robert hoover

The objective of my Fall 2016 Option Studio was to create an formal intervention within a blighted urban industrial zone. 

The program included elements of Hospitality: 40 rooms, fitness center, pool access, 200 parking;  Retail: restaurant, store, and daycare;  Leisure: luxury spa, Olympic pool, outdoor leisure pools. 

Sited adjacent to the industrial canal of New Orleans, this proposal intends to draw from the visual, physical, and material context of an industrial zone, while offering a compelling formal experience.

In any form, an intervention here would be striking. This dilemma, often grouped with "gentrification", was a driving force of this studio's intent. Each of us were to take a stance on the inherent issue and push for our solution. I chose to design an urban space that is intriguing in its form, but inspiring in its accessibility. The spaces I created should excite a luxury user group as they experience an immersive escape, but also welcome and surprise locals and passersby. 

The Excitement: The dark facade elements were conceived as a single folding plane of perforated metal. The final facade is almost a direct translation of folded paper studies. Through this I intend to maintain a visual and physical connection to the building in almost all spaces regardless of program. On the exterior, roof and wall surfaces seem to merge in dual functions where users are able to reach out and grasp the material of the building as they swim. As larger folds are made visitor rooms gain striking balcony views over the interior pool. This exterior form should be inspiring, if not wild. 

The Accessible: The program of this building can be daunting to a neighborhood resident, as can its Libeskind inspired form. My hope is that while in contrast to the average "shotgun" style home's form, the functions of this building will bring pleasure to the area's residents. Already with a diminished lobby, the hotel is more reserved to allow the public elements of the program serve the neighborhood. Without a room, visitors may still enjoy spa treatments like massages and a break in the three zone steam room, then take a dip in one of the many aquatic zones. Functions like the aquatic center entry, with its spa, are located on the street level along with the restaurant, store, and daycare.

The derelict site forces the building to draw its own attention and users. This playful facade should turn heads and enclose surprising experiences for those who come to explore. 

The Garden Haus of West Hollywood was created as a design proposal for a studio focusing on the housing conditions of Los Angeles, California.

This studio was focused on learning more about residential housing density and the relationship of housing and retail environments in populated urban corridors. Sited along Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, this design incorporates 60 residential units of varying size, from three story townhouses to smaller one bedroom units, and a large multi-purpose retail component. As a mixed-use complex the Garden Haus intends to blend active urban life with exciting tenant living experiences.

The site carries an entire block of West Hollywood and forced a study of how to appropriately handle such a portion of an urban corridor. Site studies encouraged the incorporation of water catchment in the design and the opening of the site as a public amenity. The unique courtyard pulls inspiration from the generally ignored Los Angeles "River" culvert to encourage understanding of its potential redevelopment. 

Completed while studying abroad, this project explored the design of an urban intervention along Via Giulia - Piazza della Moretta , in the heart of the historic center of Rome.

With a focus on the simultaneous overlap of public and private, I explored ways of reintroducing urban density while creating a sense of place. Emphasis was placed on the understanding of how the void can be re-activated to become an urban catalyst and a vibrant public node.

The program that came out of this intention included gallery, dwelling, educational, dining, and administrative spaces all tied to their unique site and surrounding civic context. 

The comprehensive studio requires the design of a building that integrates structural, mechanical, electrical, and
environmental control systems and components into its design; these are not forced “to fit the shape”, but are part of and reason for the building’s configuration and development. At the same time, the building responds to its context and program, and expresses ideas and meaning.

The school fosters exchange with its visitors and students - visibility and transparency throughout the building, overlaps of horizontal and vertical spaces, and visual and physical connections to the outside are attributes of the new building.

The school houses 8 dance studios, a black box studio theater, staff and instructor offices, and support / teaching facilities. In addition, public components such as the performance theater, dance store, library, cafè and outdoor multi-use space allow for a connection with the city and the neighborhood.

The design seen here represents an affordable housing proposal with sustainable construction, three bedrooms, and around 1000sf of floor space. This was completed during my 3rd year within a professional concerns class. The intention was to fill a blighted urban void with small scale residential housing density of a replicable design. The bedroom design allows for flexible occupancy and the plan orientation is conducive to both connection through the gardens as well as privacy via minimally fenestrated side walls. 

Completed while studying abroad in Rome, Italy, this project was a proposal for a temporary exhibition pavilion in a piazza selected from nine prominent Roman spaces. Completed as a short project the intention was to experience and translate the presence of our site conditions into a efficient design proposal. 

The pavilion built to house the lost boats of Caligula features public space for exhibition and education while housing a model of one of the lost boats, as well as literature and imagery about the history of this mysterious archeological discovery.

The pavilion contains a space for a high traffic cafe as well as public restrooms. Central within the pavilion is the exhibition core which contains the model of one of the lost boats from Nemi.

This space captures foot traffic from each direction along the axis of the piazza by displaying its exhibited contents clearly and allowing the activity of the cafe to be seen by passersby. The orientation of the entrances efficiently directs foot traffic in and through the exhibition. 

Completed as a one week design charrette in the Fall of my 3rd year, this design is for a low-maintenance CMU based structure to replace the crumbling sexton cottage at the Lafayette cemetery No. 1 in New Orleans. The exiting footprint was approximately 12‘x30’. The challenge as a designer was to negotiate the design into the rich historic context by capitalizing on the perceived differences in materiality and scale
between the exiting and the proposed.

Completed in the Fall of my 3rd year, this project was meant to expand our understanding of scale and the density of New Orleans city blocks. The site was an entire block surrounded by small scale residential buildings with two existing municipal structures to be demolished.

The intention was to speculate a future multistory residential use on a portion of the site and to create an institutional building to house building studios, educational spaces, a library and gallery. Additionally there is a garden and terrace space within the courtyard and block to enrich the natural texture of the neighborhood. 

The Mardi Gras Indian Institute came out of an incredibly culturally immersive design studio in which I was able to meet members of a historic New Orleans society called the Mardi Gras Indians. Essentially neighborhood leaders, these "Chiefs" and "Big Chiefs" have been attuned to the needs of their neighborhoods since they started parading in the days of segregated Mardi Gras in the early 1900s. Advised by these men I took to analyzing the essence and fabric of the urban neighborhood central to the origination of their culture.

Out of my analysis I took to creating a community center design which would allow for community organization, education, and exhibition of their notorious costumes. I opted to include a computer/tech lab room, an archive, a large gallery, two residences, as well as an open market space. 

Additionally, my design was selected from my studio to be presented in a rare meeting of the Mardi Gras Indian council of chiefs and a few of their most important community supporters. It was an honor as these men rarely discuss their culture with outsiders and are heroes within their neighborhoods. 

An early project in my education, this project was an in depth learning experience, with the process behind it being more informative than the final design phase. I was pushed to analyze the geography and demographics of New Orleans beginning at much broader scales and moving inward. The intention was to gain an in depth understanding not only of the topography of New Orleans but also of how it influences peoples experiences in varying demographics. The mapped images show overlays of flood maps, historic maps, and collaged socioeconomic information. 

Carrying on this theme in the design phase I arrived at a design that was pushed to follow certain literal forms that came from models of mapped conditions. The building that formed was meant to literally represent forms of the city and was encouraged to incorporate certain abstract programmatic elements.