A quadrangle for downtown Blacksburg

I remember with clarity the day Dennis Kilper and Donna Dunay shared with us their awareness of a site in downtown Blacksburg bound by College Avenue, Draper Road, Roanoke Street and Otey Street. The sight is a locus of interface between the university and the town. A place rich in contextual nuance, movement, rhythm, axis and history interact to create a powerful synergy waiting to be expressed.

When the time came to choose a subject for my master's thesis, I found the challenge I was looking for in the puzzle of what to do with such a special opportunity.

My design proposal (multi–use in nature) for the above site is a quadrangle made from the repetition of a square-based brick tower in concert with the development of an axis in the field of the quadrangle. The brick tower transforms itself in response to context, as does the pre-existing interior axis.