. I always wanted a building where the past, present, and future ideals of Montgomery could collide, and so this concept of multi-use spaces that appeared somewhat permeable led me to a program that became Montgomery’s Creative Arts Center.

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_P r o g r a m m i n g

These initial massing models show the importance of the interaction of spaces. They were meant to help visualize the ways that specifi c room types could begin to interlock with each other in a way that encourages community. The white boxes represent 30’ by 40’ classrooms, the black boxes are 50’ by 50’ black box theaters (which I later took out of the program), the gray boxes are 60’ by 60’ ballrooms, and the longer cardboard pieces represent gallery spaces. The room types and dimensions were based on various community and cultural centers.

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UP

UP DN

DN

_P r o g r a m m i n g

The fi rst building form (pictured on the right) that I explored was based on a com-bination of a couple of the massing mod-els and was important in the development of my project because with this design I saw how important it was to have a more streamlined building on commerce street.

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UP

UP

UP

N Ground Floor

Classroom

Classroom

Classroom

Classroom

Classroom

Classroom

Classroom

Black Box Theater

DN

DN

DNSecond Floor

Classroom

Black Box Theater

Ballroom

Classroom

Classroom

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Third Floor

Ballroom

_P r o g r a m m i n g

This second design idea presented sometime in October began to address more appropriately the surroundings. I realize with the previous design that I did not want a building that looked like a series of additions. If it was going to be designed as one building, then it needed to look like one building. This move to a simple rectangular shape was a pivotal moment in the design process.

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Molten Street Commerce Street

Ballroom

Lobby & Classrooms

Water Street Tallapoosa Street

Classrooms

Classrooms

ClassroomsBlack Box Theater

ClassroomsBallroom

Lobby

_P r o g r a m m i n g

After selecting the site at the corner of Commerce Street and Tallapoosa Street, I was able to start using the context in addition to the massing mod-els to inform the layout of the building. It seemed appropriate to use the heights of the buildings on Commerce Street as a guide for the fl oors in my building. It also became obvious to put the larger public room, the ballroom, on the corner to show that this building was meant for everyone to use.

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_P r o g r a m m i n g

These quick diagrammatic studies from left to right explain diff erent ideas I went through to get to my fi nal design. The bridge diagram was developed to encourage interaction between the Embassy Suites Hotel and Commerce Street. The central courtyard diagram was based on an idea to somehow allow people to pass through the building and enjoy it without actually entering it. The plaza diagram was developed on the basic idea that this was a building for the people of Montgomery and was meant to be inviting. And the central circulation core diagram is roughly what I ended up deciding was the most appropriate way to be inviting, encourage interaction and respond to the immediate surroundings.

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Section eScale 3/32” = 1’-0”

First FloorScale 1/32” = 1’-0”

Second FloorScale 1/32” = 1’-0”

Third FloorScale 1/32” = 1’-0”

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d c b

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Key:

1................................ Mechanical2................................ Black Box Theater3................................ Gallery4-7............................ Classrooms8................................ Ballroom9................................ Dance Studio10............................. Kitchen and Storage11............................. Outdoor event space

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_P r o g r a m m i n g

This particular set of drawings is the project I presented in December, and you can start to see the more realistic development of spaces. One of the main critiques on this design however, was that it was too arbitrary. There didn’t seem to be any major driving factors in the design and thus it was hard to talk about it in any productive way. At this point, I realized that I needed to be more intentional about implementing my original thoughts and applying specifi c criteria to each decision. After Christmas break, I scaled the building down and clarifi ed the plans in order to eliminate confusion about my intentions.

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D a y l i g h t i n g S t r a t e g yThe way daylight was used in this project was always about improving the quality of space. The big idea of this project from the beginning was to bring people together, so the amount of daylight allowed in absolutely had to help create an enjoyable environment. The exterior stair ways emphasized light through playful shadows cast through the screen. The central atrium circulation area was fl ooded with light from all directions to further establish the multi-use nature of the project. The gallery was strategically lit from above to allow for an unobstructed display of art and a uniform wash of light in the entire area.

