Portfolio_Ethan Davis

Ethan Davis architecture + design

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education

Columbia University

August 2020-Present Master of Architecture / Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, & Preservation

University of Michigan

May 2018

experience

July 2022-Present

May 2021-August 2021

Bachelor of Science in Architecture / Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning

University of Michigan Dean’s List

HKS

/ Chicago, IL

Design Professional II

Contributed to the design, planning, and execution phases of multiple project types including healthcare, commercial mixed-use, hospitality, and aviation. Created functional and thoughtful design solutions on projects from concept design through CDs. Demonstrated ability to integrate complex parameters and deliver high-quality results across multiple sectors.

Studioteka / Brooklyn, NY

Architectural Intern

Worked to adapt the book “2100: A Dystopian Utopia” into a video game meant to promote sustainable technology and architecture. Created and designed sample content for a grant to receive funding for the game’s development.

Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture / New York, NY

August 2020-May 2021

Graduate Research Assistant

Assisted in the “POWER: Infrastructure in America” research project. Contributed to a variety of data scraping exercises seeking to restructure the way educational and professional curricula handle sustainability concerns

Myefski Architects / Chicago, IL

January 2020-August 2020

Architectural Technician

Worked on a variety of project programs including senior care facilities, student housing, and a multi-home development. Assisted with concept design schematic planning, and design development services

Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill / Chicago, IL

July 2018-November 2019

Architectural Assistant

Assisted in all phases of design, working on a variety of project types, including a museum,, transit hub, and multiple towers Participated in competitions for major overseas projects and contributed in client and internal meetings.

affiliations

July 2022-Present Citizen HKS Charity & Service Leader

August 2017-Present Fall 2014-Spring 2018

awards/publications

NCARB Intern Development Program: 4,200 hours complete, 2 ARE Tests Passed

Vice-President

American Institute of Architecture Students, University of Michigan

Winter 2022 Green Reconstruction: A Curricular Toolkit for the Built Environment

Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture, Columbia University

Winter 2018 Wallenberg Fellowship Nominee

University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning

Fall 2017 Undergraduate Student Exhibition: Second Place Winner

University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning

skills

Digital Physical/Fabrication

Adobe Creative Suite / Autocad / Bluebeam / Enscape / Rhino / Revit / Sketchup / Twinmotion / V-Ray

Hand Drafting / Model Making / Sketching / 3D Printing / Laser Cutting

Heritage Square

Durham,

North Carolina

Heritage Square is a proposed mixed-use development located in Durham, North Carolina. The design is intended to be multi-phased and contains programing that includes a residential tower, multiple lab/office buildings, ample retail, and an above ground parking facility. The intent of the Heritage Square development is to serve the rapidly growing need for office space and worker accommodations in Durham, which has experienced a healthy economic boom fueled mainly by technology companies moving into the area.

I was staffed on this project during a time when major redesigns of the original concept were required. Primarily working on the residential and parking programs, I was tasked with redesigning the resi tower facade, leveraging the historic use of brick in Durham with a modern touch of metal panel. The facade is broken and defined by its materials, with a glass reveal creating the divide between brick and metal panel. The design also takes advantage of a multiscale grid system, embedding curtain wall features within a larger grid that captures multiple floors into a more cohesive element.

In addition to this, I was also solely tasked with creating and developing concepts for an above ground parking structure added to the design during the schematic design phase. Looking to capitalize on the contextual history of Durham, I focused on three concepts: bricks reimagined through a kinetic tiled facade, a cross-braced and serrated metal panel system referencing a historic church near the site, and a perforated metal panel system representing the unique topography of the Heritage Square Site.

HKS

Schematic Design 2023

Lize Transit Hub

Beijing, China

The Lize Transit Hub was a competition commissioned by the Chinese government to create a nerve-center for Beijing's complicated transit systems. I was involved in this project from the beginning, on a team led by Eric Keune (M.Arch, Harvard) which included Leeann Wacker (M.Arch, UW Milwaukee) and myself. Our ultimate goal was to design a hub that would be internationally renowned and environmentally responsible, creating the closest and fastest gateway to Daxing International Airport and Xiong’an New Area while connecting the world and the future of China by express rail.

The central transit design consists of two monumental spaces: an amphitheater-like public area for active uses and a hive-like node with a massive atrium. Also included is a grand sunken plaza intended to house contemporary Chinese art and culture. Sustainable initiatives include the roofs of the multi-level concourses and large-floor plate tower podiums, which are planted for cooling, as well as storm water management. My responsibilities included design concepts, as well as modeling and updating the central 3D model, which was sent to a professional renderer for processing. I was also in charge of creating the primary section render of the structure and contributing to the design of the complete site plan and typical program plans for the surrounding project scope.

Skidmore,

Owings, & Merrill

Concept Design

Studio Heads: Eric Keune, Henry Chan

Fall 2018

媒体中心/多功能会议区 HIVE MEDIATHEQUE

媒体中心迎宾/休息区 MEDIATEQUE PREFUNCTION & BREAKOUT SPACE

多媒体中心会议区 MEDIATEQUE CONFERENCE & MEETING

多媒体中心会议区 MEDIATEQUE CONFERENCE & MEETING

休闲环廊 LEISURE GALLERY

休闲环廊 LEISURE GALLERY

媒体中心旋转坡道 MEDIATHEQUE CIRCULATION

休闲环廊 LEISURE GALLERY 临街主入口 MAIN ENTRANCE

CIRCULATION

Nanjing Tower

Nanjing, China

Designated as a mixed-use tower located in Nanjing, China, the project is a 500 meter tower intended to serve as a hub for business, commerce, and life in Nanjing, The client requested a piece of architecture that would embrace the spirit of passage between China's rich past and its bright future. The tower achieves this by adopting the symbolic vernacular of gates used throughout Chinese history by including three gate-like sky lobbies belonging to the three tower programs including offices, a luxury hotel, and apartments. These gates serve as a reminder of China's progress while beckoning the country towards a brighter future.

