Urban Studio Third Years Focus on Affordable Housing

From their exposure to New Urbanism on the Florida Panhandle to engaging stakeholders at the Wallace House and exploring the urban landscape of Birmingham, this past fall, third-year architecture students at Urban Studio explored a variety of projects.
Their semester studies concluded with presentations on their designs for a new affordable housing structure, situated on a challenging site directly across the street from the Auburn in Birmingham building.
The students were tasked with designing and programming a structure that would include 45 one-bedroom units on a site many would dismiss as unusable—the 18’ area between the sidewalk and the exterior of a public parking deck. In addition to site’s narrow constraints, the location presented another: it occupies the prominent corner of Fourth Avenue and 20th Street North. Students worked to determine optimal space usage, select materials for the exterior and ensure the design would fit into the fabric of both downtown Birmingham and the Fourth Avenue North corridor.
Their final designs were presented to a jury of architects from Birmingham, Huntsville and Tallahassee, a combination of familiar faces from throughout the semester—such as Andrew Bryant and Ben Wieseman ’12—as well as participants evaluating the projects for the first time.
“I think the day went very well,” Wieseman said. “It was great to see students’ progress throughout the semester and watch them introduce their ideas and findings to jurors with fresh perspectives.”

The jurors expressed their admiration for the students’ work, which was further enriched by contributions from Urban Studio alumni who participated in the review process.
This year, Chase King ‘17 was among the alumni offering feedback.
“Each student was able to distill their projects into clear summaries that we could wrap our heads around without getting lost,” King stated. “What stood out the most to me beyond the physical work provided was their confidence and comfort during the presentation. While some expected nervousness was evident, the third years did admirably in keeping the reviews conversational.”
“The jury process is a wonderful opportunity for students to hone their presentation skills,” retired architect and Tallahassee-based artist Chris Chubb added, “and, more importantly, develop the ability to absorb criticism and respond in a productive manner.”
Birmingham architect Kyle D’Agostino was similarly impressed by the students’ efforts.
“The work was interesting, challenging and engaging,” he said. “The students seemed prepared and ready to present their projects. They knew their designs well, and the quality of design thinking was at a high level across the board.”
Wren Jacobs
Project Name: Sustainable Pillars
Jacobs aimed to maximize sustainability while designing a building less vulnerable to change. He incorporated passive heating and cooling systems, added small courtyards to each unit and programmed the ground floor for restaurants, retail and tenants’ main entry. The floor plan design on the upper levels could easily be converted to office space as the area continues to evolve.


Josh Muscolino
Project Name: Layers of Community
The idea behind Muscolino’s project was to design a student housing option that focused on building community. The main activation of the building’s program included corner courtyards and a rooftop park, plus interior gathering spaces like study rooms and lounges, to help tenants establish community. He also designed two-story end units to explore the possibility of a two-story unit in an affordable setting.

Davis Baker
Project Name: Towers @ Fourth
Focusing on student housing, Baker utilized a layered design to differentiate public and private areas within the building. Communal spaces, such as a convertible conference room/dining area, were programmed to be places where students could gather.
Baker explained, “My project used public and private spaces to create safety in a downtown area. I aimed to accomplish this through layers—the sidewalk condition, screens, glass positioning and arrangement of living inside the complex. When I came to Birmingham, safety was my top priority when searing for an apartment. There was no complex downtown that offered that, so I wanted to create one.”


Nikki Zakrzewski
Project Name: Affordable Housing-Liner Building
Zakrzewski also focused on student housing options. She programmed the larger, open spaces to focus on community with a game room, study room, and lounge on each floor, with the remaining space dedicated to the living units. The ground floor featured a restaurant and exterior dining.

Erin Cantrell
Project Name: The Standout
The goal of Cantrell’s design was to give the units more of a house feel and focus on creating a sense of individuality. The exterior showed each unit jutting out from façade, adding to the livable space in the floorplan.
“The goal of my project was to express the individual units on the exterior and interior of the building by making each unit project beyond the overall building mass at an angle. In response to the units projecting out, spaces are cut into the ground floor plan at the same angle to define the entrances for each program and create exterior gathering spaces for the public,” Cantrell added. “I was inspired to design a project focused on individuality because it is difficult to identify individual units in typical apartments and affordable housing complexes, and tenants are rarely given the space to express themselves or their units separately from the overall building.”


Olivia Howard
Project Name: Seasonal Connections
Howard’s design featured an environmental focus with plants growing along vertical bands on the façade. When working through her programming ideas, she was inspired by the interaction between human behavior and the seasons.
As Howard explained, “My project explores how a building can adapt to the different seasons. It addresses the issues of how a building should perform in a changing environment as well as how the users might need it to perform differently based on their changing habits. My project is inspired by the diversity within human nature and how architecture can reflect that.”


Adan Rodriguez
Project Name: Flexible Housing
Rodriguez chose to focus his design on flexibility and the ability to manipulate both the indoor and outdoor space. He created studio apartments with open floor plans and additional opportunities to create privacy with façade elements.
When asked about his project, Rodriguez shared, “My project was about flexibility in allowing the users to have the freedom to change their own spaces and not be restricted in having to live a static lifestyle. This allows a sense of individuality to the user to create their own spaces throughout each one of the units. My project inspiration was to be able to create affordable housing that gave freedom to the user to live the life they wanted.”

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Related people:
Alex Krumdieck,
Jennifer Cloe