As my first architectural design project, I worked to develop a DIA uptown facility to be located in Birmingham.  The project encompassed concept development, architectural design, urban planning, landscape design, interior design, and lighting.  The DIA Uptown Project was based on a real site and a serious need, to extend the reach of the Detroit institute of Art to increase artistic awareness and involvement in the greater Detroit area by means of a satellite facility located in the upper-class suburb of Birmingham. 

I began the DIA Uptown Project by surveying the Birmingham site, a one block asphalt surface parking lot to be replaced with a parking garage one block away, and by exploring the Birmingham Site.  I analyzed the circulation, contextual relationships, light, wind. vegetation, topographical features, and existing design intents of the area, and began to formulate a concept.  However, after exploring the possibilities, I decided to develop a solution based on the maximization of functionality and the optimization of the DIA Uptown environment, making the DIA Uptown Facility the focal point of the historical Birmingham town square.  Because I intended for the DIA Uptown project to become the heart of the local area, surrounded by the community buildings of Birmingham, the strength of the DIA Uptown Project would inherently also be the strength of the city.  I attempted to develop a building which would create and define its own environment, appropriate for the viewing of art, yet at the same time I tried to create a facility which would be inherently linked to the community as a whole.  To give life to the facility, I looked to the nature of artwork, which is intriguing to the human mind because is embodies a mystery, and is able to provide a continual sequence of mystery, discovery, and growth.  I attempted to expand upon this experience of art which would take place within the facility by using the building's design to evoke a similar response and interaction upon approach to, entrance of, and progression through the building.  I used design elements such as layering of space, transparency, and geometric forms which eluded to the nature of the structure.  And I attempted to create spaces with a multitude of atmospheres, different as one progressed through the space.
After developing my concept through sketching and clay modeling, I then changed mediums to the computer, for the first time developing a comprehensive three-dimensional model using AutoCad.  With this approach I was able to manipulate geometry and view my building in a three dimensional atmosphere, making changes efficiently and maintaining precision.

For my final solution, in order to develop my personal presentation skills, I developed hand-drawn boards based on my CAD drawings, using ink and colored pencil.  Though I feel in hindsight that I could have worked further with three dimensional physical manipulation of form, the project has continuing merit.  With the design I was able to maintain purity through simplicity.  With the building's form, I was able to define space both internally and externally by creating the building as a definition of the site.  And the space which I created both internally and externally was multilayered and supportive of the overall concept.