what does CAD have to do with it?

This studio project was from my fourth year, second semester. The studio placed an emphasis on applying Auto CAD to our semester long design project. SUNY ESF is in the process of building a new dormitory, they have gotten very far since breaking ground summer of 2010(Live view of dorm construction). The semester project involved designing an Americans with Disabilities Act egress route in a space measuring 2400 sq ft space. To conquer a 15 foot vertical hight change from street to campus I chose to work with a module design. The module I decided to work with was an elongated triangular copular, which was reflected in the ramp layout, seating areas, planting beds, stairwells and a necessary program element a bus shelter. This portion of the project was part conceptual and part Auto CAD documentation. 

Sketch-up view of ADA access

Across the street view

The proposed outdoor
fitness area at the other
end of the ARB

Then in the second half of the semester we looked at the proposed design for the first ever ESF dormitory, Centennial Hall, and the potential for developing the nearby parking lot on Stadium Place into an Administration Research Building, ARB, for Syracuse University. Factors inventoried in the planning process were microclimate conditions, the potential for the corner of the ARB and Centennial Hall to be an outdoor fitness area, and moving the bus shelter to the other corner of the ARB. The design of the ARB, seating spaces, and planted areas are all based off of the same modular component as the bus shelter and ADA egress route. This modular is a variation of the platonic shapes, i.e. cube, pyramid. 

Proposed design for front entrance of the ARB