R-3 Repository :: Browsing by Author "Sherman, William H."

Browsing by Author "Sherman, William H."

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A mobile dwelling
(1989) Snyder, Gregory M.; Cannady, William T.; Wittenberg, Gordon; Sherman, William H.
The proposal of this thesis is to explore the ideas, implications, and manifestations of a mobile dwelling. The thesis implies an investigation and conjecture of the nature of a mobile existence today; an exploration of of existence within the dwelling itself as well as the relationship between the dwelling and the landscape or context in which it is placed. The ideas provoking the thesis are to a certain extent in response to the mobile home and travel trailer, but more specifically to the ideas and potential of a mobile dwelling which they suggest but don’t fulfill. The thesis is not a re-evaluation of the mobile home as it exists, but rather a design problem which explores fundamental ideas of inhabitation within the discourse of architecture. To return to the seminal ideas behind a mobile dwelling allows a variety of speculations and attendant explorations which are denied by the stigma which the mobile home operates within today. If the dwelling is the place where an order relative to the world is constructed, then the mobile habitat must allow for many constructions. The taxonomy of landscapes can range from singular relationships of machine and garden to the displacement within a built urban or suburban context. Through a plurality of contexts the mobile dwelling confronts its potential: the ability to structure and inform an existence amidst a collection of contexts. The mobile dwelling then becomes a discursive element mediating the individual and the collective, allowing a critical and speculative existence within an interpretive structure. The mobile dwelling itself will provide for the fundamental physical needs of an individual. It will provide for bathing, eating, and sleeping. The articulation and definition of the object will allow an interpretive structure for those needs to be manifest within, as well as elaborated upon relative to the displacement of the mobile dwelling relative to a variety of contexts.
Branch administrative cente, Venice, California
(1988) Cottle, Mark; Pope, Albert; Sherman, William H.
The thrust of this thesis is the relationship of the built artifact to its context, both physical and cultural. Through the combination of research and a design project, I have set out to explore the correspondence between the formal, aesthetic treatment of the margin in architecture and the political, ethical treatment of the margin in the social contract. I have been especially interested in how the treatment of the edges is addressed by the center. In other words, how the body politic builds for its citizens. And how public spaces accommodate various segments of the populace. The city is the appropriate place to begin, I think, because it constitutes both a social, political framework and a physical, built environment. In the city it is immediately apparent that site refers not only to a specific place, but also to the artifact’s location in time and culture. Related to this is the question of the monument -- its appropriateness and uses for our time. On the one hand Bataille has accused architecture of "covering the scene of the crime with monuments." I suppose the "restoration" of New York’s Union Square could stand as a good example. On the other, the projections of Krzysztof Wodiczko and the quilts of The Names Project seriously challenge the validity of the recent spate of monument design competitions. In architecture per se, especially civic structures, this leads to issues of representation. What picture does the building present of the people who made it -- and the people for whom it is intended? I have considered these issues of context, urbanism, and monumentality through a thesis design projects a Branch Administrative Center for Venice, California. The program is derived from that prepared for the recent West Hollywood competition -- a mixture of government services and offices, public assembly spaces, and a variety of outdoor recreation facilities -- adapted to accord with the Branch Administrative Centers, proposed for various districts of Los Angeles since 195. I chose Venice because of its strong urban diagram, its edge condition (edge of continent, fringe of society), its cultural and ethnic heterogeneity, its manageable scale for intervention, the high profile there of marginal and homeless persons, and the community’s ambiguous political relationship to greater Los Angeles.
Downtown Houston parking garage interventions
(1989) Feiersinger, Martin C.; Cannady, William T.; Waldman, Peter; Sherman, William H.
The wheel of the design-process was brought into movement rapidly with the "discovery” of potential landscapes within the city of automobile accessible roof terraces in Downtown Houston, 12 feet above street level. Polaroid series, most of which were shot from the car, documented the various "journeys" through these places. Thereafter three parking garages were chosen for three experiments. Three projects, independent of one another, were commenced at once, reflecting my interest in the simultaneity of different processes as well as in the dynamic influences within the process. The three programs: From a catalog of imagined functions, triggered by the "discovered landscapes", the following were selected: First, 3 houses for one person who seeks orientation and observes the city but lives in the greatest isolation; with the starting-point in "personal sensual experience". Second, in opposition to the above, "public architecture" was discussed with specific performance places; with the starting-point in "collective experience/communication". Third, in between the aforementioned poles a rather conventional program of an athletic club as well as a night club was given form.
Housing form in the dissipated city
(1990) Warren, Linda C.; Pope, Albert; Sherman, William H.; Balfour, Alan; Kennon, Paul
