Client - Shirley Chisholm
Shirley Chisholm was an American politician who, in 1968, became the first black woman elected to the House of Representatives. She became the first Black candidate to seek a major party's nomination for President of the United States, and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. After the unsuccessful bid for President, Chisholm continued serving in the House of Representatives.
Project 01 - Investigations
Who is Your Client?
When deciding on my client for this project I wanted to specifically target a female that was African-American that I've learned about previously, and on who I believed changed society in a way that deserved a memorial in their name. I chose my client, Shirley Chisholm and created a collage based on our client and their history/important facts. My blend of colors represented the different places she grew up in, my graphite sketches being symbols of her famous quotes, and plastered photos representing the most famous aspects of Shirley Chisholm.
Memorial Projection Drawings
For Shirley Chisholm's memorial I wanted to keep of constant theme of growth and direction. I chose these two themes because I believed they were what Shirley represented the most and what I could translate into a physical memorial. Growth was because she started from the bottom being a woman, being African American, as well coming from a very low income family. Even with these set backs she achieved her goals and became a pronounced Congress Woman that is still remembered today. This also plays into the other theme I represented: Direction. She was a very committed and stubborn person,
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Project 01 - Site Planning
Site Analysis Drawing
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After completing my Memorial Drawings I searched for possible locations the memorial would fit to be built in. I settled on a spot in Washington DC near National Park. This was because it was near the National Congress of Black Women headquarters which is an example of something that Shirley Chisholm left behind before passing away. It fit with my theme of direction and growth because at the peak of the memorial is where you'll be able to see the building which resembles the end of the contributions Shirley Chisholm made in her life.
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Project 01 - Concept Design
Bubble Diagrams
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Once I decided on a location to have my memorial placed in, I also had to ponder over the locations of various other bulidings surrounding my memorial that would attract touring and places that would strengthen the meaning of my memorial as well as continue to implement the theme. These 3 bubble diagrams are examples of beginning ideas I had on where said structures would be placed related to my memorial, each with a different take on my themes. My first bubble diagram focused on the "direction" aspect of my memorial, coming together in a conjoint formation that would face the memorial in a very directional way. My second bubble diagram took a literal approach to the "viewpoints" from my directional theme and was made to have the buildings surrounding the memorial be vaguely shaped like glasses as a symbol for my viewpoints. Lastly, my third bubble diagram was relative to one of Shirley Chisholms quotes, "“If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” This quote is an example of the inclusion that she strived to achieve with others and with an almost "conversational" aspect, i made it to where the buildings surrounded the memorial completely, as though to display a conversation.
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Models
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After creating our Bubble diagrams, we were assigned to complete a model of our concept designs to give an easier image on what we wanted our site to look like with the memorial and structures surrounding it. I decided to include some kind of 3d representation of my memorial along with the other surrounding structures so I could display the correlation of said memorial to the various buildings.
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Site Sketches
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Along with my 3d models, we were assigned to sketch something about the different concepts we created that shows more in depth the ideas that were thought of when creating the design. The sketch of my first concept went more in depth on what resides in the buildings surrounding my memorial rather than the meaning of the placement itself. Specifically, the building in directly in front of the memorial would be a space for a garden that would be available for people visiting the memorial to purchase seeds and plant their own flowers which loosely ties into the direction theme, with the seeds being at the start of the memorial, and more into my "growth" theme, in that the growth of her confidence and perseverance got Shirley to where she ended up. The sketch of my second concept was to show how the glasses structure would show the "viewpoint" and how that the hallway between the two cylindrical structures would be bridged by a window-paned hallway to give the possibility to view the memorial from the buildings. The sketch of my third building was to explain a different way I could approach the garden in my original concept and how I could tie it in to the theme of inclusivity by having the harden be included with a seperate beginning at the beginning of my memorial.
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Final Presentation
Schematic Design |
After deciding on a concept design to expand on and use to inspire my final foundation, I chose my first concept design focusing on direction, while also using aspects of growth from the other two concepts that I dropped. When starting to make my Design, I wanted to keep the aspect of an arc in the middle of the site connected the other 2 buildings, but decided to tweak the two buildings since the proportions related to my site were off. The fellowship residence was too large and my other spaces were too rounded, and didnt match the straight and edged lines of my memorial. I then created a design with 3 seperate buildings each containing a different example of what Shirley Chisholm represents.
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Site Model
I used museum board and styrofoam to create the base of my model, as well as laser cutting the areas that my the buildings I 3d printed to create a sense of elevation in those areas. empty areas are sidewalks and roads and the green elevated area is my foundation. The grey building in the top left of my site represents National Congress of Black Women and is represented as important by using the grey material instead of white.
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Building 1
Building 2Building 3 |
The first building on my site is the service space that compliments my gardens (the action space) and is there for tourists and students to start their tour around the site as well as them to ask info and pick up seeds for the garden. I chose this shape to be similar to an arrow and "point" at the start of the site and where people visitng will start.
The second buildings, or group of buildings, is the fellowship residence that sits at the end of the site and is shaped the way it is to resemble one of Shirley Chisholm's famous quotes "If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair". I chose trapezoidal shapes since the "face" of the trapezoid is the long side and that can represent the "seat" and that all of them gather together for a conversation and are examples of those chairs.
The last building sits across from the memorial and in between the aformentioned buildings. This is the main part of the 2 for its starting point in the viewpoint aspect of the site. It is a Education and Memory space housing both a library and memoribillia/artifacts respectively. I chose these because the best way to educate people on what shirley chisholm was fighting for is in my opinion to read about the history during her time, and what it was like for women and people of color before that as well. Not to mention she has many speeches, books, and artifacts that can be displayed. The big glass wall sits facing the memorial giving anyone full access to the site of the memorial from inside the building.
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