1. ARCH
ITEC
ARCHITECTURE
DANIELL AZALCMAN
P O R T F O L I O
TURE

3. TABLE OF CONTENTS:
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LERNER PROJECT
THE ERASERS PROJECT
MANHATTAN TRANSFORMATION
STUDIOS
EAMES SUITCASE
MIDTOWN PASSAGE
BIKE-SHARE STATION
LIBRARY PROJECT
}
NEW ORLEANS RECOVERY
SEMINARS
RECYCLABLES
EVOLUTION OF A SKYLINE
ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY
THE MAKING OF MANHATTANVILLE

5. LERNER PROJECT
A graphic study and the resultant model from a
project to photograph and document the Columbia
University student center, built by functionalist
architect (and former Columbia Architecture
School Dean) Bernard Tschumi. This particular
design attemted to capture the fragmented,
effervescent quality of light as it interacts with the
glass northern facade of the building, particularly PERCEPTION
during dusk. FALL 2006

7. THE ERASERS PROJECT
This project is a visual analysis of an excerpt from
Alain Robbe-Grillet’s 1953 novel The Erasers, where
the protagonist documents his travels through an
anonymous -- presumably fictitious -- French city.
This model is a physical mapping of the interplay
between the main character’s narrative conscious
and his dialogue with the strangers he encounters
throughout the 30-page passage.
PERCEPTION
FALL 2006

8. MANHATTAN TRANSFORMATION
New York City’s zip code system is illogical and
often arbitrary. Neighboring codes are seldom
consecutive, and more often than not jump
hugely from zip to zip. How, then, could this
strange disorderliness--in a city of grids and
consecutively numbered streets and avenues--
be repaired?
This model attempts to address the island’s
seeming lack of organization by
simultaneously highlighting its gross lack of
contiguity and allowing anyone to interact with
the model (and thus, Manhattan) on his or her
own terms. The completely malleable outer
frame of the island can be shifted across all
axes to reorder the zip codes in any system
desired. Since each individual zip code is
placed in ascending height according to its
number, the first and most obvious
realignment would be to create a new
Manhattan with a consecutive and contiguous
series of zips. The entire structure can even be
unwound and reconnected to place the codes
on the island’s exterior, inverting Manhattan’s
habitat from isolated island to a lake ringed by
small communities. Structure can be set in mo-
tion, and order can be created from chaos.

9. ABSTRACTION
SPRING 2007

11. EAMES SUITCASE
Human have spent years trying to come up
with creative ways to control light
diffusion in interior spaces. In Charles and
Ray Eames’ home, however, the two archi-
tects developed a binary language of
light--either fully allowing the Santa Monica
sun to penetrate their house’s numerous glass
panels, or completely deflecting its path with
the facade’s opaque segments. This either-or
construction combined with the Mondrian-
esque linearity of the house’s exterior
elevations drastically changed the way in
which light enters and diffuses a room. In-
stead of predictably and consecutively spaced
windows simply designed to act as conduits
for natural lighting, the geometry of the
Eames House creates within the building in-
tersecting and interacting volumes of sunlight
that each diffuse differently throughout the
interior. My suitcase aims to echo the many
ways in which light and translucency interact
with each other and to capture the segmented
way in which those volumes project them-
selves through space. Where one section
might look solid, a few abbreviated move-
ments show that in fact the illusion of opacity
merely comes from a series of interacting and
cooperating units which each interact differ-
ently with ambient lighting. In this way, light ABSTRACTION
becomes a volumetric solid; capable of creat- SPRING 2007
ing its own space within an interior.

13. MIDTOWN PASSAGE
Midtown Manhattan is home to dozens of mid-
block passages that constitute privately owned
public space, most of which were created by
zoning changes in the 1970s that permitted de-
velopers and architects to build taller structures if
they included public passages. This project is an
exploration of how those public spaces could be
enriched from their current conditions to include
programmatic function -- in this case, as an open- DESIGN I
air book exchange program.
FALL 2008

15. BIKE-SHARE STATION
This project is an exploration of Manhattan’s
perimeter and its transportation infrastructure.
Situated at the 72nd Street Boat Basin, the
bike-share station functions as an extension of
the bike path, creating both a resting place for
cyclists and a vista from which to observe and
contextualize the New Jersey and Lower DESIGN I
Manhattan skylines.
FALL 2008

