portfolio of selected work

Ben Flesch

contents

07 photography

06 personal work

05 hand skills

04 computer modeling

03 spatial construction

02 tectonic programing

01 building from without

Rooftop skate park

Building fromwithout

The integration of urban spaces is often overlooked as cities are constructed with speed and economy in mind. The combination of an existing parking structure with a built skate park brings two opposite extremities together in a way few would expect. Challenged to transform an existing parking structure by adding three programs to the top–performance, audience, and an interstitial space–I created a skate park as a way to bring together different functions of the downtown area to become a space where everything can be appropriated for skating.

Key plan of existing structure.

Aerial view of roof structure covering skate features.

THE ROOF

POOL

SKATE FEATURES

OBSERVATION DECK

bike shop in the park

tectonic mapping

Devou Park is home to multiple mountain bike trails—a little known fact among both locals and visitors of Cincinnati alike. Less known still is that the park is expanding the trail map adding new trails every year. Creating a bike shop accompanied by short-stay accommodations will make the trails more visible and usable to the public. Allowing the surrounding site to inform the building shape, the structure is lifted from the ground with glazing across the front to maximize the views from the lake with space to adapt to fluctuating demand as the park grows in size. The program offers a stripped down hotel-like experience that will help users focus on what’s really at hand—the trails outside the window. The rooms of the lodging can be used in either day-long or overnight applications depending on user need. Parking is located inside each room in order to keep supplies in vehicles close at hand. This presented a challenge when having to separate pedestrian and vehicular traffic all heading to the same place. Individual corridors for each function were established with common points for exchange between the two. Everything only steps away from a full service bike shop capable of repairing and supplying any sort of mountain bike need. The design brings new life to an otherwise unknown feature of the park.

VEHICULAR

PEDESTRIAN

The building was designed to be experienced by pedestrians and vehicle passengers alike. The separation of circulation allows for these two features to coexist. The rooms and shop provide the interstitial space where the two types of circulation meet.

public space construction

spatialsequence

A study of directing movement through space through connections and common language between multiple structures. This group-based project was designed with the intent that each group was broken up into teams that handled different parts of the design process, both with each individual structure and also with the relationships between all of the models to make the overall structure. I led the construction aspect of our individual space and was also a part of the small team that drew parallels between all seven structures that they might read as a whole; as if they were designed as one singular piece.

Materials: Masonite and Pine.Photography: Ben Flesch.

01 Cross section diagram of stairwell in campus building

with scale figures and materiality.

Tools: Rhino, Photoshop, Illustrator.

02 Model of aggregate project. Tools: Rhino.

03 Model of an iteration of the Half House by John Hejduk

completed for class. Tools: Revit Architecture.

04 Section through building showing joist and beam construction completed

during co-op. Tools: AutoCAD Architecture.

05 Model of hotel completed during co-op. Tools: SketchUp.

Rendering: FRCH.

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computer modeling

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01 Detailing of stair runners meeting wall. Charcoal on

bristol paper. 9 x 12”

02 Context model created during co-op for developer

approval.

03 Natalie Portman in Black Swan. Graphite on bristol

paper. 28 x 30”

04 Exhibition project featured in the National Academy

Museum in New York that I had the chance to help create and

construct both remotely and on site.

05 Context model created during co-op for client

meeting.

Model photography by: FXFOWLE

Hand skills

05

Left Summer camp exploration of human dimensions as

applied to a seat. Initial design was based directly on seated position measurements and

iterated from that point. Chair was to be completely cut

using the CNC router and held together on its own without the

use of an outside material.Material: cabinetry plywood.

Right Electrical and kitchen & bathroom casework

drawings created using field measurements for cabin renovation in Grayling MI.

Tools: AutoCAD Architecture.

personal projects

photography

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New York. Mar 2015New York. Apr 2105New York. Mar 2015New York. Mar 2015Kentucky. Dec 2015New York. Mar 2015New York. Mar 2015Cincinnati. Oct 2015

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-anonymous

no detail is small