Skate Break: Masters Thesis Project

By Ryan Northcutt

Today this post will be about architecture, rather than skateboarding or some related topic to my outside life.

            Lately we have all been cramming for midterm week and such, as well as getting a start on our thesis. We recently completed our thesis poster assignment, and this is a good place to show off what we are working on, and have done.

            To get a start, much of my passion in architecture is wood construction. Not so much stick frame, but what can be done with wood in a better sense. There are many options for our only natural recourse for a building material. Concrete and steel are great, but it’s a contrast to nature and it isn’t as sustainably friendly as we would all like it to be for how great its qualities are. But wood is a different story. The qualities now days are climbing the ladder as a building material. They have always been there with its aesthetic and metaphysical feel, but within the last couple decades, wood construction has become a newer topic that is creating great conversation.

            I have been interested in the qualities of wood for as long as I can remember, I mean I skateboard; wood is a huge part of that. Skateboards and skate parks have been made of wood since the 1960s when skateboarding upgraded to more than just a child’s toy. Actually the history of skateboard is interesting, but that will be for another time. But I have always liked the qualities that wood shows, especially with the many species of trees out there. The options are almost endless.

            To get to my point, I am design a wood high rise building that will cater for the art community. I have chosen a site in the Crossroads district in Kansas City, which has a large art and design influence. With art as a topic of design, this creates a large challenge. The question is what does an artist need? That’s a big question considering the many types of artist out there. But that is the challenge, and that is the goal. As more comes up with my thesis I can tell you more, but now is all preliminary thought.

            And finally the thesis poster containing a related graphic and the project abstract.