Las Vegas Affordable
Housing Challenge

The single-sheet presentation communicates a clear story that is dually urban and human in scale as told through its renderings and drawings. The hierarchy and color balance are both strong, using colorful renderings that lead the eye from high-level primary imagery to supporting detailed images. The text, while adequate perhaps for a portfolio to describe the full story to a reader unaware of the project background or purpose, is too lengthy for a single-sheet submission. This could be reduced in length considerably and retain its capacity to describe the project’s ambitions and design. The single axonometric is also overly complex for this type of project, which would benefit moreseo from an enlarged partial section to describe the construction systems that comprise the proposal and design. In the large plan, it is recommended that the author more clearly differentiate one unit from the next, as at this scale the division of units is difficult to comprehend. In general the project would benefit from an enlarged unit plan and section. In the large section, it is unclear why the first floor level is equal in height to those of the residential units above, which is not the case in rendered imagery given that warehouse spaces are significantly taller than residential units. The section would also benefit visually from a thicker ‘ground’ line - as drawn the white rectangle describing the earth is visually weak and difficult for a reader to understand.

The project is commendable for its thorough communication of a complex problem, its analysis and its proposed solution. The clear and simple title is catchy, sophisticated and representative of the project concept. The presentation suffers from a lack of hierarchy which is lost in part due to the shear density of drawings and text. It is recommended that the author choose one image - such as the urban rendering situated to the top left hand side of the sheet - and to increase its size and visual presence on the sheet. While the unit plans are clear in their simplicity, the block-scale plans lack hierarchy due to the limited range of line weights employed, in particular the ground floor plan and upper level  plan. When reading the sheet as a whole it is impossible to comprehend the information these plans contain. The author would benefit from more diverse color fills as well as stronger line weights to differentiate interior from exterior spaces and between program types. The use of shadows might further help to increase the depth and readability of these drawings. Finally, annotation - space labels or clear indication of entry points - would help a reader’s comprehension.

The submission layout is excellent. The use of a single larger rendering to describe the urban quality of the project immediately draws a reader into the page and visually explains the key concepts. This is supplemented by three human-scale perspectives which are smaller in size but equally descriptive of the project. By inventing a means to describe the project’s key philosophical concepts using ‘circle of life’ diagrams, the author is able to also clearly describe the project’s design through clean drawings and a limited use of bold colors, guiding a reader through the diagrams. The amount of information conveyed is exactly what is needed here. The text and structural diagrams would benefit from being reduced in their quantity in order to increase their size and quality. Even for such a competition which calls for an extensive analysis to be placed on a single sheet, an author should consider the readability of the full sheet at the scale of the typical print, computer screen or projection - are the main points communicated equally in rendering, drawing and text when viewed in totality? While smaller drawings and explanations can aid a reader once they ‘zoom in’ to understand the project in detail, the author should also always consider the sheet in full.

As with other successful projects, this submission makes use of a primary rendered image well-located at the center of the sheet. The presentation has a clear urban plan and analysis followed by axonometric views to describe how the project may be convincingly inserted within the city. The overall use of color is consistent and sophisticated. The principal rendering is paired with a typical plan below, which is successful, though the scales are slightly different - the effect of this discrepancy is slightly disturbing to the eye. A reader will attempt to compare and read these two as a ‘package’, and so it would be helpful that they remain at the same scale. Both the rendering and plan would benefit from some basic annotation to describe the layering of programs, primary entry points, and the layout of spaces in plan. Given the project’s ambitions, the author would benefit from further structural analysis to more clearly communicate its construction and how this relates to its form and materiality.

The submission takes advantage of a single large urban rendering to describe the project’s design intent and to provide a reader with a single primary image to digest. The image utilizes bold colors that are also varied to provide balance and to avoid visual monotony. Though the image is of high quality, the author might find it would become stronger with additional human figures to describe the project scale, how it is used, and to amplify the project’s purpose of adding density to key downtown areas. Given the design makes use of exterior balconies, the image would be more effective if these spaces were clearly being inhabited. The project would benefit from sectional drawings describing the spatial experience of the individual unit as well as its relationship of this new system with the railway below. It would answer some key questions as to how the project is constructed and accessed, as well as provide additional analysis to help prove that the project can be implemented and that it has been adequately considered from a technical perspective. Finally, an urban scale plan would help a reader who is not fully aware of the extents of the Las Vegas rail system. Where is this infrastructure located in the city, how many lines are there and, therefore, to what extent would the city be impacted by this proposal?