Design+Innovation: Menchville House Project

Today, I'm continuing to post about our project at Menchville House. Last week, we got together and combined the best parts of our individual designs, and created 2 separate group designs. Some of the positives from my design were the innovative material (100% recycled PET plastic felt), the color, and the mobility. The final design was mainly based on one team members design with addition of elements from everybody else's designs.

Here are our final presentation boards from that group's design solution. 

Click on a picture to expand. Enjoy!

Title and Description page

Design Process

Floor Plan and Construction Details

Sections and Elevations

Interaction Page

Supply Station #3 Michael's Arts and Crafts

Michael's Arts and Crafts

Your regular arts and crafts store, they have everything from beads to thread and needles. Not everything in the store is online, so sometimes it's best to check out the store in person. Be warned all art and architecture majors, you will walk in with money, and walk out happy and penniless. 

Location: 2170 Coliseum Dr. Hampton Virginia 23666

Phone: 757-827-0176

Website: www.michaels.com

Hours: Monday-Saturday 9am-9pm
           Sunday 10am-7pm

What They Have:

• Art Supplies
• Bakeware
• Beads
• Craft Painting 
• Floral
• Framing
• General Crafts
• Home Decor
• Student/Teacher Supplies
• Scrapbooking
• Season/Celebrations
• Wedding

Advantages

Lots of drawing supplies, pens, papers, and pencils, as well as anything you might need for hand rendered work. They are also fairly close to campus, being only a bus ride away. You can take any bus going to Peninsula Towne Center to get there, which is only $3.50 for an all day pass or two 1-way passes, which is cheaper than asking for a ride for $5 from a senior.

Edward Teach Memorial Regatta

Hampton University only hosts one sailing the regatta the entire school year. This regatta is known as the Edward Teach Memorial. It is held every year at Strawberry Banks in Hampton, Virginia, right down the road from the veteran's hospital.

The date is September 15-16th 2012, a two-day event. I attended last year, and it was a great time with music, and since it was early in the fall, still great weather. I always think it's a shame that we don't get better student attendance at Hampton Sailing events, so I wanted to share this one. Here is a description of last year's event!

Surprisingly, it will be our third regatta of the season, so we get going pretty early. Check out the sailing team's schedule, to see if they have any events close to your home town, and invite your family and friends to come watch and support. The Pirates have regattas up and down the mid-Atlantic, in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia.

P.S. For all of you who didn't know, Edward Teach is the real name of Blackbeard the Pirate. So apparently the regatta is in his honor. You know, the guy who used to light his beard on fire to intimidate his enemies?

I'm intimidated.

Go Pirates!

The Aquatotter is Coming........

So this will be the beginning of my first Project Series. The name of this project is the Aquatotter, and I will put the project guidelines in my next post. It is generally a floating boat/raft/thingy that is supposed to be able to float on the water, exchange crews, and go back to the dock. We are supposed to use mainly Reclaimed materials, like plastic bottles, cardboard, found wood, or anything generally that we didn't pay for. I think this is going to be a fun project, and I'm bursting at the seams with ideas already. Here's a link to previous year's Aquatotter adventures. 

The first portion of the project, the anchor has been completed, and I shall have pictures up of the final thing in a couple of days. It went pretty well, and I believe our anchor fulfills all of the criteria established by the professor. Here are pictures of the original design which contained the initials of all the people who were in our group at the time. For the record, my group currently consists of RM (me), TC, RB, and EC. Since TC was a later addition to our group his initials didn't get on the anchor, but he helped with the lab report, so it's all good.

I did the anchor design in Google Sketchup. The anchor came out a bit rounded on the sides because of expansion, but otherwise came out as designed. We added fabric in between the layers of concrete for reinforcement, and a chain was added to pull it up by. There is also a hole in the center in case the chain breaks. Yellow and Red paint were used as colorant as well as red yarn. We emptied the whole bottle of yellow paint and the cement was eating it like m&ms but it showed up in the end, ditto with the red. 

The R, with the chain coming out for securing and hoisting the anchor. There's also the hole in the center in case the chain breaks.

One of my group members giving an idea of scale. 

