School for the Digital Arts
Houston, Texas
Team: with Courtney Benzon
Unbuilt, 2009
Team: with Courtney Benzon
Unbuilt, 2009
This studio was focused on developing highly integrated structural, mechanical, and spatial systems. The building program is a public graphic arts high school for the city of Houston that is divided into three academies: Journalism, TV and Film Production, and Digital Media. The building also includes two theaters and parking for 200 vehicles. The site is bounded by Travis Street and Main Street on the west and east side respectively, and by McGowen Street and a public park on the north and south side. Both Main Street and Travis Streets' directional flow drove the building's orientation and internal directionality to be an extension of both the street and the park oriented towards downtown. This literal extension is shown through the parking garage which weaves horizontally and vertically through the bands; connecting programs and following a path that mirrors the interior circulation. Vehicular access runs between the three strips, one gap serving as a car drop off zone and the other as access to the parking garage. The ground floor of the building acts as a unifying threshold between the public and private functions of the school. McGowen Street acts as the main public pedestrian access partly because of its adjacency to the public railway system.
