Our first project for Design IV tasked us with designing a universally-accessible entry pavilion for an exercise circuit to be built at Blue Bell Park in Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its program required a large lobby and vestibule space, a physical therapy office, and men's and women's restrooms with changing areas. Due to the natural site condition (a heavily wooded area) into which the pavilion would be intruding, I chose to implement a natural organization system into its design. A radial pattern, found often in nature, was used to determine the locations of each structural bay. In addition to including tenets of universal design, I also worked with the topography and location of the site to harness the benefits of passive solar heating, indirect daylighting, ventilation, and earth cooling.

The culminating project of Design IV engaged a previously unused section of Blue Bell Park to create an open air ampitheater. The theater was to house a variety of visual, auditory, and theatrical uses. In response to the steep, bowl-shaped site, I chose to envision the ampitheater as an extension of the park itself, peeling back from the earth akin to the petals of a blooming flower. The complex roof form would be constructed from a series of trusses covered with corrugated plastic paneling to provide a visually interesting interplay of light and shadow during the daytime.