New Industrial

Project CESAR was a building I designed that explored mass housing for the homeless in an area of the capital city of Montpelier VT.  Even though it is not Vermont's largest community it does have one of the largest unemployment and homeless rates in the state.  The position for this site is centered just off the main street in Montpelier in an area with a historic industrial past with the train lines and also close enough to walk to downtown businesses and grocery stores. 
For my design, I took  the site and divided it up into open areas and massed together living areas.  In doing this I came up with this curved facade that faces true south and from the second floor up are equal sized housing for those with families, couples, and single units. With the curved facade a void is created at the center of the arc, which I utilized as a large public kitchen / mess hall area that both connects the users to others in the facility by looking up at the housing blocks along the arc, to the calming view of the river and surrounding vegetation, and also the sky with the large skylight above the arc which allows for an abundance of natural light to cut costs on lighting during the day.

The adjacent park brings together the community to a riverside park. The design is built ontop of the existing abandoned train turntable that was a left over reminder of Montpelier's large industrial past in the early half of the 1900s. Half the turntable is covered with a wood deck that contains various information panels about Montpelier's industrial past that grow up as an appendage to the wood deck itself. The other half of the turn table is filled with sand and provides a children's playground area, which the city lacks and brings a safe place for children to play together. Extending off the turn table over the river is a metal deck that extends up to 15 feet over the river.  This gives the community a different view of Montpelier down the historic river that was once used as a means of transport and also a new look at the various bridges along the river that provide access to the city.