This thesis proposes the creation of a greater sense of community in today's city through housing form. The lost vitality of the traditional mixed-use city is considered retrievable through the planning of the collective realm, accommodating the pedestrian as well as the automobile. The study involves the means by which housing form allows the traditional interdependence of housing, as the private realm, and the public spaces of the city. The scope of the research work includes an overview of today's urbanism within an historical perspective and analyses of housing examples. The latter includes previous American public housing, Houston public housing and elderly housing, and recent noteworthy urban housing. The intention behind the research is for determination of means for linking the fragments of today's city. The design project suggests a method for establishing housing in Houston which promotes a sense of an urban community. The method includes a mixed-use basis; low-income seniors, single-parent households, singles, and other families; and common outdoor spaces and private areas. Overall, the relationship to the street grid substantiates the gridded nature of the city while the forms reference the existing nature of the surrounding development.
Museum for the American Indian
(1990) Naumann, Kristin R.; Sherman, William H.; Waldman, Peter; Balfour, Alan
The dialectic of indigenous tradition and modern innovation is neither a new phenomenon, nor is it one which can easily be resolved. American democracy depends on the integration o-f the local and individualist with the general and the common. Shared values and tastes fortify the American status quo while the idiosyncratic is modified or gentrified for common consumption. In America where freedom of expression is celebrated, the issue of cultural expression in architecture has been met with ambivalence or has produced kitsch. Regional work is either too individualistic or too homogenized to constitute a genuine contribution to American architecture. A balance must be struck between the cultural richness of the country’s regional architectural expression and that of the perceived ideal. The U.S. has a very real, living indigenous architecture, that of the Native American. A rich opportunity exists for assimilation and reinterpretation to occur as regional work confronts that of a universal or modern nature. Such interaction will result in renewed expression for America’s indigenous people while providing others with a basis for critical exploration. A critical framework would allow all to examine themselves and their relationship to the dominant society. The proposal to design a museum for the American Indian is intended to provide a hypothetical situation where these concerns may be pursued. Washington D.C. as the proposed site provides ample opportunity for such exploration. The city is a study in paradox, scale and ideology. The Mall has become a national symbol, a sacrosanct region where public institutions celebrate America’s achievements and unified diversity. The siting of the Museum of the American Indian on The Mall provides the appropriate context for this investigation. As The Mall’s institutions have additional significance in their celebration of American achievements and shared heritage the museum proposal must participate and contribute to the area’s national and ideological role.
Searching for an architecture of conflict
(1990) Ganucheau, Nancy; Sherman, William H.; Wittenberg, Gordon; Waldman, Peter
In the written portion of my design thesis, I analyzed the elements of the architecture of the City of New Orleans during the first one hundred ten years of its existence. During this period two opposing and incompatible world views, the French and the Anglo-American, met and clashed without resolution until the city, unable to continue as a unit, divided into three municipalities. The differences in these cultures were reflected in the architecture and in the built form of the city. The design portion of my thesis will develop the proposition that housing in a modern city can accommodate opposing forces. The city as it exists and the forces of change working upon it need not destroy the fabric of the city. With respect to the site of my design thesis, the housing would need to be consistent with the historic, anti-bellum Lower Garden District and the requirements of the coarse textured tourist industry along the Mississippi River with its convention centers and convention hotel/retail complexes. The design portion of my thesis demonstrates my proposition; it is primarily residential, with some mixed use, but with the ability to withstand the coarse texture of the tourist industry.
The pyramid and the labyrinth :a casino in Atlantic City
(1990) Bachman, Cathleen; Waldman, Peter; Sherman, William H.; Balfour, Alan
The re-centering of the American city :a library in the Chicago loop
(1988) Maher, Michael T.; Sherman, William H.; Cannady, William T.; Pope, Albert
Towards a qualified classicism
(1988) Zajkowski, Michael M.; Sherman, William H.; Cannady, William T.
The intent of this thesis is to first, demonstrate that classicism remains valid as an underlying idea for the creation of architecture and second, that in order to exist in a meaningful and critical position, classicism must be 'qualified.' The term qualification is meant to describe the shift that has occurred in the nature of classicism since the Enlightenment. Classicism is no longer absolute and pure. The purity and unity of classical canon have been violated, compromised, and inverted since this time. A qualified classicism acknowledges this violation not through pastiche or image appropriation, but in a critical synthesis. There is no turning back to the times of the ancients, for modernism is now part of our architectural heritage as much as classicism is. However, classicism has been the basis for Western architecture for over 2, years -- and at its heart lie principles which are timeless and permanent. Idealization, hierarchy,and centrality are among several principles that may form a solid basis for an architecture, regardless of style. These principles may be used as a syntax or datum, which may them be? qualified by more relative and contemporary concerns. The introduction to the paper establishes the validity of classicism and the need for qualification. The next two sections describe how Sir Edwin Lutyens and Le Corbusier approach the idea of a qualified classicism in their work. The examples used for each are the Viceroy's Residence in New Delhi, and the Capitol complex at Chandigarh, respectively. They were chosen because of their unique proximity in time and place, and because they demonstrate that a qualified classicism can be approached from two poles; Lutyens from the normative and Corb from the relative. In the conclusion , several points are set forth which delineate the characteristics for a qualified classicism. The design project accompanying this thesis is a design for a city hall in College Station, Texas.

Browsing by Author "Sherman, William H."

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