CAST Lecture Series | Instance and Iteration
Time and again: Structural renovations at the historic Toledo Museum of Art
A case study of the ongoing structural renovation of the historic Toledo Museum of Art, developed by Guy Nordenson and Associates, traces the building’s layered history of expansions and structural transformations, highlighting the challenges of working within a complex existing fabric composed of multiple materials and structural systems. It explores workflows for translating archival drawings and incomplete documentation into coordinated BIM and analytical models, and discusses the design of a new transfer structure enabling the removal of load-bearing walls and columns while maintaining stability throughout construction, offering insight into interdisciplinary collaboration, structural reasoning in the context of large scale renovation, and the practical realities of intervening in historic buildings.
Jenna Schnitzler, Guy Nordenson and Associates
Jenna Schnitzler is an interdisciplinary designer at Guy Nordenson and Associates, a structural engineering practice based in New York City. She is currently working on the renovation of the Toledo Museum of Art and the Glass Pavilion with Michael Maltzan Architecture, an air traffic control tower with Marlon Blackwell Architects, and the engineering of several art installations.
She recently graduated with dual degrees from MIT School of Architecture and Planning, where her research with the Digital Structures research group focused on reducing the carbon impact of buildings through shape optimization and designing for reuse, with an emphasis on creative structural engineering. Prior to MIT, Jenna graduated from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. While working at several architecture firms over the past 8 years, she developed a lasting interest in the latent potential of existing buildings and their reusable components; an interest that continues to inform her work bridging structural design, architecture, and research.
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The geometry of what we want and the shape of what we have
Architecture and structural design are inherently geometric disciplines, where decisions on form dictate all measures of performance: lighting, circulation, experience, acoustics, energy, and carbon. Over the last few decades, advancements in computational tools for both design (CAD) and analysis (FEA, CFD) have enabled near real-time feedback loops that can iterate form towards ideal theoretical solutions, resulting in expressive designs tailored to a project’s unique conditions. However, these theoretical solutions are rarely constructed in real life, deemed too complex for current building practices. But what is too complex? Is it measurable? If so, can we reduce it while maintaining design intent?
This talk will discuss the relationship between design, performance, and information through the lens of geometry. It will explore how explicitly visualizing the data that emerges from the design-analysis loop can provide a clearer understanding of the miscommunication between theoretical performance and our ability to realize it. Through this geometric representation of design information, one can then exploit a wealth of shape analysis tools to manipulate and guide designs towards constructible solutions, with applications in effective rationalization and circular (reuse) design.
Keith J. Lee
Keith J. Lee is a Canadian computational structural designer, currently a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also the Head of Computation and Structural Design at Forma Systems. His work revolves around the development of algorithms and tools for high-performance structures, with applications in equilibrium networks, numerical optimization, and circular design. He has taught and worked in Vancouver, Montreal, Cambridge, Santa Barbara, and Bahrain.
He holds a PhD in Architecture: Building Technology from MIT, with prior degrees in Structural Engineering (B.Eng, M.Eng) from McGill University.