New Construction Project - Academical Village

*picture above is example of similar project not produced by students of NDSU Arch 771

While many have acknowledges the thousands of students that do and will dwell in the farrago neighborhood it is the faculty and scholars that are often a forgotten part of the educational equation. The idea of an academical village was the Jeffersonian vision to create a place where learning is a life-long and shared process between students and teacher. This project will focus on that collaborative living/learning by providing housing for the faculty of the downtown University.

The site sits immediately north of the NDSU Klai Hall. It will attempt to densify an already residential block and create durable long-lasting housing that will define the area for the next 100 years. This project will also explore the possibilities of alley fronting housing further dissolving the grid of downtown.

Transit Project - Downtown Bus Stops

*picture above is example of similar project not produced by students of NDSU Arch 771

Current Bus stop structures in downtown Fargo are non-descript, generic structures with a negative public perception as being low class. This project will explore the bus stop as an iconic structure that promotes ridership and provides comfort for the users.
The bus stops will be at various locations where bus stops exist now. The structures will seek to expand on the bus stops found on the NDSU Student Union Stop. it will provides places to sit both in and outside of a semi-enclosed structure. Heaters will be provided to help keep warm in the summer months. There will also be a consideration made for on-site energy generation for the lighting and heaters. A public notice board will be provided as a medium to promote neighborhood events.

Restoration / Reuse Project - Freight Depot Commons

*picture above is example of similar project not produced by students of NDSU Arch 771

The Freight Depot and surrounding buildings are finding their usage incompatible with the emerging neighborhood in terms of usage. This project will proposal will reassess the use of the structures and make inquiry on how this cluster of industry can be transformed into a center culture, leisure, and commerce.

The Proposed site is the Freight Depot, Beverage Inc., Minkota building, and the negative space between. This site offers great opportunity for the development of a great civic square with ample space for farmers markets and an array of outdoor eating venues. Such tenets could include: Bookshop, microbrewery/ pub, artist studio, grocery market, farmers market, candy shop, sushi house, dance studio, guitar store, flower shop, dakota pride store, jewelry, furniture, kitchen supply store, coffee house. etc. The commons in between could become a vegetated marketplace with trees, public seating, lighting, and performance space.

Fargo's Material Farrago

This is a graphic showing a sampling of the materials and colors used in the area under study.

Word of the day.

today the word of the day is farrago \fuh-RAH-go; fuh-RAY-go\, noun: an assortment; a medley. I thought this was pretty fun because of its closeness of name to Fargo and the definitions relevance to the diversity of the neighborhood in which we are working. Fargo's Farrago district. ha

Massing Model complete.

Building a City

We have begun the process of creating a digital model of downtown Fargo. This will give us a the medium with which we can do a series of studies including land utilization, neighborhood massing, lighting, etc. This particular image is of First Lutheran Church and St. Mary's on North Broadway.