_S c r e e n S t u d i e s

This screen study started because I wanted to see the eff ects of day light coming into the ballroom during the day and the amount of light let out at night. I had this idea for the ballroom to be a luminous box on the cor-ner of Tallapoosa and Commerce in order to light the street at night and provide a visual connection to the riverwalk. It was through this exploration however that I actually be-gan to focus more on the patterns of light created by the screens and how they could be used to make the experience of the exte-rior staircases more enjoyable.

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_S c r e e n S t u d i e s

After doing the fi rst screen studies, I did a series of pencil renderings to help me understand the quality of light that would come through the screen into the ballroom and the amount of light that could escape it at night. The attempted night rendering led me to start thinking about the ballroom as a luminous box on the corner that could both light the street at night, and provide a glimpse to the interior that would be inviting to the public.

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_L i g h t S t u d i e s

At the beginning of the spring semester we had a lighting consultant from Boston come visit and help us clarify our lighting strategies. He helped me fi gure out the best way to use monitors to light the building from above and nail down my idea to pull the fl oor plates off the wall along the South West facade. After meeting with him, my next move was to do a more thorough study of this section to see the quality of light that these spaces would get throughout the day and the year.

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_L i g h t S t u d i e s

This particular study involved constructing a model of the gallery space in the back portion of my building at 3/4” =1’0” scale. The purpose of this study was to measure the amount of light in the space through-out the day and year by using a light sen-sor to measure foot candles and a camera to measure light temperatures and intensi-ties. This study involved taking both types of measurements at 9am, noon, and 3pm at the appropriate angles to represent real life situations. It resulted in the matrix of pictures to the right in which you can see how the light changes at diff erent times of the day and year. The measurements were taken through cut outs in the sides of the model.

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9am

12pm

3pm

Summer Solstice Equinoxes Winter Solstice

Summer Solstice Equinoxes Winter Solstice

Summer Solstice Equinoxes Winter Solstice

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_F a c a d e S t u d y

Both the model pictured to the right and the watercolor above were exercises to fi gure out the facade of the building. I was never interested in using brick to clad the building because I wanted a more streamlined building that was about lighting the interior and feeling welcoming than it was about fi tting into the context by use of cladding. With that said, I did enjoy the horizontal lines that rows of brick create, and that is how I decided to have these stripes going around the building. This was an idea that I later discarded in favor of an even smoother facade, but it did infl uence the band win-dows I used on the back side of the building, and the window placement on the front.

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_F a c a d e S t u d y

The back side of this model is very similar to the fi nal elevation to the right. As I mentioned before, the horizontal lines in this model are what led to the ultimate decision to use band windows on the southwest facade to light the gallery space. I ended up using a concrete material to clad the entire building and broke it up with glazing and perforated metal screens on the outside of the fi re stairs and ballroom.

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Final Drawings, Models & RenderingsThe fi nal drawings, models, and renderings were, needless to say, the result of a years worth of thought about the most appropriate design for a cre-ative arts center in response to the context of Montgomery. Hopefully the next few pages will show clearly how my original intentions, combined with the fi ndings of the various studies I conducted, developed into a creative arts center that the residents of Montgomery will use and enjoy.

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_F i n a l Mo d e l s

This basic site plan model is meant to emphasize my urban goal to create a street edge. It also begins to reveal how I would re-develop the parking lot to allow for a plaza area that the classrooms could spill out onto on nice days. It was built at 1/32”= 1’-0” scale.