16. LIBRARY PROJECT:
PROGRAMMATIC DETAIL
This project is rooted in the examination of
existing library systems and structures in an effort to
create a small-scale design model linking program, material,
and space. The detail to the right is a section of an automated book
retrieval and reshelving system housed in the underground core of a library.
The library’s main floor is left open and available for the other programmatic functions
frequently associated with libraries

17. DESIGN II
SPRING 2008

19. LIBRARY PROJECT:
CHINATOWN SITE
Given a location at the corner of Canal and Eldridge
Streets in Manhattan and a list of specific programs
to include, this project is an exploration in specific
site construction. This library combines the usual
functions of a standard NYPL branch with space for
an outside organization, the Center for Urban
Pedagogy. Housed in the interior core of the building,
CUP’s offices are allowed to interact with the rest of
the library through the translucent strips of plexiglass
that act as windows for the interior space and ex-
trude to serve as bookshelves in the library’s exterior DESIGN II
space. SPRING 2008

21. NEW ORLEANS RECOVERY
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, amateur photographers
posted more than 500,000 images of New Orleans and the
surrounding area on photo sharing sites like Flickr,
Webshots, and Pbase. This project was an attempt to
collect and organize just some of those “crowdsourced”
images through a group we created on Flickr to create an
interactive map of existing conditions and ongoing
renovation in the Mississippi Gulf region.
[With Jane Price Estrada, GSAPP ‘08] NEW ORLEANS
SPRING 2007

23. RECYCL ABLES
This project is an exploration and comparison of re-
cycling programs in roughly 20 different cities around
the world. Analytic research and data compiled on
each region’s government-implemented recycling
program is supplemented by images taken by volun-
teers in every city of their weekly recycling output.
While perhaps less telling than raw statistical data,
the photographs will serve as a visual representation
of the diversity and volume of a standard household’s
recyclable output, and an indicator of how successful
various incentive programs work across the world.
ANALOG>DIGI
FALL 2008

25. EVOLUTION OF A SKYLINE
The image of the downtown Manhattan skyline is
instantly recognizable. For nearly a century, buildings
like the former world trade center towers were
symbols of the success of a nation. However, the
evolution of the Manhattan skyline involves a
constant and cyclic process of creative destruction.
Following September 11th and the destruction of the
world trade center, then-Governor George Pataki and
Mayor Rudy Giuliani founded the Lower Manhattan
Development Corporation to initiate a program called
RenewNYC. Over the next several months, the LMDC
approached 24 different architecture firms to propose
their own plans for the site. But the decision process
was contentious and every design was rejected.
In August of 2002, developer Larry Silverstein took
over the project and asked seven architecture firms to
collaborate on a join master plan for the world trade
center. These were SOM, Foster, Shigeru Ban,
Richard Meier, United Architects, Daniel Libeskind,
and Peterson/Littenberg Architecture. This video
shows each of their original designs at the beginning
stages of planning. In a visual description of the sky-
line’s creative evolution throughout this process. ANALOG>DIGI
FALL 2008
[With Christopher Macies, CC ‘09]

27. ARCH PHOTO
FALL 2007

29. THE MAKING OF MANHATTANVILLE
The Manhattanville Valley lies on the west bank of
upper Manhattan, sandwiched between
Morningside Heights to the south and Hamilton
Heights to the north. From the start of its
industrialization in the mid-19th century, the area
was converted from wooded forest and farmland to
a major transit hub for New York City -- containing
the West Harlem Piers on the Hudson, the
landmark Riverside Drive viaduct, and the city’s
first above-ground platform for the first New York
City subway line at 125th Street and Broadway.
By the 1950s, however, rapid urbanization
overtook the rest of the city and left Manhattanville
on the outskirts of New York. Many of the existing
structures were relegated to storage facilities and
autobody shops, and the area began to stagnate
without any significant subculture. Today,
Columbia owns most of Manhattanville, and has
plans to build another campus in the 17-acre tract
from 125th and 133rd Streets between Broadway
and Amsterdam. This project -- which exists at
www.manhattanville.net -- is a culmination of a
semester’s worth of research and nearly three
years of photographs in an attempt to capture
Manhattanville as it exists now -- on the cusp of its
INDEPENDENT
next major reincarnation. FALL 2008

30. HCRA
CETI
ERUT