gallery (under construction)
las vegas mapping studies
Exhibited, 1st Annual Alumni Exhibition (March 8—April 9, 2004)
Research posters exhibited in a juried exhibition held as a part of UCLA’s Department of Architecture and Urban Design Exhibition Series. The posters are an outgrowth of a New Investigator Grant granted by the Office of the Provost for Research at UNLV (2000-01) in support of a research project aimed at documenting the urban fabric of the Las Vegas metropolitan region in comparison to the maps contained in the seminal book, Learning from Las Vegas. The contemporary maps have been incorporated into public presentations by Venturi Scott Brown and Associates and the research studio from which the maps originated featured the involvement of Steven Izenour as a guest critic. This research project was a team based project involving José L.S. Gámez, Jeff Hartnett, and graduate students from the School of Architecture at UNLV (www.library.unlv.edu/arch/lasvegas/map/index.html).
riba sustainable urbanism competition 2007
This competition entry was a team effort involving Chris Beorkrem, Carrie Gault and José L.S. Gámez (all faculty members at UNCC). The project proposal centers around a three-fold premise: 1) that our aging auto-oriented landscapes must be retrofitted for future development in which environmental sustainability will be essential 2) many aging auto-oriented corridors actively serve an important part of our public constituency and these existing economic and social networks must be maintained in order to insure cultural sustainability 3) existing urban zoning and urban design policies actual inhibit local economic and social investment and, therefore, these auto-oriented corridors should be seen as “duty-free” in which public infrastructure would support an organic urbanity to take hold.
east l.a. studies (on-going)
These images accompanied an essay written collectively by Chicano and Latino graduate students in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design at UCLA, which was published in the first issue Surface Journal. The plates shown above document aspects of the East Los Angeles landscape that represent the relationships between culture, identity and place in urban barrios. These images were exhibited at UCLA in 1997.
building/border/culture: charlotte community design studio fall 2003
This UNCC Charlotte Community Design Studio collaborated with the Latin American Coalition (LAC) to produce research documenting the impacts of recent Latino immigration to Charlotte as well as design proposals for a new facility for the organization. This studio won an Architecture for Social Justice Award for its collaborative engagement with the LAC, which is a social service, education and advocacy organization.
Student proposals:
Left panel: Kevin Williams’ proposal for the new offices of the Latin American Coalition; Julie Walters’ proposal for the adaptive re-use of an existing gas station as the new home of the LAC. Right Panel: Randal Rhodes’ proposal for a modular/mobile outreach and services building; Beth Morrison’s proposal for a cultural facility tied to current light rail development.
architecture as social capital
Chip Howell conducting a design charrette with the board members of the Latin American Coalition as a part of this 2006 Master’s thesis proposal. HIs thesis project sought to establish a design initiative in which the design process itself fostered a collaborative learning environment aimed at equipping local Latino community members with the tools necessary to design and build a community center. Chip’s research built upon the work of the CCDS studio described above and his research was recognized for its outstanding contributions by both a Best Thesis award in the College of Architecture and a Nish Jamgotch Jr. Humanitarian Student Award, which is a university-wide prize that recognizes a student who demonstrates creative problem solving, conflict resolution and improvement for the human condition. It carries a $10,000.00 cash prize.
monument 10
“Monuments must, therefore, be legible and their meanings must be easily located. But, not all things can be monuments. Typically, monumentality is a status ascribed from on high; in this sense, monuments develop their momentum within established circuits of civic or governmental power. However, other landscapes can and must be granted a form of monumentality. One must find ways of locating meaning within the everyday urban environment in ways that compensate for the lack of official validation from seats of power. One must act in the world in order to take hold of urban space and to make an identifiable place within it. For many Chicana/o and Latina/o artists, the struggle to define their urban experiences has been a struggle to add new meaning to an existing urban landscape. Such acts involve the production of an other space within the city—one that provides some measure of reality with which to stave off cultural disappearance. Monument 10 represents such an act. In a sense, this series of prints is one result of an attempt to ascribe a sense of meaning and monumentality to the urbanity (both cultural and spatial) that Ramón Ramírez confronts daily. Ramírez, acting as our urban avatar, is helping us to navigate our shifting socio-spatial worlds; he is helping us to take hold of a city that increasingly seems to be slipping from our grasp. For Ramírez, these prints provide lenses through which to view the urban in new ways; they provide a two-fold metaphor for the contemporary city.” except from exhibition catalog written by José L.S. Gámez (2006). For more information on this exhibit see: www.jaguarland.com
first place: casas del quinto sol housing competition 2007
This HUD sponsored design competition called for a sustainable alternative to the existing colonia housing available in Vado/Del Cerro, New Mexico, which is near Las Cruzes, NM and El Paso, Texas. This competition entry was developed by a student team from the College of Architecture (UNCC) that included Brad Buter, Stephanie Orlich, Jessica Thomas, and Michael Ward with José L.S. Gámez acting as the faculty sponsor and critic. The proposal called for an “off-the -grid” rammed-earth residential structure. The two-part parti emphasizes zoned living spaces, an outdoor courtyard and landscape walls that serve as foundation walls for future expansion of the home. By framing outdoor spaces, the home effectively doubles the usable program space, which better fits the needs of extended family structures while rammed earth technology recalls culturally and regionally rooted architecture. To find out more about the competition, please visit: http://www.casasdelquintosol.com/design-competition.htm
QC2 digital mural project
This interdisciplinary project was funded by UNCC’s Chancellor’s Diversity Challenge Fund; we were awarded funding to pursue a collaborative project with Heather Freeman (Department of Art, UNCC) in which issues of diversity and representation were explored as a continuation of the collaborative project previously funded by the Maxine Frankel Award (Woodbury University) with Ramón Ramírez. Freeman and Gámez were joined in this project by three UNCC students: Meghan Meyers, Ronna Gardner, and Stephanie Orlich. A joint exhibit of the work from UNCC and Woodbury went on display in the Storrs College of Architecture Gallery on the UNCC campus in early 2008. The work now travels to Woodbury University for an exhibit in April 2008.
