mike zee portfolio

627 Baltic St. Apt 3Brooklyn, NY 11217+1 612 616 [email protected]

Mike Zee Portfolio

627 Baltic St Apt 3 Brooklyn NY 11217 j mike zee@gmail com+1 612 616 0273Mike Zee

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An affluent bachelor commis-sioned the full renovation of his bi-level penthouse in New York’s trendy Meat-packing District. The original apartment consisted mostly of closed spaces that did not reflect the client’s socialite lifestyle. But by altering the geometries of the plan and enhanc-ing the viewable space, the apart-ment becomes inviting and sociable.

The renovation opened the space in both plan and section. The dining room walls were removed which also augmented the display of the client’s art collection. The kitchen circulation was recalculated by incorporating a newly placed island despite plumbing complexities. And the master bed-room served as an optional extension to the social area through movable panels and a transparent fireplace.

The staircase was originally en-closed and was the most obstruc-tive force within the apartment. The new staircase featured thin, wooden planks supported by an almost invis-ible metal frame. The design focus-es on horizontals moving the eye lat-erally, and in result, the staircase be-comes a semi-transparent sculpture. In addition, this allows natural light to pour down into the apartment from the skylight above.

Private Residence345 West 13th St


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In May 2009, Extell Development commissioned a closed competi-tion for a new condominium com-plex to be built on West 20th St in New York City. Located in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood, the design intent was to reflect the area’s artis-tic community and eclectic person-ality.

Inspired by the modular systems of shipping crates, the design features six independent modules housed by the building envelope. These articu-lations are rotated on two axes not only independent of each other, but from the building itself. The glass curtain wall encased is rotated fur-ther on an additional axis result-ing in three conflicting rotations per module. Extensive studies with both real and virtual models were neces-sary to maximize variability between components.

The building’s facade then be-comes a vertical landscape. Varia-tions in shadow patterns transform the facade and in effect change the face and personality of the building throughout the day.

Extell DevelopmentCondominium Design


1st Fl RCP

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A successful Las Vegas developer commissioned the complete renova-tion of a tri-level private penthouse on Park Avenue in New York City. As a regular commuter to New York, the client needed a secondary home for himself, his girlfriend and a wealth of personal belongings in a limited space.

The client had a large collection of art deco furniture and art pieces. Having these objects on display, despite spa-tial constraints, was a necessity for him. To accentuate the art, central axes define the two lower floors maxi-mizing circulation and viewing angles. Every room was used to display at least one of the collector’s pieces. Conse-quently, each room became inviting, opening the confined space.

The second goal of the penthouse apartment was to accommodate the extraordinary wardrobe of both the client and his girlfriend. The client’s closet was in a relatively smaller space so each article of clothing was on dis-play in an attempt to open the area. On the contrary, the client’s girlfriend’s closet was in a separate room of the apartment accessible by guests. This resulted in a concealed storage area based on an automated conveyor system to once again maximize space while minimizing the footprint.

Private Residence52 Park Ave

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Established in 1902, Hotel Wales is the oldest operating hotel in New York City. The boutique hotel commis-sioned a full interior renovation of the twelve story building located on theUpper East Side. Design challenges in-cluded spatial efficiency, special ac-commodations for the hotel’s admin-istrative staff, and aesthetic continuity with the history of the building.

Other major tasks presented by the client were the timing and deadlines for the project. Since the hotel was relatively small and regularly oper-ated at maximum occupancy levels, construction needed to be fast, effi-cient and well planned. As a result, the design allowed for construction to proceed in stages so that the hotel could operate during construction as efficiently as possible.

Modernizing the historic buildingalso proved challenging. Incorporat-ing traditional proportions and car-pentry techniques while also usingmaterials like steel and glass was par-ticularly problematic. The solutions came down to the details. Correctly and stylistically designing the transi-tion from a chair rail and a base board to a frosted, glass wall for instance, proved successful only after meticu-lous design.

Hotel Wales1295 Madison Ave

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This 30-storey, 270-unit condominium tower sits along the East River in New York’s most up-and-coming neighbor-hood: Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Designed in collaboration with FXFowle Architects, the luxury kitchens and bathrooms weremy area of focus. Twenty kitchens, eleven master bathrooms, three secondary bath-rooms and four powder rooms were cre-ated to retrofit the condominiums. Each room type was uniquely designed to ac-commodate code restrictions, ADA re-quirements, and budgetary constraints.

Marketable aesthetics were also im-portant in the creation of the kitchens and bathrooms. Each respective space was designed as two-dimensional planes translated into three-dimensional space. In the kitchens, a marble slab falls from the ceiling, turns 90° to form the coun-tertop and turns again into the floor like a waterfall. The master bath countertops reflect this design and repeat this con-cept in the tub and shower. The second bath also incorporates rotating planes but instead of marble uses mirrors from the ground to the ceiling.

