Jimmy's

This is a quick study I did for Jimmy's (IWS) steel moment frame house. It was primarily to look at the shapes of the floors, the continuity of structure, material juxtaposition, a zoning and house organizations study and a few little thumbnails renderings. It started as a means for me to analyze the concept of a masonry mechanical core. A tower housing bathrooms on each floor, laundry and chute, dumbwaiter and utilities core for heat, power, air, water and possibly light. It also was the structure for the stairs and primary lateral loads.


The thumbnail sketches are simple and quick allowing for exploration of an idea while generating images i find very helpful in exploring materials, massing, proportions, light, mixed uses, etc. I particularly like the bottom left.


However, after doing another study in my sketch book and drawing over shapes generated with colored pencils, I came up with a much better way to show off Jimmy's metal working skills. Build giant exposed trusses and inhabit the spaces in between.

Spaces upstairs and downstairs will materialize in the space between the giant trusses (over 30' long and up to 14' tall spaced 8-10' apart) laterally and the main floor will be the space between the trusses vertically.

An abstract of Jimmy's upper trusses, the inverted trusses below and the moment frame that will connect them.