CHRISTOPHER THOMAS LEFEBVRE

The new power plant in operation located on the eastern side of the University of Colorado’s main campus allows the old power supply site to be used more regularly for educational needs.  The old power plant site is centrally located providing the perfect site for The New School of Architecture.  The proposed plan features open floor plans for flexible student work spaces.  An omitted first floor on the North side promotes an easy thoroughfare to one of campuses largest circulation paths.  A unique aluminum screen facade helps control the amount of natural light and heat let into the building by alleviating the harsh low angle, winter Colorado sun light.  A universal campus waypoint beacon by means of an illuminated 5th floor library, clad with storefront glass, will be visible throughout campus.  

33rd and Osage is the second phase of Longitudinal Separation.  Since the site is quite longer than its width, it holds the potential to create some difficult design decisions. Instead of imposing a different design on the site, these plans promoted the longevity of the site as an asset.  33rd and Osage is centrally-located in a Denver neighborhood, used as a community center.  The community center offers a library archive of the neighborhood's history, a large multi media room for community gatherings, an audio center, a permanent art gallery, and rotating temporary art gallery, all wrapped in a unique facade.  The building’s long design allows the temporary gallery to hug the street side of the building.  This allows neighborhood pedestrians passing by to walk in, pass through and exit of the buildings gallery seamlessly.  Provided one wanted to see more than just the new featured pieces of art, they could stay and utilize the grid-column based building and all of its assets.            

The Kelly House, located in Tatitlek, Alaska is a proposed Community Center.  The design takes into account the awkward site boundaries and harsh elements of the Alaskan environment.  Pulling the building closer to the North side of the site allows for more regular utilization and creates a corridor for convenient service access. Internally, using the same principle as before, pulling all of the service rooms to the northern side of the building allows the rest of the building to have an open floor plan for flexible uses.  The over-rotated open design and building orientation maximizes solar utilization, while the roof design blocks the harsh summer sun and allows the low angled winter light to naturally warm the building during the cold winter months.

A digital fabrication project in which an artistic installment for a coffee house was designed and presented.  The provided design features clear and red acrylic panels fixed together with metal joinery.  Hanging above the point of sale of the coffee house with lights illuminating from atop, offers customers a unique experience while interacting throughout the shop.  Several iterations of models were created with a laser cutting machine for design exploration.  Also a one to one model was also created for a sense of real life scale.  Customizing and nesting 100 percent of the laser cut file allowed the project to achieve a certain level of material efficiency which would be transferable to a real world application if desired, saving time, money and materials.

The prerequisite project for 33rd and Osage, Longitudinal Separation (LS) shares the same elongated site constraints with a large unmovable wall.  As a more abstract project LS has four distinct areas; an open area, indoor area, interview area, and restroom.  This design begins with a facade that draws pedestrians into the outdoor area, leading them indoors into enclosed area.  The interview area which is the most intimate, is located deep into the design providing privacy.  This design also gives pedestrians a sense of solid in void by allowing circulation through the large cut void in the middle of the site.  Multiple iterations, ultimately led to the realization that using the longevity of the site was an asset.  

Choosing two out of the three verbs from the previous technical drawing project, Rotate and Cut.  Starting with one simple model and changing its physical form, in two ways, by using a strict and simple rule set of only rotating and cutting away.  In the end both models were combined to create one final form.  

Land analysis and site data, often existing site analysis, depicted in a graphical way.

Multiple renderings created with different techniques over the career of undergraduate.

A technical drawing set in which one chosen tool is depicted by three action verbs in which it performs. Rotate, Measure, Cut

Green Neighborhoods is a project featuring the redesign of the North, North-West student family housing complex.  Much existing site research was put into the redesign so that it would bear  more benefits for the community of users.  The site being so close to campus gave the opportunity for in-depth site research and analysis.  Designing extremely close to the Boulder Civic Center and within multiple flood zones provided some healthy design challenges.  The redesign focuses on a more community driven building design and placement, by turning the buildings inward, creating a small community park within each housing complex.  Circulation was a large consideration when redesigning, given the area is used by so many different types of travelers.  Focussing on the natural environment of the site and large greenbelt was implemented as a buffer between the multiple complexes and the highly traveled Boulder Creek pathway. An added beneficial aspect of the green belt is that it helps mitigate the damage of a possible flood.                

A final series of digital photography featuring multiple different forms of textures shot at a intensely close range.  Inspiration from photographer James Welling's abstract photography series.