Jones Portfolio

Cam Jones Architecture // Urban Design

DTLA Super-Battery Research Studio Instructor: Neil Denari In 2023, the Los Angeles City Council re- zoned the downtown area to allow for 250,000 new residents. 吀栀is represents 20% of the additional allowed housing in city limits, but it occurs on only 1% of the city’s landmass. 吀栀is will result in extraordinary densi昀椀ca- tion of downtown Los Angeles. 吀栀e DTLA Super-Battery proposes a way to accommodate this population growth by re- placing the 110 freeway with a regenerative urban district that bundles energy, water, and housing into a single thermodynamic system which supports the radical densi- 昀椀cation of downtown LA and expands the concept of infrastructure. 4 5

Decommissioning the freeway produces 88 acres in downtown LA for: Housing (3000 units) Large Hydropower Storage (165 MWh) Solar Energy Production (2200 MWh/year) District Cooling Public park space Shade Circulation Stormwater Management MacArthur Park DTLA 6 7

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吀栀is infrastructure bundle achieves: - Power grid resiliance - A culture of density unique to Los Angeles - Improved proximity to energy storage - 吀栀e survival of a hot climate By drawing the systems that support urban life right into the middle of the densest part of the city, we bridge the metabolic rift that currently exists between cities and their surrounding ecologies. 10 11

Hedging the Commons UCLA AUD Studio Project Instructor: Katy Barkan To explore strategies for densi昀椀cation in LA, this project refutes the dominant historical narrative of boosterism and suburban fan- tasy of Los Angeles. To this end, I envision this community as a prototypical design for a mixed-use development appropriate for new modes of ownership including TIC’s, Co-Ops, or community land trusts. 吀栀e basic form is a rectangular array of multifamily modules which range in square footage to accommo- date varying household sizes and needs, but I also focused on a ubiquitous feature of LA’s suburban landscape: the hedge. Historically hedges in LA have been used to enclose and delineate private space; Here I employ them to blur the distinction between public and pri- vate, as well as residential and commercial. Circulation through the site is managed by the hedge, and the hedge continues to weave throughout the development, which obscures not only the privacy of each area, but also the boundaries of the units and 昀氀oors. Unit mod- ule rotation allows for a Venn-diagram e昀昀ect, in which neighbors might share a staircase with one neighbor but a porch with a di昀昀erent neighbor. My overall ambition for this project is that by creating a blurred spectrum from public to private and by utilizing a tool of pri- vate enclosure to create shared areas, we can explore new typologies for a dense and resil- ient Los Angeles. 12 13

Hedging the Commons Floor plan Cam Jones 14 15

Site.Bound Comprehensive Studio Collaborator: Sam Merecicky Instructor: Georgina Huljich 吀栀is retro昀椀t project proposes a university-a昀케liated material research lab built on the site of an existing concrete plant. Bearing in mind that no site is a blank slate, my partner and I considered the site as the fundamental driver for this project by designing the project around aesthetics of earthen materials like ceramics, concrete, and rammed earth. In construction these materials are often comprised of aggregate and binder, so we imag- ined the facility as an array of monolithic aggregated volumes uni昀椀ed by a lightweight canopy above, the binder of the project. 吀栀ese two contrasted elements are linked by the angle of the existing warehouse roof, which is carried through the project on all sides, and the sense of compliment between the lightness of the roof and the heaviness of the volumes emerges as the motif of the project. We continued to draw the site into the project by designing a facade system based on a ceramic tile module which we suggest slip-casting on the soil of the site itself. 吀栀is tile system also underscored our dialectic of lightness/heaviness: since the tile is perforated, it contributes to a heavy earthen look for the building volumes in daytime lighting, but at night it appears as a light rainscreen, with interior light spilling out. 16 17

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Goals for this project included a high degree of technical resolution and signi昀椀cant veri- similitude between drawings and models. We consulted with structural and facade engineers to contribute to project precision. 20 21