Along with the completion of all the construction documents for the tower’s kitchens and bathrooms, my participation in the project included weekly budget and design meetings, project management by redlining construction drawings and working closely with Kim Wendell Design rendering studio to accurately display the design intent.

Northside Piers, Tower 2164 Kent Ave

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(1) residential zones

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(2) industrial zones

(3) commercial zones

(4) high-speed roads

(5) all zones

(6) greenspace + beaches

(7) low-speed roads

(8) New Broadway

(9) new proposed urban plan

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In the spring of 2006, the mayor of South Amboy asked Mario Gandelsonas’ Princeton University studio class to re-think and influence the design of New Jersey’s small seaside town. Once exclu-sively a shipping town, the street grid of South Amboy is now riddled with rail-road tracks and highways limiting the ac-cessibility to commercial activity and in-hibiting the growth of the town.

My analysis was conducted in a two-stage process. First, by using GIS mapping the entire site was dissected into com-mercial, residential and industrial zones, significant roads and park areas. Based on this information a three-dimensional site plan was extruded representing the street grid as a web of literal street walls. This led to the second stage of the anal-ysis which identified where the street walls imposed forces on other areas of the grid. Obvious forces like Highway 35 circumscribe the grid and push stress away and into the town. More subtle forces, like Main St, bisect the grid, seg-regating the east and west sides.

The resulting solutions incorporated new roads to alleviate stresses within the city network. Roads connecting both the north and south highways make the streetscape more permeable. Further-more, extending Potter St away from Main St and into the rectilinear frame-work creates a new accessible center of town and a more cohesive street grid.

Street Grid StudiesSouth Amboy, NJ

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These studies investigate the inherent qualities and abilities of conventional space within open and closed environ-ments. My first study examined the free plan. Structural columns remove load-bearing walls from the plan, increasing customization of space. Yet, the plan is not truly free as the column grid dictates inhibits the layout. My design moves the load-bearing elements to the exteri-or, freeing the plan from the column grid and freeing the section as well. Vertical circulation is moved away from the pri-mary space. The free plan and free sec-tion allow for maximum customization of the interior and accommodates a di-versity of programs.

My second study investigated more conceptual ideas of space. Inspired by the work of artist Dan Graham, I creat-ed a house to examine spatial dichoto-mies. Designed as a series of pavilions, each independent structure fulfills the normal requirements of a basic home. Over the course of a day, walls change in transparency and reflectivity. For in-stance, the occupant of the toilet can sometimes see outward from within, while people outside only see a mirror. Sight lines are directed by mirrored sur-faces that allow the occupants to see in every room. Omniscience is achieved in a room that is conventionally consid-ered private and closed. The rest of the house features similar dichotomies.

Investigations of SpacePrinceton, NJ

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The senior studio course at Princ-eton had students examine an un-developed block in the heart of Coney Island. Students were asked to create a center for perform-ing arts within the site. My pre-liminary analysis focused on sec-tional cuts through the area as op-posed to conventionally using site plans. Interestingly, I found that the city’s street wall did not end at a building’s façade, but instead ex-tended beyond into the surround-ing shops, restaurants and amuse-ment game areas. The resulting de-signs tried to capture this unique aspect of Coney Island.

Since the site focused on perform-ing arts, dance was used to inspire its formation. Four dance techniques were analyzed by mapping out the dancer’s body position in four basic moves for each technique. By ar-ranging each move sequentially like section cuts through a building, a structure forms which was later real-ized in virtual and physical models. Translating these forms from sec-tions to plans resulted in a continu-ous, flowing enclosure alluding to the program within.

Sectional StudiesConey Island, NY

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Under the direction of Paul Lewis of Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis Architects, Princeton’s introductory architecture studio worked exclusively by hand. Asdigital media now overshadows the field of modern architecture, this introductory studio taught students to represent theirconcepts and theories through underval-ued traditional techniques. By using only graphite, paper, a parallel rule and chip-board the studio completed two projects.

In the first project, students were given the front elevation drawing of GerritRietveld’s Schroder House. The task was to extrude the elevation, translating a two-dimensional drawing into a three-di-mensional structure. My design extrudedthe geometries of the elevation at a ta-pered angle of 30⁰ to create a series of tri-angular prisms. By extruding at an angle, the original elevation and the remainingthree facades become secondary to the structure. Four new projections becomethe primary elevations for the buildingsubtly re-orienting the viewer.

The second project similarly used a two-dimensional drawing as the founda-tion for a three-dimensional extrusion, yet reversed the process. A plan of the Bar-celona pavilion was used as a planar sec-tion cut and extruded. Study models were constructed to investigate the design pos-sibilities which focused on viewable space and the free plan. The supplemental hand-drafted drawing displays the struc-ture as an isometric unfolding.

