Gallery 3 — Jessie Shuby Portfolio

Mixed-Use Apartment Building

Cornerstone Commons

Individual Project

Project Description: The Milford Harbor building and site is slated to have commercial mixed-use space with retail, commercial, and service businesses on the first floor. The building site will include exterior public space. Residences are located on floors 2-5 to include a mix of, for example, studio/one or two-bedroom apartments. One penthouse is on the top floor and can have private access to the rooftop. The roof will include outdoor spaces for tenant use only. This is an adaptive reuse project with the goal of achieving LEED, Living Building Challenge, Well Building standard, and Living Building certifications.

Community Description: Cornerstone Commons is the hub of the community, focusing onenvironment, location, and engagement. Boasting the utmost biophilic experience while idolizing nourishment, equity, and beauty through accessible and universal design. The idea of space will be integrated by addressing individual community needs of personal, private, and social environments.

Location and place allow for the community to be collaborative and form connections with others. Cornerstone Commons is going to invite the public to take advantage of all that it has to offer, from the community garden and farmer’s market to participating in pop-up events held at the corner cup coffee shop. Collaboration and creativity of individuals will be encouraged to thrive when working in the co-working space, where individual professionals and smaller companies will be given the opportunity to rent office space within the facility. These types of social spaces will guide the engagement of Cornerstone Commons.

The outdoor space and rooftop terrace will become an oasis where individuals can escape from their day-to-day routine to focus on themselves and their mental health. Through the effects of biophilic design, these personal and private spaces will create an environment where areas of refuge can be found, while being immersed in pure nature.

Cornerstone Commons will transform the lifestyle of its community through healthy interior environments that will urge the creativity and engagement of individuals through the location and natural amenities it has to offer.

Milford Research

History - Then & Now

February 1, 1639, is the date the area then known as “Wepawaug” was purchased from Ansantawae, chief sachem of the Paugusset Tribe.
The settlers built a grist mill by the Wepawaug River in 1640, to take advantage of its water power.
By 1822, the town had grown large enough that residents in the northern and eastern sections of Milford chartered the Town of Orange.
During the next century and a half, the remaining section of Milford was known for shipbuilding, farming, and oystering.
Because of its location on Long Island Sound, during the later 19th century, Milford also became known as a beach resort for residents of New Haven and Bridgeport.
The city became host to several headquarters of multinational corporations, including the Schick Shaving company, and the headquarters for the Subway chain of fast-food restaurants. The US operations of BIC were headquartered in Milford, but in March 2008 moved most of its operations to Shelton. Milford Hospital has also developed into an important health care resource for the area. It has also become home to smaller national corporations such as K-Mart and Orchid Medical.
Ecology

The Connecticut Audubon Society was founded in 1898 by Mabel Osgood Wright, a pioneer in the American conservation movement. From the beginning, we have focused on conserving birds and their habitats in Connecticut, through science-based education and advocacy.
Coastal Center at Milford Point.
A total of 315 bird species have been seen at the Coastal Center.
Ospreys nest in the marsh.
Vulnerable species such as Piping Plovers and American Oystercatchers nest on the beaches.
Snowy Owls often spend the winter in the area.
The nearby waters of Long Island Sound and the Housatonic River are rich in oysters and clams.
The dune habitat supports rare plants.
Population of Purple Martins occupies a colony at the edge of the marsh.
Culture & Demographics

Milford celebrates its annual Oyster Festival, which serves as a combination of a typical town fair with a culinary celebration of the town’s location on historically shellfish-rich Long Island Sound.
Community spirit and “giving back” are a vital part of the Milford way of life. Fortunate to be the home of multiple service clubs and organizations, Milford rarely will let a week go by where the community is not invited to participate in an event.
The Milford Chamber’s “Festival of Lights” brightens holidays when the city “Green” is illuminated with over 50,000-holiday lights, shopping, and entertainment.
The Devon Rotary brews up an Oktoberfest complete with Bavarian food and music.
With a 2020 population of 53,289, it is the 12th largest city in Connecticut and the 745th largest city in the United States.
Milford is currently growing at a rate of 0.09% annually and its population has increased by 3.94% since the most recent census, which recorded a population of 51,271 in 2010.
The average household income in Milford is $118,018 with a poverty rate of 4.71%. The median rental costs in recent years come to $1,580 per month, and the median house value is $312,500.
The median age in Milford is 45.5 years, 42.1 years for males, and 47.8 years for females