The black stuff is the fabric reinforcement that we used. We were happy that we saw some color differentiation at the end of the day, because the cement was straight gray last time we saw it. You can see bits of the red and yellow paints we put in there.

The E/M & C, which came out pretty well considering that part of the E/M support collapsed while we were putting the cement in. More color visibility from this side.

Finally the B shape, where you can see the red yarn we put in. It turned out looking like red veins, which was an unexpected bonus. 

So all in all, our anchor was a success. Its definitely heavy enough for the project requirements, the color is visible and we have 2 things to secure it with (the chain and the hole) when we get out on the water. And its light enough for one person to carry. Here's one of my group members describing our anchor.

I went to Ben Franklin's Art Supply mentioned in my earlier blog to grab some supplies for the coming project. It was a short trip, I only bought wax candles for sealing the plastic bottles we are collecting and some sketch paper for a different project. I went to 7 eleven afterward to get a pack of matches. You can get a whole lot for $1.19. My next post will be about the plastic bottles and the sealing process. Stay tuned.

Hampton City Planning Department

If you are in the Hampton architecture program, chances are that at some point, you will be asked to design something in Phoebus, VA. Chances are that they will also require you to do a site analysis. This can be done, with many pictures, sketches, and measurements, but to save on time, which is critical, its best to go to the Hampton City Planning Department. They have the plans for Hampton and Phoebus, and are conveniently located in Downtown Hampton, right across the bridge. 

Address

1 Franklin Street
Suite 603, Ruppert Sargent Building
Hampton, VA 23669

Phone

(757)727-6140

Fax

(757) 728-2488

Hours

Weekdays only, close at 4 pm

Useful HU Campus Services

I thought I would list the times and uses of various offices on campus, I'll let you know about the Architecture library times as soon as they get updated, because they seem to change every year.

Office Services


Location: Stone Building

Times: Monday - Friday: 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Uses: They print, copy, and fax. Useful for graphic design and architecture students. They can print in black & white and color

Woodshop

Location: Armstrong Slater 103 B

Times:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 1:00 PM to 6:00 PM
Tuesday&Thursday: Closed

Uses: General woodwork and power-tools for student use

Director: Mr. James Grant

Cafeteria Hours

You might not think these are important but they are. Also useful to any freshman.

Cleveland Hall (Big Cafe)

Monday - Friday 
Breakfast 7:00 AM - 9:30 AM
Lunch 11:00 AM - 1:30 PM
Dinner 4:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Saturday & Sunday
Brunch 9:00 - 1:00 PM
Dinner 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Virginia Hall (Small Cafe)

Monday - Friday
Breakfast 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Lunch 11:30 - 2:30 PM
Dinner 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Sunday 
Brunch 11:00 AM - 1:30 PM
Dinner 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Let's Get To It...Supply Station #1

Skipping the customary intro post, I'd like to get straight to the meat of this blog. I want to help people, both in and out of Bemis, so I'll get straight to the information, starting off with a list, a compendium if you will, of the art and design supply shops in and around Hampton, VA. I shall make one post per store listing its advantages, disadvantages, and what they have that you might need. If I can later on, I will post pictures. I'm gonna be calling these Supply Stations to make them easier to search for..

Office Max


Location: 2330-B West Mercury Boulevard Hampton, VA 23666

Hours: M-F 8-9, Sa 9-9, Sun 11-6

Phone: (757) 838-6897

Website: www.officemax.com

What They Have: 

• T-squares
• Rulers
• Sketchpads
• X-Acto Knives
• Wide format Paper
• Printing and Binding Services
• General Technical Equipment (laptops, CDs, etc.)
• Glue
• Scissors

Advantages: Its relatively close to campus, easily accessible by car or bus, walkable or bike-able if you have that kind of time. The staff are usually pretty helpful, so its usually faster to find someone as soon as you walk in the door to save time. To save even more time, call ahead to see if they have what you need in stock.

Disadvantages: Not open very late and might not be a good bet the night before the project is due. They can also be pricey compared to what you can find online, so do some web-surfing ahead of time to look for bargains on supplies you'll need.