It’s been roughly twenty-seven years since I presented my senior thesis during my fifth year at Cal Poly Pomona’s architecture program. In all of those twenty-seven years, I’ve never forgotten the impact my senior thesis had on my life; from my career, to my knowledge of computer drafting and computer modeling, to even what I was able to accomplish by not sleeping for 72 hours. Most of all, its biggest impact is the itch that I’ve had, all of these years, to better realize what my senior thesis could have looked like in a more realistic way.
In 1997/98, computer renderings were cutting edge, especially in architecture school. FormZ ruled the MAC world and students were visualizing their project like never before. I was a PC guy back then, having worked my way through school at an architecture firm, and was an AutoCAD wiz, writing my own scripts, menus, etc., so developing renderings from AutoCAD models was less than smooth for me. Sure, I could whip out a 3D model in AutoCAD all day, but visualizing that 3D CAD file was no small task. I tried everything but computer power was a premium and PC render programs were CPU hogs – long before GPU rendering. Renderings too many days to complete – not an easy process
The below photo is a picture of me, standing in front of my senior thesis presentation. What you can’t clearly see, is the amazing rendering that is the background to all of the line drawings, floor plans, sections, axons, etc on the boards mounted to the wall. It was groundbreaking… at least for me.
I never fully realized, visually, in digital form, what I saw in my mind’s eye for this project. Today, twenty-seven years later, I share some of those visualizations with you and the internet—first, a little bit about the project.
My thesis was a maximum security prison, located in Death Valley, CA. The concept revolved around how inmates, who were bad enough to be in a max-facility were perceived to be a scar on humanity. Through this lens, I developed a facility that could be viewed as a scar on the earth. The facility was over 3,100 feet long and was recessed into the dry, barren, desert of Death Valley over three stories, approximately 60 feet below the surface. At this depth, the mean temperature was roughly a pleasant 72 degrees Fahrenheit but very dry (more about the dryness later). The facility had its own fire department, urgent care/hospital, administration, a series of courtrooms, holding cells, visitation rooms, receiving, kitchens, laundry, water filtration facility… the list goes on.
It was a self-supported, max facility in the middle of nowhere, in one of the hottest places on planet Earth.
The following four floor plans show levels one through three (bottom to top) and a “site plan” view showing what the facility would look like from a drone overhead. The black-looking shapes over the facility are operable shading elements used to cut the direct sunlight into the open-air space below.
The following drawing is a section cut through one of the cell blocks. This section illustrates the surrounding earth that encapsulates the facility and serves to insulate it from the dramatic climate above. The central area in the middle, the “courtyard” at Level 1, is situated over a moving body of water. This flowing water serves to move air, cool the space, and provide a level of moisture, as noted previously, that the region doesn’t achieve naturally. To further help the circulation of air, the floor at the Level 1 courtyard is predominantly metal grate. Additionally, the operable shading elements overhead help cut the direct sunlight, preventing injury to those in the open courtyard while also helping to keep the space at a tolerable temperature.
You’ll likely also notice some of the line drawing information is in a cyan color. This information was provided to me, last minute, by my dad who was, at the time a civil engineer. He took a stab at some structural information to help make this section appear to be more plausible.
If you look closely at the photo above, the one of me taken after my thesis presentation, you’ll see a physical model of this same section, (photo left, just in front of me). It shows sand around the concrete structure to represent the earth and was kept in place with a piece of plexiglass and the concrete structure of the facility. By the way, Pour-Stone, the product I used to create the concrete structure, was a product that many of us students used to simulate cast-in-place concrete (CIP). It was a very fine powdery mix created for concrete anchor and patch-type work. I created the formwork and added threaded rods as a rebar surrogate to create the CIP structure that you see in the physical model in the photo.
Over the last several years, I’ve revisited this project a few times. In 2011, I took the time to recreate a portion of the project in Revit. This small portion had originally been created in AutoCAD but AutoCAD was no longer relevant for me. In 2014, I added additional details, developed a new understanding of the structure and its support elements, and created a model that would ultimately be revisited a few more times over the years. Finally, after twenty-seven years, I found the time to invest in the visualization of one of my most influential projects. The following three renderings were created using Octane Render, a program I’ve been using for several years now. These days almost every render program is GPU based and Octane is no exception. Having a MAC Studio with its M1 GPU, plus two GTX 970’s in my old render PC helps to push these images out. Yes, it could certainly be a hundred times faster with modern GPU’s but that comes at a very steep price.
The renderings below represent a very small section of the facility. If you refer back to the floor plans above, the small red rectangle on one of the floor plans represents the portion of the project that is rendered below. All three renderings are looking in the same direction, towards the end of the facility. The first two are interior renderings while the last one is an exterior rendering showing a view from the open courtyard space at level 1.
As I rendered these spaces, I realized how only a small amount of light gets down into the caverns of these spaces – even with an open sky above. Obviously, these are just simulations and I suppose that this characteristic has its pros and cons but more than anything, what I find interesting, is that I had never even considered what the lighting would be like this far down. Turns out, these three levels would need a lot of light fixtures, even during the daytime hours.
If anyone reading this knows someone or who is someone who would like to use my design for the setting of a Netflix/Amazon/Apple show, I’d be happy to share more.
Finally, one detail that I would like to point out is the railing baluster profile. This is a profile that I’ve used on many of my projects over the years, built and not. In some projects the baluster is made from wood, others from steel but always the same profile. Have a look at some of my other renderings, you’ll see it pops up in a few.
