Portfolio - Selected Works - Myles Hickman

Architecture

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Selected Works | 2026

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Record

Library of Black Poetry and Hip-Hop Culture

THE RECORD

Today, modern libraries often feel like they only have one-note. The traditional institutions that remind us of the granduer and mystique of the libraries of old, with stacks upon stacks of books and scripts. More mordern constructions tend to view the library as more of a community or cultural center, focusing on social spaces, computer labs or makerspaces. Neither of these approaches are inherently wrong, but it is often seen as a trade, picking one over the other. Why?

This project attempts to integrate both of these approaches. The Record is a Library of Hip Hop and Black Poetry, a cultural and educational institution dedicated to preserving and celebrating the legacy of Black artistic expression. Unlike most libraries today, it serves both as an archive - a record of the incredible impact hip hop and African-American Poetry has and does make across the world - and a creative hub, showcasing the intersection of rhythm, fashion, resistance, and storytelling found in both of these cultural expressions.

As a way to externally emphasize the duality of the contents within the building, the design draws inspiration from the form of a record player, with V-shaped columns evoking speaker grills and sound waves, symbolizing the amplification of marginalized voices while also excitably welcoming you in through its massive double-height windows. A pushed-back part of the structure allows for a lush garden to be visited, a much-needed green space in the community, while also connecting back to the form of a vinyl shelf with thin but tall panes of glass. Behind the partially frosted glass lies the “recovery lab”, an addiction counseling and wellness center curated towards helping those in need around Shaw while being able to completely detach from the main library, allowing a 24-hour center in the middle of a neighborhood that deserves it.

The library is organized into three distinct environments: Traditional, Modern, and Medical.

The Traditional environment is tucked into the left side of the building, mirroring the form of a record player with a focus on physical books and study rooms. Modern is on the right side of the building and “overlaps” the traditional side to allow access to the rooftop plaza. The medical environment is also on the right side of the structure, tucked underneath the Studio to allow easy street access and separation.

Artist Residence

Cortile di Vetro

Cortile di Vetro - Italian for “Glass Courtyard” - is a modern private home inspired by the designs of old Italian countryside villas. The residence is designed to be mostly ADA-compliant, as the client wanted their home to be accessible to a friend who uses a wheelchair. As the structure sits on a slight hill, the design is a Y shape that juts out over the landscape, forming two wings - one for public use and the other private - with a quarter-circle courtyard nestled between the two forms.

Additionally, the facade of the home was to take inspiration from a fabric artwork. Using the rhythm and proportions of “Medallion with Center Bars” by Polly Bennett, the southern-facing stone facade of the home utilizes screened glass and wooden paneling to create an artistic pattern of materials and form.

The integration of the artwork was meant to be sutble in the facade and materiality. The beige color and patterns around the edges of the peice, for example, inspired the use of limestone as the main material for the home. Additional elements were added to reinforce the reference to the artwork while also being functional, such as sunshades on the south-facing windows.

Being an early project, this was one of the last where all architectural drawings were done entirely by hand.

Concept sketches (as seen on the left) were a large part of the design process, especially when it came to detail elements on both the facade and interior spaces.

Heat Adaptive Architectural Design

Extreme heat in cities poses a significant threat to vulnerable populations and strains urban services. This project applies HAAD’s principle of heat-adaptive, small-scale design by creating modular, biophilic structures that collect water, harvest solar energy, and provide shaded environments in urban heat centers. This system is meant to transform underused public areas into safe, engaging, and heat-resilient community hubs that support everyday life and emergency needs while serving diverse and vulnerable populations worldwide.

Mimicking the adaptation of “Heliotropism”, the Flower module moves with the sun throughout the day. Providing all-day shade for the users below while also collecting the maximum amount of solar energy, charging an internal battery that is used to power the pivoting motor, water filtration system, and integrated lights.

As a demonstration of how these designs could be used, Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C. was used as a case study. Aside from a few pockets of trees, this elevated urban plaza has zero shading or seating arrangements. This makes the space incredibly hard to utilize during hot weather and, when looking at how people currently interact with the area, it was found to be more often passed by then actually used.

With the integration of the different urban furniture modules, the plaza is transformed into an area that maintains its openness while also now providing seating, shade, and filtered rainwater for those who wish to interact with the space. Each module works independently from the others, allowing for an infinite number of combinations or layouts as well as the ability to reorganize for special events or community feedback.

Purto Rico Mural

Community Service Project In Collaboration with

For the last two years, Howard University has partnered with the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras to send third-year architecture students to San Juan, Puerto Rico to complete a community service project. This year, the community of Victoria in San Juan requested for Howard students to design a mural on the wall of an abandoned property near the enterance of their neighborhood.h

The goal of the project was not only to beautify the space but to also create something that repersented the community of Victoria, specifically where its people come from, as the neighborhood is a mix of people from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. After designing a rough draft of the project, eight design concepts from eight groups within the third-year studio were sent to the community leaders of Victoria who chose our design. The community shared feedback and desired changes which were implimented and overall made the mural a better repersentation of their neighborhood.

The design was meant to repersent each of the countries connected to the Victoria community while also making sure these countries were recognizable, respected, and integrated into the overall artwork. To do this, unique abstracted flags were created that then blended into a floral pattern. Additionally, a new and enlarged Welcome sign was added on a seperated section of wall as well as a small section to repersent Howard, specifically requested by the residents of Victoria.

Cigar Leaves

Each flag design was hand drawn in Procreate and has added elements that are meant to repersent each country.

Additionally, the order of the flags within the mural also matters, the Puerto Rican flag - the birthplace of the majority who live in Victoria - is further into the neighbhorhood.

Overall, the mural is 164 Feet with each flag measuring 25 feet. Each flag was roughly drawn to scale on the wall and important elements were stenciled with tape.

The project was completed with 24 students and 2 professors, with our design team acting as participating project leads. The painting took around 10 hours total and members of the community came by often to offer food, water, and words of thanks.