Downtown Building - Massing
There were many requirements for a new building project for downtown Tucson. It is to fit into the surrounding culture of mixed use as well as have an office park. Whether the office park had medical or clerical would be up to the owners of the building. My job was to figure out just what the building would look like, what the outdoor spaces would be used for. I also needed to think about logistics of freight and parking. The lot this building complex is to be built on consists of a couple different building zone codes. The front portion is zoned as OCR-2 and the back is zoned as C-3. This information was found in the Assessor's office and on PimaMaps (pimamaps.pima.gov) which gives GIS information.
While I was making my masses, my building went through a lot of different phases. I put in 3 parks on various levels and water harvesting infiltration and storage facilities around the lot. I built an underground garage, but only one very large level. The street has some parking and I did put a parking lot in by the office building for ADA and short term parking. The back part of the lot holds a small park and a skate park. One of the buildings just to the south of the property sells skate equipment. Seems like a good place for extra advertising for both of our businesses. An extra element I thought would be a nice addition is a bridge over the entrance driveway. With a span of ten feet, there could be general seating or benches to experience the summer evening on.
I had really cool thoughts on how the building would operate. One idea is to solar panels both around the residential windows and on the roof. There are two tanks below the building, one for rainwater harvesting and the other for grey water. The rainwater harvesting tank can collect water from the gutters and a system of decorative drains around the property. The other tank can be used to divert bathroom sink and tub/shower drains as well as washing machines. Both of these can be used for irrigation and infiltration and possibly for fire suppression.
Note: This is student work and not all of the sheets will be present.