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Alexander Shirley

Alexander Shirley

Boston, MA, US

 

About 

Master of Architecture with Certificate of Heritage Conservation from the University of Southern California, 2022.

Focusing academically on healthcare design, multifamily housing, community conservation, and mass timber, I specialized in designing for the elderly with Professor Victor Regnier, then completed my thesis in critical computation with Lisa Little and Wes Jones. 

I am an ardent proponent of deep ecology and regenerative design at the architectural scale, pursuing LEED AP and LFA certification while working toward licensure; as well as at the community scale, advocating for mass public transit solutions and human-scaled socioeconomic infrastructure in American cities and towns.

Since the beginning of 2023, at MKA Architecture, I have managed and supported projects including new affordable housing concepts, rehabilitation of aging public housing, and ADA-compliant conversions of historic homes.

Employment 

MKA Architecture, LLC, Brookline, MA, US, Architectural Designer

Architectural design, computer modeling and drafting, site measuring, and the management as well as support of multiple simultaneous projects from proposal to post-construction under the principal and senior staff.

Dec 2022 - current
 

Freeman Design Group, San Jose, CA, US, Architectural Intern

As intern I filled an assistant designer role:
• Remotely assisting the team with 5 separate residential new-build and addition projects.
• Altering existing projects based on client and municipal red lines, starting new ArchiCAD models based on survey drawings, assembling and exporting sheets for submission and approval.
• Expanding and organizing the firm's BIM asset library; testing Twinmotion capabilities to prepare for the firm's adoption and regular use.

Jun 2021 - Sep 2021
 

Education 

University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, CA, US, MArch, M.Arch +3

Master of Architecture; Critical Computation Thesis, with Lisa Little and Wes Jones.
Certificate of Heritage Conservation.

My focus, from Day One, was to engage in the study of renewable design and construction, community heritage and sovereignty, and effective mixed-use real estate development. In particular, I had my eye on the acute housing crisis facing Southern California and the means to address it in a sustainable way.

To that end I focused on healthcare design, multifamily housing, sustainable mass timber (e.g. GLT and CLT), and value systems of design.

These interests led me to engage with a focus on Critical Computation, which I understood as a means to interrogate the value systems which dictate the current, rising paradigm in parametric architecture. These systems can and do perpetuate real harms and disparities, and I sought alternative modes which might stop or actively repair these, by returning to first principles in historic vernacular methodologies and implicating them in a computational workflow. My full and final thesis presentation can be found on my website.

Sep 2019 - Jun 2022
 

The American University, Washington, DC, US, Bachelors, School of International Service

Bachelor of Arts, International Studies; International Business Affairs Focus
Capstone Thesis, Sustainable Urban Planning with Prof. Victoria Kiechel
Minor, Mandarin Chinese

Fellow and Mentor of the Compass Fellowship for Student Entrepreneurship.
Student Fellow of the Social Impact 360 + Deloitte Consulting Partnership.

The focus of my capstone, as well as both fellowships, was the refinement of an urban planning proposal and nonprofit project to address urban food insecurity called "The Farmery" - a community-scale self-supportive food network based on employee-owned hydroponics production and partnerships with regional farmers.

Sep 2012 - Jun 2016
 

Awards 

Third Annual Urban Greenhouse Challenge, 2nd Place

Our team - USC Stack - was awarded 2nd place for our design of an urban farm, food education, and community outreach center project, located in Washington DC's Capitol Heights neighborhood, a recognized food desert.

2022
 

Areas of Specialization 

Skills