This project served as an introduction to architecture’s relationship to the city. Its aim was to establish the city as a primary area of interest central to the architectural discourse and design both now and throughout its history. By working  at various scales and on various urban issues, it makes the claim that the urban issues in architecture are fundamentally not about the size of its forms or the programmatic specifics. It is through a careful study of connectivity and its relationship to infrastructures that we will begin to understand how architecture engages problems of the city. 

Lines exist in nearly every form in the city. From linear entanglements of the freeway systems, to the flows of infrastructure between sites, to the structural systems of individual buildings, there is an inescapable linearity to the urban environment. At the same time, much of our programmatic needs result the seemingly contradictory form of volumes. The duality recognizes the virtues of both and seeks to find a dialogue between the line and the volume. This project is interested in the intersection of the two and aimed to promote the design of the systems and volumetric enclosures that have a similar set of ambiguity.  

The manipulations to the volume by the line and the relationship they later formed was used to design the  American Apparel Warehouse. The warehouse was located amongst the sixth street bridge, where downtown Los Angeles and Boyle Heights connect. The sixth street bridge was also meant to be redesigned. This project tries to show how the lines of the bridge and the structure can intersect with the volume of the bridge.