Thesis Projectn 2011

Approximately three quarters of the inhabitants of Long Beach are single, a population of
281, 903 out of 462,556. Downtown Long Beach is in a position to expand its residential real-estate to accomodate a demographic of underserved singles.
The city should acknowledge the financial gains associated with tourism, nightlife, and the influx of singles as an incentive for generating new parks, recreations, and general
enhancement to the beach community.
Singles represent a constituency of people who have needs dramatically different than their married counterparts. The “Queen Mary” as a site for architecture speculations is an existing cruise ship permanently docked in high real-estate zone at the waters edge in the city of Long Beach. The project is a metropolitan “singles community” dedicated to the celebration of all forms of pleasure. Multiple housing units, public/private swimming pools, barber shops, night clubs, tanning salons, gyms, and restaurants inundate the newly re-fitted urban structure with desirable and discrete volumes.  By using the exclusive beach front location and the flexibility of the “Queen Mary” as a fertile hose, the project will develope an
architecture that captures the spirit of the “singles lifestyle” while generating a new housing typology and embracing the under used and discarted port towns across the American coast.