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_F i n a l R e n d e r i n g s

Each view I selected to render shows at least one key aspect of my design intentions to encourage interaction and improve the quality of the space through use of daylight. This particular view shows the multi use nature of the classrooms as well as the constant overlap of activity. It also shows part of my daylighting strategy to bring natural light into every room in the building.

view of typical classroom

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_F i n a l D r a w i n g s

The ground fl oor plan is home to fi ve classrooms(1-5), an information desk and lobby area(6), a gallery space along the entire South West facade of the building(7), and a central staircase that is open to the fl oors above(8). The black dotted lines indicate the fl oor plates above and in the case of the gal-lery area reveal another element of my daylighting strategy to bring light in solely from above in order to create an unobstructed wall for the display of artwork and provide an even glow of natural light throughout the day. The red dotted lines indicate section cuts shown on later pages.

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4343434view of entry and gallery space on fi rst fl oor

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_F i n a l R e n d e r i n g s a n d D r a w i n g s

This particular view shows the unique connection that my project has with the historically signifi cant Commerce Street. It also shows part of my day-lighting strategy to have large windows on the North East facade and smaller band windows on the South West facade. As you can see on the second story fl oor plan, this fl oor is home to two more classrooms(9,10), a pre-event gathering space(11), and the large double height ballroom(12). The red dotted lines indicate section cuts.

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view from ballroom on second fl oor

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_F i n a l D r a w i n g s

These two sections are cut as indicated on the fl oor plans and are meant to help explain how the building is used. The top drawing shows how light can penetrate into the classrooms and offi ces through the use of lower walls on the gallery side, and how light will fl ood into the central staircase from the monitor. The bottom drawing further emphasizes how light from the monitor above and band windows along the wall will easily illuminate the gallery on the fi rst fl oor because of the pulled back fl oor plates.

4747474777777747777747view toward ballroom entrance on second fl oor

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_F i n a l R e n d e r i n g s a n d D r a w i n g s

This particular view shows the necessity of the screen around the ballroom to help control the amount of light allowed in during the day. The third fl oor plan is home to a rentable outdoor event space(13), a potential storage room and kitchen for that space(14,15), and two offi ces(16,17). Again, the red dotted lines indicate section cuts.

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view into ballroom from third fl oor

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_F i n a l D r a w i n g s

These two longitudinal sections are cut as indicated on the fl oor plans and are meant to help explain how the building is used. The top drawing in ad-dition to other things, shows how light can penetrate into the classrooms and offi ces through the use of lower walls on the gallery side. The bottom drawing shows clearly a thick dropped ceiling in the ballroom that can serve as a way to compress the space and as a way to provide up-lighting at night to create that luminous box eff ect I explored earlier in the semester.

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_F i n a l R e n d e r i n g s

This view was selected to show how the offi ces have views into the central staircase as well as into the gallery. It also reveals the signifi cance of the monitor over the staircase to provide light throughout the day.

view of offi ces on third fl oor

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_F i n a l M o d e l

My fi nal Model was built at 3/32”=1’-0” scale and was meant to prove the value of some of my decisions. I believe that the model helps you see that the quality of the space inside is vastly improved by the daylighting strategies implemented. The model also helps you see that the spaces really do interact with one another just as they needed to in order to fulfi l my original design intentions.

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R e f l e c t i o n s a n d C o n c l u s i o n sEven though there are several things yet to fi gure out in my project, I am still convinced that a creative arts center in downtown Montgomery would benefi t the city. One major aspect of my design that was questioned and deserves further studies is the future development of that block. If there was no parking lot, and another building was to be constructed right next to mine, would the lighting strategies used on the back still work the same? This is something that I failed to give enough attention to and if a building like this was built in a city, these issues would have to be considered. Urban planning does not only deal with the main facade of the building, it also considers the future development around it. So in conclusion, I have learned how important it is to remember to never get so focused on details that big issues are ignored. This thesis project has stretched my capacity as a de-signer further than I ever thought possible and has resulted in a project that if for nothing other than its concepts and ideas, is something that I can feel proud of. This project was never about the building; it was about the people of Montgomery and giving them something I feel they need. It was about recognizing social needs and fulfi lling those needs through the built environment. Montgomery needs a place where its culture can be expressed.