Project Feasibility and Design Studio

Catalog description

The Project Feasibility and Design studio is the final, advanced studio in the Property Development and Design program in which candidates examine the way buildings establish and organize dynamic relationships between program, material, and the city. The studio is conceived as a three-part, interrelated semester project in which candidates comprehensively engage financial and material aspects of a real estate development project. There are three (3) project modules: 1) A Zoning, Massing, and Metrics module in which candidates develop bulk approaches to an urban site and generate project inputs including height, mass, and orientation. Part-to-whole relationships between building and program components as well as the overall building within the urban context are considered. 2) A Schematic Design/Pro Forma Inputs module in which candidates undergo a schematic design process generating ideas about building program and relationship to site/context, as well as metric take-offs of floorplate, program areas, unit sizes and types, and other data required in pro forma development. 3) A Design Development/Pro Forma Financing module in which candidates undergo a more comprehensive phase of development of both the final building proposal and the financial data and pro forma. The phase will consider specific building data including construction system, glazing area, and finishes/materials as they relate to the building proposal and financial planning to actualize it. Students present their final design work as a series of underwriting scenarios.