I joined the project during a period of intense revision, requiring a complete overhaul of the original design, as well as the design development phase that had reached 100% completion. I was independently put in charge of creating new enlarged elevations, crown sections, and full building sections. In addition to this, I was part of a team of three charged with creating new enlarged details and sections. Other responsibilities included crown renderings, FLS plans, site plans, landscape consultant coordination, and typical floor plan maintenance.

Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill

Design Development

Studio Heads: Jason Fisher, Jorge Rovira

Fall 2019

Rurality Check

Wilton, New York

Through the introduction of a sustainable collocation edge data center, Wilton will have the proper digital infrastructure and broadband access to instigate an economic renaissance that will break down the extractive nature of the town’s sprawling cul-de-sac neighborhoods and imposing distribution centers.

After losing its primary mining industry, Wilton introduced the Mt. McGregor Correctional Facility as a way to fill this economic void. Without a cultural and economic identity, Wilton and the prison it housed began to attract “bad neighbors” like two massive distribution centers, and relentless suburban sprawl that dominates what should be a vibrant downtown. Now abandoned, the prison provides an opportunity to bridge the digital and economic divide that plagues Wilton. By retrofitting an existing water tower on site into a collocation edge data center, their is potential to spur economic growth within Wilton by giving small businesses the technology and digital real estate they need to thrive. A data center decreases broadband latency, improves upload/download speeds, and will allow Wilton’s economy to take back the territory that lost to corporate neighbors like Target and Ace Hardware. This data center will also provide captured heat energy from the servers it houses, and transport this to the community as a means of negating any environmental impact it would have. The disruption will allow Wilton's citizens to gain economic independence, and will wither away at the corporate institutions and suburban sprawl that has become characteristic of the town. In their place will be community gardens and markets that act as an outlet for Wilton's occupants to repair the economic and social chasms that have developed over the last half century.

Columbia University

GSAPP Adv VI Studio

Prof. Laura Kurgan

Spring 2022

Enlarged Site Scale

Wilton, NY

Existing Site

Center - Typical Basement Plan Oblique

Sludge

Gowanus, Brooklyn

The Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn is considered one of the most polluted sites in the country. It is said that residents and businesses along the canal historically dumped anything from trash to carcasses into the canal, and a simple whiff of the surrounding area proves this to be true. Tasked with creating a cultural center that embraced material reuse, my partner and I opted to extract the abundant amount of sludge from the canal to be used as a material to form bricks. These 'sludge bricks' would then be fired and used to assemble a self-supporting Catalan brick vault structure that beckons back to the canal's industrial past of brick factories, while ushering in a new future of sustainability.

Intended to house three different cultural institutions focused on different mediums (art, theater, and fabrication), the structure uses the necessary structural drop downs of the brick vaults as permanently occupied rooms, while leaving the remaining space as semiprogrammed flex areas meant to promote collaboration between mediums. These transformable spaces are flanked by optional curtains that can be deployed when further privacy is needed. Special variations of the sludge brick are incorporated into the structure when necessary, such as glass bricks that allow light within the space, acoustic bricks that insulate sound sensitive areas, and grass bricks which allow the roof to grow wild with vegetation. Along the interior is a brick production line which is constantly operating, as canal-faring robots extract and process sludge for the creation of bricks to be sold as a means of funding for the cultural institutions the building serves.

Partner: Ata Gun Aksu

Columbia University

GSAPP Adv V Studio

Prof. Mark Tsuramaki

Spring 2021

Nanning Tower Model

Nanning, China

Located in Nanning, China, this mixed use tower contains programs including offices, a luxury hotel, and apartments. This is a project that spanned many years and suffered multiple revisions, stemming from the client and the Chinese government.

I was added onto the project to assist in the final stages of design development, However, my main objective was to create a detailed section model that would serve as a supplement to the complete drawing sets and professional renders. Led by Dylan King (M.Arch, UT Austin) and myself, our ultimate goal was to create a model that encompassed as many building systems and elements as possible. Using acrylic, 3D printing, screen printing, and hand modeling, the end-product was a successful model displaying the complexity of the facade and the varied structural systems used in the project. The mega truss and mega column, both supporting a majority of the tower's load while also making up a key component of the overall design, are represented through 3D modeling and careful painting. In addition to this, I carefully modeled the facade's complex curvature to fully represent the intricacy of the final design. Overall, the model was submitted as part of the final design package and served as a major tool for the client to understand the product we developed.

Skidmore,

Owings, & Merrill

Concept Design

Studio Heads: Scott Cherney, Eric Schall

Summer 2019

Artistic Selections

A Little Bit of Everything

Renders, UX, graphic design, future concepts, the list goes on. In my free time, I love to explore different media and tools. I have included a selection of these exercises that demonstrates my dedication to the continual discovery of design representation.

After entering the work force, I recognized that although I was in a position to finally contribute to the built environment in a realistic way, I knew I would always be drawn towards the unfettered design possibilities of "paper architecture." Even though the work force is focused on design that will be built and used, I believe design concepts like these flex a muscle that is imperative to the success of those "real" projects, informing our design oriented brains that can often get lost in the rigid parameters of architectural design.