Fall 2022 | Jonathan Reich
'Smartrails' are the solution to boring guardrails by also serving as useful furniture. Bonus points if they're modular too!
This quarter I worked together with Asher and Merari on the Grand Canopy Project. Grand Avenue Parking structure is located on Cal Poly campus primarily used by staff, visitors of the San Luis Obispo Performing Arts Center, and some on-campus residents.
We are proposing to transform the top of the structure into a multi-activity covered outdoor space. Additionally, we studied the site well to analyze water drainage, potential for solar energy capture, and porous soil and plants for water retention.
An area I focused on most in this groupwork is configuration of the structure. Use of steel space truss would allow large spans over the canopy for various activities that would take place. To do this, we studied parametric design on grasshopper, with a lot of help from Nathan Lundberg (Cal Poly Arch alumni).
Asher worked primarily on refining smartrail ideas, as well as helping me understand grasshopper scripts. Merari explored deeply into the 'Arroyo Recreyo' landscape architecture to figure out how to best channel water, eventually leading to the San Luis Creek.
Initial Design
