Final Design

Here's to my final landscape design project for studio this semester. A new design for the front of Saunders Hall at Virginia Tech. A site analysis was first done to observe positive and negative aspects of the area. Next step was conceptual design. And lastly, the final design.

Of the many conceptual sketches made, this was my last one before the final design.

The idea I was going for via Garden Design Magazine.

Hand-drawn final design in pen.

Very detailed. The square patterns came as a surprise when I started stenciling. Looked nice, so I went with it.

Final design after rendering on a copy of the original.

Details on the right side of the Saunders entrance. A sitting patio area and a little walkabout with a statue in the corner.

Fountain in front of the Saunders entrance. Adds peaceful sounds to the scene. Permeable pavers lie around the edge of the fountain to help with the drainage issue.

Further forward in the front right quad of the Saunders entrance is a bench and another walk about and statuary.

Front left quad next to the Saunders entrance. A nice relaxation area with a dry stream leading to a rain garden to help with the runoff issue, as well as a kind of draw bridge to cover the man hole leading to the bench.

Front entrance of Saunders Hall. Planters are put on each side of doorway for delightful welcome feeling.

Back to Residential Landscape Design Studio

I've been busy juggling everything around in school, but all is well, all is well. I finished three classes for the term--only six more to go, the last of my finals starting next week! Here is some of my work from class. I hope to share my final design project when I get that done. In the mean time, cheers!

Site elevation-- practicing our symbols. Took me six drawings until I was satisfied with myself.

Yes, that is in pen. Patience is virtue.

Birds eye view of another project-- objective was to draw symbols.

One of the first front elevations I drew in this class... lollipop trees-- nooooooo!!! They look more like steel wool >.<

Second hand-draw front elevation. Pretty awesome :) I liked this one a lot. Really happy with my trees too!

Rending--we scanned our originals to practice rendering in marker and colored pencil... that crepe myrtle looks so much like a watermelon... just look up Red Rocket Crepe Myrtle and you'll see what I mean.

Wa qul Rabbi... continued...

I can't believe it's already December. Amazing how times flies. Never filled you in on how this project was going. Fact-- I did the majority of this during my spring break back in March. I tried to work on finishing it up for a friends wedding, but that never happened with work and other priorities. So many weddings, thus far, 51 of my friends engaged or married just this year with more to come... hard to make gifts like this for everyone, so just being there for them is good enough for now. I look forward to finishing this one when I can. Here's the meaning:

Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim

[In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful]

Wa qul Rabbi adkhilni mudkhala sidqin wa akhrijni mukhraja sidqin waj'al-li min-ladunka sultana nasira.
[My Lord! Make me enter a truthful entering, and make me go forth a truthful going forth, and grant me from Your presence an authority to help (me)]

Sadaq Allah al-Azim.
[Allah Almighty has spoken the truth]

Surat 17, Al-'Isra' (The Night Journey) Ayat 80

Way Back in Time

Back in my youngin' days (13-14 years old) I had a thing for drawing and horses... actually, I've had a thing for horses my entire life. Reading any horse book I could get my hands on-- must've read all of them from my middle school library and many more from the public library close to home. The Black Stallion series, Sweet William, and many more. My passion was so strong, one horse book series inspired me to draw horses and sell them as greeting cards or something. I thought one day I could be a vet, but things turned out differently than I thought they would. I had a down in my drawing days and ended up ridding myself of all of them.  Nonetheless, here are some drawings from my past. There were more drawings than what is here. Though I do not have the original pictures I was drawing for two of them, I have it for Seabiscuit, the final horse I ever drew from my memory taking a month and 2 weeks to do in between working. Enjoy!

One of the first pictures of a horse I drew from a picture a friend gave me.

Second picture of a horse I drew from a picture my friend gave me-- this was the third time I drew it!

Working with the Designers

Welcome back to studio! We are working on the beginnings of our final project--site analysis. Site analysis is when you go to a site and jot down the layout of the area you intend to work on. This includes dimensions and notes on other things that need fixing, such as drainage and runoff. The objective is to come up with a new design for the front of our design building. Here's to us! Cheers!

Trey, goofing off with my camera :)

left to right: Kip, Mennen, and myself-- together we were working to get our site analysis drawn out in time for presentation.

Me and Mennen working hard.

Go Mennen! Go Kip!

Oh the wall of shame. This is where we tack up our designs for everyone to see.

Work in studio!

Daaaay 2... or today.

Trees... they're really hard to do without turning the paper... :)











Shrubs!
















Ground covers














And construction :) Phew! This takes a
while to do...

working in studio one day...

Yep, still working in studio. Happy Eid everyone =)