Wannigan Great Owl Regional Trailhead State Park
The Wannigan Great Owl Regional Trailhead State Park was a project in the Spring of 2022 in my 2nd-year in the Landscape Architecture Program. The project was created to help the City of Frazee, MN, the Greater Minnesota Regional Parks and Trails Commission, and the Minnesota Historical Society.
The project overview was to develop a state park flyer that would be folded into a brochure, a staple item given to park patrons, to see the park and its amenities offered, in a clear, concise graphical map. The park's design was for an initial intake and conceptual development of a new State Park that would be developed in the City of Frazee. The project was to develop a 160-acre farmland, into a regional trailhead park. In my design, I developed a layout based on the body and wingspans of the native Great Gray Owl and the Great Horned Owl to develop the RV campground. I reviewed the body and shapes of their feather patterns and wingspans and then broke them down into the campgrounds for use. The Great Owls were selected because of their significance to Native Indigenous people historic to the area, and to offer a connection to the peoples of the area. I then followed with the theme of using birds in the layout of the Primitive / Traditional campgrounds. The general and altered form of a songbird's silhouette informed the traditional camping area's layout.
The park offers campgrounds for RVs, Campers, and Primitive / Traditional campgrounds throughout the site, and connecting trails through the campgrounds for park and trail users. The trail system would connect into different systems in the area, some for city, state, and national trails that will run through the site.
The Hidden Oasis
The Hidden Oasis was a studio project in the Fall of my 3rd-year at NDSU. This project was to develop a Landscape Architect Studio in the Russian Hill Neighborhood within San Francisco's many named hills. My goal was to take advantage of the topographic nature of the steep hill to act as a water catchment basin for the natural filling of the Oasis pool to offer a bit of reprieve from the city's hectic nature. The pool that fills from the water runoff is then filtered and processed through native plantings that help clean and clear the water. Then to mitigate aquatic illnesses and algae, the retaining wall also acts as a waterfall to aid in aerating the pools for aquatic life, should occupants want to double the pool as a koi pond. In this project, I was to have two floors on the site that couldn't have access to one another. My solution was to have the users go through the spaces, forcing an experiential review of the topography, lawn, and other flora on the site. I hid the oasis from street view but opened it for the occupants who would work or live on the lower floor. The roof acted as an elevated retreat as well if the occupant didn't want to be near water, and wanted a city view and to be surrounded by flowering and herbatious gardens.
North point Community Plaza and Museum
North Point Community Plaza and Museum was a project proposal for redevelopment in the North Point Plaza of San Francisco, California. The project was to develop the ocean-side downtown space for added public interaction and community development. My solution was to implement increased outdoor seating and garden spaces, with an emphasis on community artistry to showcase within the public museum. The museum would produce funds for the management and upkeep of the plaza. The museum would double as a shared space allowing for outdoor and indoor markets to be set up, maintaining the current use of the space, along with expanding the pier space out into the San Francisco Bay, maintaining the identity of the connection to the water in that space.