Works by James Geiger

JAMES GEIGER

WORKS

DURHAM COMMUNITY CENTER

GEORGETOWN, WASHINGTON D.C.

TAOISM DEATH RITUAL SPACE

RE-LIGARE STEEL DESIGN COMPETITION

RALEIGH HORTICULTURE CENTER

CUBE HOUSE PROTOTYPE

416 CUBE HOUSE

ARTWORK

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DURHAM COMMUNITY CENTER3

The Durham Community Center takes on a pinwheel form as a means to draw the diverse Durham commu-nity to the center of the site. The program supports Administrative offices, fitness rooms, a gymnasi-um, yoga studios, and cafe’ within a three-winged structure that reaches toward the Rails-to-Trails greenway path and the two main streets at ei-ther end of the site. By extending to-ward the active corners, the building also allows for three outdoor spaces --volleyball pit, meditation garden, and community gathering plaza. The structure’s materials reflect the surrounding warehouse district con-text; it utilizes brick at the center and breaks away in a progressive gesture of steel, glass, and concrete. Vertical aluminum fins on the facade block the western sun and create a level of privacy.

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FIRST FLOOR SECOND FLOOR5

DETAILED SECTION AND ELEVATION6

MEDITATION GARDEN7

3/8” = 1’ SECTION MODEL

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GEORGETOWN, WASHINGTON D.C.

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Georgetown, Washington D.C. is a semester long, col-laborative design project with fellow architecture class-mate, Eileen McDonough. The Precinct model syntheti-cally diagrams aspects of the city. Issues such a public vs. private space, urban density, and materiality are explored in massing a section of the town as it relates longitudi-nally to the river. The Georgetown Museum is embedded in a site south of the canal. The urban texture and architectural language of the city is revealed in a struc-ture that leads you through a series of narrow passages be-fore opening to a public plaza facing North to the canal.

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11TAOISM DEATH RITUAL SPACE

The concept for the Taoism death ritual space is inspired by yin and yang. Its form ex-presses the interdependent nature of opposing forces within a greater whole; being and non being, light and dark, solid and void. Constructed purely of cast-in-place con-crete, space is distinguished by qualities of light and the slipping of volumes.

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RE-LIGARE STEEL DESIGN COMPETITION

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Re-Ligare Institute was a digital steel design competition. “Re-ligare”, or “re-connect”, aims to relink individuals to themselves, oth-ers, and nature by encouraging the practice of “being” in its ideal state. The building’s design comes from this notion of the ‘ide-al’ in reference to the principles of classical architecture and the work of Boulle’. The Sphere is the most symmetrical and central-ized form that breaks from the grid and be-comes the building’s most celebrated space. The structure, which supports a meditation space above and lecture hall below, is cre-ated by a series of radial circles at 10° incre-ments and a series of circles working in the horizontal plane. Another band of small cir-cles, angled at 35.75° to correlate with the degree latitude of the building’s location, indicate the sun angles at summer solstice, equinoxes, winter solstice, and at one month intervals in between; the arcs indicate the solar hours.

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RALEIGH HORTICULTURE CENTER15

The Raleigh Horticulture Center is es-tablished to teach students and the Raleigh community how to grow their own produce within an urban envi-ronment. The program supports an organic cafe, library, lecture hall, ac-ademic offices, classrooms, research labs, and a greenhouse. Students from the college, as well as the public, are encouraged to utilize the Horticul-ture Center as a learning facility and a place to leisurely experience nature. The main concept for the building comes from a natural element found on the site. A large boulder upon en-try acts as a visual datum terminated by a large ginkgo tree at the west end of the site. This organizing element creates tension between structures and a place of social gathering. The main structure is composed of steel, glass, and concrete; it mediates the drastic slope and provides shade with horizontal louvers on the South and vertical louvers on the East and West. The idea for this louver system came from a precedent study of Ren-zo Piano’s New York Times Building. The Raleigh Horticulture Center is intended to merge with the site over-time, and allow plants to grow over its louver system.

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SECOND FLOOR

FIRST FLOOR

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SOUTH ELEVATION AND DETAILED SECTION19

NEW YORK TIMES BUILDING PRECEDENTDIGITAL SECTION DETAIL

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CUBE HOUSE PROTOTYPE21

Inspired by primitive dwellings de-signed with a fireplace in the center, the Cube House Prototype focuses life around the hearth within a pure geometry. The 1000 sqft., siteless dwelling is unique in its study of light, color, and the division of space. Am-bient light is reflected into the open floor plan as a means to distinguish space and function. The Southern facade is treated with a perforated COR-TEN steel shading system to re-duce solar heat gain.

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FIRST FLOOR SECOND FLOOR

REFLECTIVE LIGHT STUDY

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THIRD FLOOR

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416 CUBE HOUSE25

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The 416 Cube House is situat-ed on a corner site just south of downtown Raleigh, N.C. The cube’s form is a gesture of pure geometry juxtaposed against the urban context. The notion is objective in its shape yet subjective in the interpenetration of volumes and connections between in-door and outdoor space.The house is sustainably de-signed on a 24’ x 24’ foot-print--an embellishment of the 9 square grid. PVs and a Geothermal Heat Pump Sys-tem provide the house with electricity as well as heating and cooling.

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281/2” = 1’ SOUTH ELEVATION SECTION MODEL

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ARTWORK31

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