Zachariah P. Joder

The Pistol House was my graduate thesis and focused, through architectural design, on affordable home ownership and creating social equity and economic opportunity, all through the lens of ecological stability and change over time. The design itself is focused on the residents’ evolving relationship with both the ground plane and water as the climate continues to change. From individual units, to lot by lot mixed use, form based development, to the urban fabric of the city- the system proposed provides a means to integrate and preserve the culture and current identity of the city in spite of the fact that, not if- but when disaster will strike again.

In 2016 as an incoming graduate student to the architecture program at MassArt, I helped to collaboratively design and build a 5,600 SqFt park for the Dedham Community Arts Center. The project transformed a large, underutilized plot of land on the Art Center’s property, creating an outdoor gathering space for the local artists and connecting the center itself, through the park, to the small river that wrapped around the property. My role in the class was to manage the budget, construction process, material deliveries, and to act as the primary interface between the class and the client.

In 2017 I co-taught the Community Design & Build class for the incoming graduate architecture class at MassArt with Shane Gibbons of Structure Design Build, and Sam Batchelor of Design Lab Architects- who started the class. I helped lead the class through a collaborative design process with the clients, managing the budget, construction schedule, and fabricating and installing the design.

Back Bay Branch Library was designed to accommodate a wide range of users, from children to adults. The building acts as a community anchor and gathering space for the neighborhood as a whole. The contrast of stone at the street level and metal cladding above allows the building to both integrate with the neighborhood aesthetic at the street level, as well as denote itself as a public building. Large glass windows at ground level help welcome the local residents and passersby.

I designed this cabin in the woods to be a retreat for an artist. A modern take on a timber frame home, exposed wood and open glass expanses help to create a place of comfort and connection with nature both inside and out. The upper, entry level of the cabin gives way to generous living spaces, while the lower, deck level of the cabin acts primarily as building function and studio space. I chose corrugated metal siding and vertical hardwood planks for their simplicity and resiliency to the elements. These two exterior materials act as a metaphor to describe the dichotomy between the natural and built worlds.

The Williamstown Center for Political Discourse was conceived as a hybrid building programmatically. To reflect the Town Hall and Community Council structure of the town’s political body, a large meeting hall is central to the design while adjacent wings are split- with one wing housing the offices of town officials and clerks that serve the public on a daily basis, while the other wing houses policy research spaces that offer opportunities to students of Williams College (after which the town is named) to intern and gain experience in the realm of political science, conduct research, and help facilitate public discourse between the Williamstown’s elected council, the college and the local residents.

The goal for this project was to offer a viable solution for the use of an area of the waterfront just north of downtown Newburyport. Better understanding how Newburyport’s urban decay in the 1950’s has contributed to how the waterfront is currently used, as well as why this area has continued to stagnate, was crucial to the design process. Applying the understanding of where Newburyport as a town is now, and where it’s trying to go - offered valuable insight in the formulation of a common ground solution.

The Symphony Student Art Center was designed as communal space to connect students across the Colleges of the Fenway. A variety of gathering areas, creative courses and studios, and shared shop spaces, bring all of the local student artist under one roof. At the street level, the Center offers a professional, student run gallery to engage with the pubic and provide a formal public front for the Colleges of the Fenway’s artists and their work.

Original Paintings, Illustrations, & Photographs