Project Details

Client : Bedrock
Location : Detroit, MI
Project Type : Architecture, Interior, Landscape
Program : Retail, Office, Hotel, Residential
Building Area : 487,780 square feet
Status : Completed in 2023

**Project completed during tenure at ODA

Designed by Louis Kemper in 1916, the Book Tower is one of the most recognized buildings in Detroit’s skyline. The 486,760 square-foot structure, which was originally an office tower in an Italian Renaissance style, was acquired by Bedrock in 2015, Detroit’s premier full-service real estate company.

An extensive exterior restoration included the replacement of 2,483 historically-accurate windows and full restoration of the ornamental cornice complete with caryatid statues. A historic art glass skylight will be brought back to its original splendor as part of the restoration work.

The role is to update and expand on Book Tower’s programing and existing structures, creating nearly 500,000 square feet of downtown residential, hospitality, retail and office space. The restoration of this 38-story landmark is one of the most ambitious and high-profile adaptive reuse projects in the heart of Downtown Detroit and will provide an opportunity to create a cohesive civic vision for Washington Boulevard; bringing people, place, and events together. The building’s residents and guests will share amenity spaces throughout the different levels as well as awe-inspiring entertaining spaces on the roof of the Book Building portion of the property.

The objective is to add a forward-looking mixed-use program to Detroit’s growing downtown that will meet the needs of businesses, visitors and residents alike.

The plans include a blend of public and private space, including a variety of public amenities in the form of retail, galleries, restaurants and cafe – many with open sight lines to Washington Boulevard and Grand River Avenue – adding to the city’s pedestrian experience. Accessible from multiple sides, the building will serve as a point of engagement in the city center, unlocking its potential as a link between Grand Circus Park, all the way to the Cobo Center.

Project Details

Client : Miraein, SSG Properties LLC
Location : Seoul, Korea
Project Type : Architecture, Interior, Landscape
Program : Retail, Office, Hotel, Residential
Building Area : 370,000 square feet
Status : In Schematic Design

**Project completed during tenure at ODA

Cheongsutgol

Winner of Seoul’s First Creative Innovative Architecture Pilot Competition

Cheongdam-dong is today one of Seoul’s most vibrant urban districts—defined by luxury retail, art galleries, restaurants, and public parks. Yet beneath its contemporary identity lies a deep and enduring connection to nature. Until the early 1960s, the area was reached by crossing the Han River from the Ttukseom ferry dock. Its original name, Cheongsutgol—meaning “clear water valley”—referred to a natural pond that once existed just north of the site during the Joseon Dynasty. The river here was known for being calm and clear, like still water held within a basin.

Landscape, Topography, and the City

Despite its location along one of Seoul’s busiest streets, the site reveals a quieter condition above the urban fabric. From higher elevations, expansive views open toward the Han River and the ring of mountains that define the city’s horizon. Immediately to the south, Cheongdam Park preserves its original hillside terrain—an uncommon condition in the district. This natural topography extends into the site itself, where each corner meets the ground at a different elevation.

Blurring Public and Private Realms

The project responds to these layered conditions—history, landscape, and density—by reimagining the relationship between building, city, and nature. Boundaries between public and private, indoor and outdoor, are deliberately softened. A lifted podium creates new public realms through open plazas, an indoor garden terrarium, and a terraced roof overlooking the city. Within the towers, residences are organized around generous outdoor living spaces and a shared open-air sky garden, offering framed views toward the river and surrounding mountains.

Shaped by the site’s terrain, the podium is elevated to allow movement and access from all sides, stitching the project into its neighborhood. Outdoor plazas at the corners connect through a terraced ground floor and a publicly accessible indoor garden filled with vegetation and water. Daylight enters through a large skylight above, transforming the terrarium into a year-round urban refuge—open day and night, and shared by residents, neighbors, and the city at large.

Project Details

Client : MRR
Location : Manhattan
Project Type : Architecture, Interior, Landscape
Program : Retail, Residential
Building Area : 207,480 square feet
Status : In Construction, to be completed late 2025

**Project completed during tenure at ODA

126 East 57th Street spans the width of a full city block, extending from 56th to 57th Street, and is envisioned as a 175,000-square-foot residential tower. Nearly every unit will include a private outdoor terrace, animating the cast-in-place concrete façade with a sculptural composition of projections and recesses. The primary entrance on 57th Street invites residents through a copper-mirrored gateway into a dramatic six-story atrium, offering views into a lushly landscaped courtyard. A gallery leads from the atrium to the main lobby, which provides access to the 28-story tower above. A secondary entrance, located along 56th Street, features a discreet porte-cochère for convenient vehicular drop-off.

The building’s distinctive footprint and varied layouts allow for a rich sequence of amenity experiences—an array of interconnected, intimate spaces thoughtfully woven throughout the building. These moments, located just steps from each residence, provide places to relax, gather, or explore. Together, they create an ecosystem that fosters a sense of community and enhances the overall residential experience.

Project Details

Client : One World Trade Center
Location : Manhattan, New York
Project Type : Architecture
Program : Retail, Office
Site Area: 74,328 square feet
Building Height: 1,776 feet
Number of Stories: 104
Building Area: 3,500,000 square feet
Status : Construction Complete (2014)

**Project completed during tenure at SOM

Completed in 2014, One World Trade Center recaptures the New York skyline, reasserts downtown Manhattan’s preeminence as a business center, and establishes a new civic icon for the country. It is a memorable architectural landmark for the city and the nation — a building whose simplicity and clarity of form will remain fresh and timeless. Extending the long tradition of American ingenuity in high-rise construction, the design solution is an innovative mix of architecture, structure, urban design, safety, and sustainability.

One World Trade Center is a bold icon in the sky that acknowledges the adjacent memorial. While the memorial, carved out of the earth, speaks of the past and of remembrance, One World Trade Center speaks about the future and hope as it rises upward in a faceted form filled with, and reflecting, light. This tower evokes the slender, tapering triangular forms of great New York City icons such as the Chrysler Building and Empire State Building and replaces almost one quarter of the office space lost on September 11, 2001.

As the tower rises from a cubic base, its edges are chamfered back, resulting in a faceted form composed of eight elongated isosceles triangles. At its middle, the tower forms a perfect octagon in plan and then culminates in a glass parapet whose plan is a 150-foot-by-150-foot square, rotated 45 degrees from the base. Its overall effect is that of a crystalline form that captures an ever-evolving display of refracted light. As the sun moves through the sky or we move around the tower, the surfaces appear like a kaleidoscope, and will change throughout the day as light and weather conditions change.