Hand DraftingIntroductory Studio


DCP Axonometic

62277 BBaltiltic St Apt 3 Brooklyn NY 11217 j mike zee@gmail com+1 612 616 0273Mike Zee

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The Municipal Art Society (MAS), a non-profit architectural activist group estab-lished in 1893, commissioned a massing study of the Coney Island downtown area in Brooklyn, NY. Once considered the “world’s playground,” Coney Island has transformed from a premier amusement park in the first half of the twentieth century to a sandy wasteland. Recently acquired by a private developer, the site was to emulate a Las Vegas-style resort. Outraged, communi-ty groups, the Department of City Planning (DCP) and MAS offered alternatives to be reviewed by the City Council.

My participation included constructing three comprehensive virtual models of Coney Island that compared the DCP’s plan, the MAS plan and the site’s existing condi-tions. I also attended weekly meetings and was responsible designing the amusement area for the MAS plan. In an effort to refine the DCP’s suggested plan, there were three main goals MAS wanted to achieve.

First, the site featured many historic icons such as the Cyclone rollercoaster, the Wonderwheel, and the Parachute Jump, all already named as historic landmarks. Other buildings such as the Child’s Build-ing, Nathan’s and the Shore Theater should have been considered landmarks under the request of MAS. Second, MAS suggested that the open air amusement space be ex-panded from nine acres to 27 acres to sup-port Coney Island’s traditional entertain-ment features. And third, MAS opposed the DCP’s plan for waterfront skyscrapers that obstructs views of the waterfront and the amusement area.

Urban DevelopmentConey Island, NY

Skyline of Existing Conditions

Skyline proposed by NY Department of City Planning

Skyline proposed by Municipal Art Society

Massing proposed by Municipal Art Society

Existing Site Plan DCP Site Plan MAS Site Plan

MAS Axonometric Existing Axonometric

crop

accent eye color

soften lighting

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remove blemishes

adjust contrast

deepen blues

reduce reflectionfix button hole

Collection 2009

Christin Holzer

m1:+1.917.952.5201m2:+1.646.736.7619

135 Central Park W. New York, NY 10023

[email protected]

D O W R Y D E S I G N S

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Dowry Designs, a start up fashion line for women’s dresses and jack-ets, needed graphic designs for the company’s promotional materials. Be-cause Dowry Designs lacked a clear, es-tablished image for the line, the first graphics were intended with expan-sion in mind. Instead of reinventing the company’s brand repeatedly in the future, the design was decidedly simple and elegant in order to co-evolve with the growth of the fashion line.

Designs such as the company logo, clothing labels, business cards, invita-tion postcards and a detailed portfolio were required. I worked closely with the company’s founders in many one-on-one sessions for various projects. For-mation of the company logo is an ongo-ing project.

One of the first graphics produced was the Dowry Designs invitation postcard. These 5” x 7” invitations, used to at-tract people to events for the company,showed four selections that best repre-sent the fashion line. The layout as well as choice of photographs was important to attract attention while displaying the company’s depth. Although the pictures were professionally photographed, each image required detailed touch ups and color balances to optimize display. The same alterations were required to create a detailed portfolio intended for buyers.

Graphic DesignDowry Designs


Design in the built world not only encompass-es conceptual theory, but also requires a prac-tical framework to progress from idea to reali-ty. On a micro scale, furniture design expresses this notion very well. To learn more about the fabrication process, I designed and constructed a console table.

The design of the table was limited becausea band saw was the most advanced machinery available to me and the project budget was low. A 5’ x 8’ sheet of Medium Density Fiber (MDF) wood was used as most other woods were ex-pensive and could only be purchased at pre-cut dimensions. The MDF sheet could only be cut in perpendicular lines, however, restrict-ing the table to a rectilinear design. The con-cept features four legs that continue passed the planar surface of the tabletop clasping it downlike hands. At the base, the legs continue like feet and are held together by a plane similar to the tabletop.

After carefully developing the design, I found that the table’s construction process required special care. MDF is an aggregate of multiple wood pulps compressed under intense heat. The result is a material with two smooth fin-ishing sides and rough, porous edges. If water happened to seep into the edges, the pieces would bow and destroy the table. To prevent this, dry wall solution was applied to the MDF to seal the edges and create a smooth finish after sanding. After applying a primer to fur-ther seal the wood, the table was coated using oil-based lacquer paint and then finally assem-bled.

In retrospect, I learned that MDF may have not been the most suitable wood to use. Re-stricted to oil-based paints, eco-friendly water-based paints could not be used. Additionally, I found that cutting from a single sheet of MDF decreased the precision of the woodworker’s cuts, increasing the need for adjustments.

Console TableFurniture Design

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