Kathryn Little's portfolio document summarizes several of her architectural projects from her time in school. It includes summaries of 7 different projects she worked on, with details on the location, timeframe, and goals of each project. The document provides floor plans, sections, and renderings to illustrate her designs.
1. Kathryn Little
Envisioning Hudson Square
Post Flood: Restitching the Urban Fabric
student works
Tussey Mountain Ski Lodge
State College Bus Station
Architectural Analytique: San Nicola in Carcere
Lee Tree House
Suburban Retrofit: Growth through Accretion
Architectural Analysis: Palazzo Valmarana
P E N N S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y
3. 1
Envisioning Hudson Square
3 Weeks
Spring 2008
Hudson Sqaure, NYC
Professor: Lisa Iulo
Partner: Robbie Tunon
Global warming threatens the community of Hudson Square with coastal storms and a rising
tide. Located at one of the lowest points on the island, Hudson Square needed a response to
ensure that the ecological systems at stake are no longer in danger of destroying one another
(i.e. Humans would no longer be able to inhabit flooded zones and the Hudson would be
contaminated by human waste products).
We are rising to meet the challenges posed by climate change and its impact on the urban
environment by taking the threat of sea-level rise and turning it into a generator for positive
site renewal and a way to improve the community’s relationship to their habitat . Our vision
for Hudson Square is that it can be a model for redeveloping the Manhattan shoreline by
regenerating the soft-edge condition.
5. 3
Post Flood: Restiching the Urban
Fabric
3 Weeks
Spring 2008
Hudson Square
New York City, NY
Through proposed multi-use, mixed
density residential, this project seeks
to generate a community awareness of
the environmental and climate change
issues on the urban environment, as a
result of human impact. It reconnects
the urban with the organic through a
relational architecture that allows both
to co-exist and respond to the other’s
needs.
6. 4
The Urban Grid
Greenwich St.
Eco-boulevard
reconnecting the urban grid
addressing networks
The Wetland
opportunity for regeneration
Circulation Node
gather and distribute
POST FLOOD: RESTITCHING THE URBAN FABRIC
*
Highline Park
addressing networks
The River
Research and Education
sustaining existence
continuity beyond the grid
7. 5
Site Relationships
40’-0”
30’-0”
20’-0”
ANALYSIS
Predicted 5m Sea Level Rise
Average High Tide Predicted 3m Sea Level Rise
10’-0”
Average Tide
Average Low Tide
Sea Level
0’-0”
Hudson River Manhattan Island
Sea Level Rise
9. 7
“The settlement is good which enhances the continuity of a culture
and survival of its people, increases a sense of connection in time
and space, and permits or spurs individual growth development,
within continuity, via openness and connection.” – Kevin Lynch
Based on the premise of sea level rise affecting cities across the globe, this project recognizes the neighborhood of Hudson Square as part of a larger
ecosystem. The proposed wetland within the master planning scheme is used as a termination of the eco-boulevard. My proposed site is the empty lot
next to the St. Johns Building which was manifested as the wetland in the urban planning scheme. It suggests taking over empty sites for bioremediation
and wetland restoration to allow for the regeneration of the natural landscape. The proposed architecture seeks to structure the urban environment while
allowing a natural landscape to flow underneath. With the isolation of building elements within a flowing landscape, the issue of how to reconnect the city
grid is also important and was addressed in this project.
CO-E XISTENCE External Forces
15. 11
Outdoor Gathering Space
Tussey Mountain Ski Lodge
8 Weeks
Fall 2005
Boalsburg, PA
The ski lodge design enhances the levels of circulation of the ski slopes to
allow the users to be participators as well as observers. The Lodge and the
ski lift are the two most interesting points of observation; so combining these
two programs brings together the observers and participators and allows
them to interchange in succession with the uses of the building.
Ski Lodge Perspective
17. 13
State College Bus Station
State College, Pa
Fall ‘06
The State College bus station contains a large and complex programming of a bus station for the town of State College,
commercial space, and the housing of offices for the Human Resources and Faculty Services departments for the campus.
The bus station’s site is on the path of an old railway that used to connect State College to other important resources. It is also
along a major pedestrian route to the growing west side of campus. The project is based on this conception and occupation of
the axis. It is at once rooted in the ground and also part of an infinitely continuous space.
East Elevation
Structural Detail
21. 17
Architectural Anal
San Nicola in Carcere
Rome, Italy
Fall ‘07
Construction of plans elevation and section through site analysis and drawing.
Utilizing the columns and foundation of three pagan temples, San Nicola is a representation of modern, Baroque, and ancient
Rome. The analysis examines the co-existence of these three spaces in the modern structure.
Temple of Spes Temple of Juno Temple of Janus San Nicola in Carcere
23. 19
Wood Framing
Lee Tree House
Joseph Lim
Fall ‘06
Reconstruction model of a tree
house in Singapore wherein a
steel-framed, multi-level timber-
slatted house and a tree are
allowed to co-exist, without
impinging on the other in any
way.
25. 21
Suburban Retrofit: Growth through Accretion
5th Year Thesis
Fall 2008
Completion Date: May 2009
Georgetown South
Manassas, Virginia
Library Section
26. 22
SUBURBAN RETROFIT: GROWTH THROUGH ACCRETION
Second Floor Plan First Floor Plan
The recent foreclosure crisis brings awareness to many architectural issues that are pertinent to the way we practice architecture and interact with our built environment.
My thesis explores opportunities for growth and accretion in the suburban environment. Urban development and the growth of cities is said to be a gradual accretion over
time as opposed to instantaneous change or development. Failing communities across the country are in need of redevelopment; therefore it is my goal to define how this
re-development can begin to take place in the suburban context as a gradual growth, using the resources already in place. The strategy is to minimize impact through a
gradual, rather than sudden growth. My project couples social programming with repurposed senior citizen residences as a way to rehabilitate communities while they un-
dergo the process of growth or change. The housing foreclosures are an opportunity to regenerate communities, however their dispersed nature makes it difficult to interact
with a single architectural element. As an alternative to most senior care facilities, the program elements are dispersed widely across the community, in which my project is
sited, planting smaller social structures around the area.
Library Facade Elevation
27. 23
Georgetown South is a community in Manassas, VA composed of approximately 800 town
homes. Of those, about 300 are vacant or foreclosed. The negative impacts inflicted on the
surrounding community are numerous, and the goal is to seek to create an architecture that
might improve this condition and strengthen the community. The program seeks to break
down the highly privatized boundaries of this landscape, and create more of a sense of
interdependence and community awareness.
Deconstruction, materiality and aging, and the power of landscape are each important in the
expression of architecture in the suburban environment.
The exploration for the fall semester involved proper siting of the building and opportunities
for public interaction within the highly dispersed and privatized landscape.
“Flex Space” Paired with Senior Residential Units
Senior Care Pods/Vistor Housing
28. 24
Elevated Walkway Connecting Community Center Functions
29. 25
Architectural Analysis
Palazzo Valmarana
Spring 2008
Vicenza, Italy
Architectural Drawing and Sketching
This investigative analysis facilitated a greater understanding that traditional drawing is a way
to represent, visualize and communicate architecture. Through reading architectural images
and ideas produced by others, this work enabled a greater sensitivity towards architectural
space, form, proportion, texture, matriality, and the effects of light, shade and shadow. The
course instruction included an in depth understanding of Sciagraphy, rendering techniques in
a variety of media, perspective architectural drawing, paraline drawing, and traditional ortho-
graphics.