MainStreet consists of a pedestrian street and the three buildings which define it: Tangeman Center, the Student Life Center, and the Recreation Center. This street, which is approximately three hundred meters long, curves counterclockwise (when viewed from its summit) and falls more than eighteen meters. At its narrowest this street is about 9 meters wide; its walls; about eighteen meters high. The street level is lined with space-energizing shops, eateries, classrooms, a computer lab and the campus newspaper. Although each of the buildings works on its own, each has been carefully shaped to create a lively and dramatic street.
One of Glaserworks’ roles on the MainStreet project was to coordinate the work of the four signature architects: Moore Ruble Yudell (Student Life Center), mOrphosis (Recreation Center), Gwathmey Siegel (Tangeman Center) and Hargreaves (the street). As part of this work glaserworks maintained two and three dimensional models and hosted a website through which the firms exchanged files. During the schematic design glaserworks assembled a base drawing in AutoCAD® which contained all the buildings and the site information including utilities. Each of the architectural firms XREF-ed its building plans into this base drawing. This composite file was invaluable in helping the architects collaborate to create an integrated whole. All of the teams, along with the University Architect, met at each other’s offices for mutual critiques.
The team made use of physical and virtual models to assess the relationship among the several buildings. Most of our in-house work on the virtual model was done to create a flythrough and stills of the open space between the buildings. The models were used to make judgements about the quality of the architectural space we were designing, not for marketing purposes. Some of the issues addressed via the model were the way the stair from the Recreation Center met the ground, the layout of the trees and lights along the street, and the quality of the views from the street into Nippert Stadium.
The images in this article were generated by glaserworks for a submission to the American Institute of Architects for its biennial Collaboration Award. The intent was to present the space, not the buildings. Glaserworks created the models of the greater University context and the street (in formZ). Each of the signature firms sent us a model of its building in formZ. Some of the models were well-organized; others were not. Our first step was to order the decision tree and regroup elements and subassemblies within each model to support our intentions. Next we simplified the models, which included detail which far surpassed our needs. Because we were interested in looking at the urban artifact, we assigned a limited number of textures to the building and ground forms. Buildings were turned a tan color. Windows were assigned a similar color which also possessed reflectivity and transparency. A ‘polka dot’ texture was applied to the metallic screen of the Rec. Center. The MainStreet pavement was given a uniform texture. Grass and paths through the landscape were colored green and light grey, respectively. We spent quite a lot of time adjusting the lights to give the effect we sought. The model contains a primary light (sun) and a secondary light (fill). In addition to those, in areas such as those beneath the body of the Rec. Center, we added a number of fill lights, Trees were made simply to reduce the polygon count and transparent so that the space could be read through the trees.
Each of the architectural firms is very adept at modeling and each uses computer and physical models as an integral part of its design process. What was unusual about the design effort was the supportive collaboration among four firms each of which was led by a strong designer. All were eager to work together to create this singular urban space. The two and 3-d models that glaserworks built and assembled played a very useful role in this collaboration. The flythrough’s that we made from the models was the first comprehensive look at what it might feel like to walk through the space.
