We are excited to our newest bird in the office, though new isn’t quite the right word–we know him well.  James Kyle is a Blackbird veteran who interned for 2 years after graduating from UCSB’s undergraduate Art History department with an emphasis on Architecture and Environment.  He began pursuing his Master’s of Architecture at Cal Poly Pomona in 2009 and returned to intern here over the summers.  Following his graduation last month, we were impressed with his thesis project and thought we’d post it here so people could check it out.

For those who may not know, an architecture student’s thesis project is the culmination of months of work and serves as a representation of the student’s vision and design process. We’ll let James speak for himself: see his diagrams, description, and renderings of his thesis project below.

full project board (click left or right side of image to enlarge each half)

Street Art Colony – James Kyle, M.Arch1 2012

The “normal” path for a young adult after moving on from High School is to pursue further education or enter the workforce.  The majority, in either path, often begin co-housing with people of like minds and interests.  This thesis studies the subculture and housing patterns of a group of individuals categorized broadly as street artists. Street art encompasses mediums that take existing urban fabric and reinterpret/appropriate them for uses not intended by the original designers.  Some of these mediums include a graphic as well as physical expressions such as art murals and skateboarding freestyle activities.

The project form of the thesis comes as one solution to creating an environment that supports the individuals, collectively known as street artists.  The architecture is designed in a way that is conducive to the methods and philosophy of the users.  It is a mixed use project containing housing, galleries, artists’ studios, and other facilities.  It is also an adaptive re-use project as the appropriation of an existing building to follow the spirit of the subculture.  The abandoned host building was once the seat of authority as the Los Angeles City Jail in Lincoln Heights, also known as “The Grey Bar Hotel” to its frequenters.  The Jail provides the carcass to inhabit/adapt while the intervention of the site provides amenities to the users/community at large.  The project uses the culture to inform the design in curating the deconstruction of the Jail and creating the Street Art Colony.

We are glad to have James back again and are excited about the unique point of view and skill set he brings to our studio at Blackbird.