St. Louis, MO | Fall 2008

The studio was structured around the idea that the pragmatic environment within which we practice at el dorado serve as a rich and useful basis for academic investigation. Basic design issues of materiality, connections, color, proportion, representation and assemblage were set in intentional relationship to more specific challenges of using pre-existing components, addressing an unusually mundane building type, thinking through making and addressing perceptions of urban form shaped by buildings and infrastructure.

Led by principal David Dowell and supported by regular interaction with principals Josh Shelton, Doug Stockman and Dan Maginn, the studio explored a range of project types and degrees of complexity. The first project was a partially pre-engineered warehouse located in Topeka, Kansas. The second was a prototypical bus stop location on existing bus routes in St. Louis. The Evolving, Not So Glamorous City was the final project of downtown Kansas City damaged by the insertion of a sunken highway in the late 1950′s. Students were encouraged to consider a wide range of possible configurations, from urban planning to streetscape to architecture.