Christopher Drinan Architecture Portfolio

Table of Contents Lineweight Project Threshold Study Urban Place of Rest International Youth Hostel Facade Project Annex Connector

Lineweight Project

The lineweight project involved drawing horizontal lines in varying lineweights to create a design. These drawings were then translated into models made from paper strips.

International Youth Hostel

For the International Youth Hostel, the design was specific to a parking lot site by Boston Public Library. My design masses a building with three sections, each relating to different aspects around the site. My hostel connects to large amplification tubes via long elevated walkways. This connection connects the concepts of my Public Performance Park with the International Youth Hostel.

Facade Project

The Facade Project was a collaborative project with Patricia Rizzo and Jillian Lodor. We were tasked with creating a sectional model of the Beinecke Rare Book Library at Yale University. We modelled a quarter of the building at 3/8 scale. The main idea of the building is to filter light to rotect the books in the library. When a light is shone on the model, the detail of the marble panels shows the true concept of the actual building.

Annex Connector

The Annex Connector project was to connect both the Annex East building to the Annex North building. The concept behind this design was a rigid grid system inspired from the Beinecke library. The grid was localized and made site specific, while a second grid was constructed by using the surrounding community as a template. The two grids were then used to organize program and circulation throughout the entire building.

Long Wharf Analysis

This was an urban analysis project to analyze the area of Long Wharf in Boston. It was a collaborative project with Joe Sapporetti and Anthony Wolffe. Main ideas to investigate were the spatial condiitons created around the area and the connection of the city to the waterfront. Through sketches, figure ground drawings, and sections, we traced the growth of the city from the waters edge and detailed the axis that Long Wharf creates. This strong axis runs from the end of Long Wharf all the way to the new State House.

These sections are to show the progression of the city from the edge of the wharf. The monumental buildings, such as the Customs Tower and City Hall have been rendered to give an idea of context (right). The buildings are relatively low along the waters edge and they grow progressively higher as you go deeper into the city. The juxtaposition of the land versus the water is also shown below. This section illustrates where the waters edge had previously been around the State St. area, and how Long Wharf has claimed that water for land for the city.

Ballet Performance Center

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This project was to create a performing center for ballet in a site next to the Cambridge Public Library. For my design, I created two axes to define my space: a public path that would lead from the entry to the theater, and a private path that would lead to office space and rehearsal space. Where these two paths intersect is addressed in lighting conditions, to create a warm and significant space to address this intersection. For materiality, I chose a heavy masonry for most of my exterior. This is to relate to the older Cambridge Public Library. Where I do have glass, it is either protruding from the masonry in a curtain wall system, or set back as windows. This is to represent the glass puncturing the facade, and shows the new Cambridge Public Library penetrating the old

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