Design Strategies

Community Access & Engagement

Community C16 - WELL Building Standard
Provide public spaces, amenities, and programming for community members to gather, socialize and collaborate.
This WELL feature requires projects to designate a shared, flexible public space for use by the surrounding community, and to offer programming that engages local individuals in managing or utilizing the space in diverse ways.
Buildings that provide spaces for public use can encourage greater social interaction, social networks, civic engagement, physical activity, and collective feelings of community ownership, thereby reducing public health challenges like stress, depression, and chronic disease in the surrounding community. Additionally, projects that offer community programming can foster social cohesion, community empowerment, and collective trust, which are linked to decreased risk of heart disease, stroke, and mortality and improved physical and mental health, happiness, and healthy behaviors. Project owners and developers should consider how built spaces can be made more available to the surrounding community, encourage use by a variety of individuals and promote equitable community improvement and engagement.
Accessibility and Universal Design

Community C13 - WELL Building Standard
Provide buildings that are accessible, comfortable and usable by people of all backgrounds and abilities.
This WELL feature requires projects to comply with basic accessible design requirements in their region and integrate principles of universal design into the design and operation of the space. Spaces and places that are truly accessible are not limited to compliance with local code. Rather, they invite individuals with diverse abilities and mobility needs to use the space. Both accessible and universal design address multiple aspects of a built space, including infrastructure, signage and technologies, and together seek to enhance the opportunity for all individuals to exist independently and comfortably in a space.
Universal Access to Nature & Place

Equity Petal • Imperative 16 - Living Building Challenge
The project may not block access to, nor diminish the quality of, fresh air, sunlight, and natural waterways for any member of society or adjacent developments. The project must also appropriately address any noise audible to the public.
For any project (except single-family residential) located in Transects L3-L6, the public realm must be provided for and enhanced through design measures and features that are accessible to all members of society, such as street furniture, and public art, gardens, and benches.
Access for those with physical disabilities must be safeguarded through designs meeting the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Architectural Barriers Act (ABA) Accessibility Guidelines.
Food Production

Nourishment N12 - WELL Building Standard
This WELL feature requires the provision of space, infrastructure, and tools for on-site food production.
Increasing access to locally grown food is important for many reasons, including food access and sustainability as well as community-building efforts. Individuals who participate in communal gardening projects have increased fruit and vegetable intake, higher social engagement, and a lower likelihood of consuming less nutritious foods such as sugar-sweetened beverages or processed sweets.
These benefits have been shown to extend beyond the individual gardener, with participation in community agriculture associated with increased household fruit and vegetable intake as well.
Beyond the nutritional benefits, gardens can also help fortify social cohesion, increase physical activity, provide on-site educational opportunities and increase perceptions of community safety.
Local food production cultivates equitable access to healthy, sustainably grown food and raises awareness around health and nutrition.
Beauty & Spirit

Beauty Petal • Imperative 19 - Living Building Challenge
The project must meaningfully integrate public art and contain design features intended solely for human delight and the celebration of culture, spirit, and place appropriate to the project’s function.
To ensure that beautiful Living Buildings contribute to their communities’ sense of place, delighting and inspiring their occupants for generations to come.
The project must contain design features intended solely for human delight and the celebration of culture, spirit, and place appropriate to its function and meaningfully integrate public art.
All projects, regardless of program, must incorporate elements that celebrate local culture. This might be a celebration of art, intellectual achievement, or the customs, arts, and social institutions. and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social groups. The intent is to deliberately create architecture that contributes to the occupants’ and community’s sense of place through a connection to the regional vernacular.

The Psychology of Home

Understanding Personal Space

-In intimate moments we will be up to 18” apart
-In personal situations, we’re 18 inches to 4’ apart
-In social situations, the distance grows from 4’ to 12’
-In formal situations, we’re over 12’ apart
Establishing Privacy

There are two types of privacy: audio and visual. It is mentally distracting when you can see and hear others, and being distracted is very different from needing privacy, from a mental health perspective.
Crowding

Crowding is a personal perception; basically, we feel crowded when we believe that there are too many people nearby. Though it is primarily an issue of perception, crowding causes very real anxiety.
Conversely, being in a space that is perceived as too open and empty can be just as upsetting as being in one that seems too crowded