Extreme Environments I Advanced Topics Studio Collaborator: Katie Angen Instructor: Kevin Daly In this project we used a straightforward tec- tonic mechanism to address complications introduced by the extreme desert climate of Joshua Tree, California. In this case we used individual volumes of housing and art- ist workshops to support huge stressed skin roofs which shade the entire site, producing a series of castellated beams. 吀栀ermal mass- ing is achieved through partial underground stories, gabion walls, and rammed earth, which contrast the stressed skin roof in both aesthetics and tectonics. 22 23

吀栀e gateway to the site is a small art gallery - the partial subterranean story of the build- ing not only improves thermal massing, it also provides integration with the landscape. Upon approach, the stressed-skin roof beyond is just visible hovering above the berm that makes up the planted roof of the gallery. 24 25

吀栀e rest of the site is organized around an arti昀椀cial arroyo across which the program morphs from public to private and urban to residential. 吀栀e roof system has a cross- grained panelized system, producing a basket-weaving style lighting e昀昀ect. 吀栀e water drainage from this system reinforces the arroyo, transforming the site into a process landscape which settles into the larger ecology of Joshua Tree. 26 27

Extreme Environments II Advanced Topics Studio Collaborator: Katie Angen Instructor: Kevin Daly For this second iteration of the same pro- gram, we adapted our tectonic approach for the extremely cold cliamte of Mam- moth Lakes, California. Rather than using rammed earth volumes, 3 CLT mechanical cores act as the structural supports for this e昀케cient triplex, turning the whole mass into a castellated beam. 吀栀is structural system supports a snow load and allows for an open 昀氀oorplan and a cantilever of about 25 feet o昀昀 the edge of a sloped plateau, creating a dra- matic site strategy. 28 29

In addition to the siting strategy, the tri- plex embodies the dual nature of summer/ winter in Mammoth Lakes by presenting as a mute black bar wrapped in black pan- eling upon approach, with a warm wood- en interior evident from the opposite side. 30 31

Water / Power UCLA AUD Studio Project Collaborator: Jane Wu Instructor: Jason Payne 吀栀is studio project is a LADWP electrical substation situated in a synthetic land- scape which introduces a shallow 昀氀ooding technique borrowed from Owens Lake into a Los Angeles golf course. Our intention with this approach is to examine the political economy of the relation between LA and the Owens Valley by 昀氀attening any hierarchy between people, land, water and power, and converting an exclusive golf course fairway into a synthetic 昀氀oodplain by excavating an extant channelized and buried creek and reusing the water to demonstrate the behavior of a 昀氀oodplain un- der varying saturation conditions. 吀栀is dynamic hydroscape mirrors the ephemeral and unpredictable drought/昀氀ood cycles of Los Angeles and California as a whole. 32 33

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Symbiotic Biomass Advanced Topics Studio Collaborator: Riley Hammond Instructor: Simon Kim 吀栀is project began with a reverse process: We ex- amined the physical qualities of substances not typically seen as construction materials, including sourdough bread, balloons, and ceramic follies. 吀栀en we used the tectonic logics of these materials to inform the design of a future public commons in an unusual site: the La Brea Tar Pits. 吀栀is exer- cise in world-building led us to develop a commons which obscures the distinction between humans and non-humans, and instead expresses itself as a node in a larger system of heat and nutrient ex- change, projecting a world where the tar pits are positioned not as a site of death, fossilization, and carbon emissions, but as a domain of compost, fer- mentation, and fecundity. 36 37

Casey Hughes Architects Project Model 40 41

Previous / Personal Work Lucky Wheels Garage In 2015 I co-founded, designed, and opened a community motorcycle shop in a former manufacturing facility. We o昀昀ered tools and space at an a昀昀ordable price to motorcyclists who were lacking a shop to work on their machines. Lucky Wheels presented an accessible, inclusive, and af- fordable co-working space for people in the community to gather, work and learn, and became a social node within the mo- torcycling community in central LA. 42 43

Photo courtesy of Ruben Riermeier 44 Photo courtesy of Alicia Elfving 45

No-Hardware Shelf 吀栀ese custom shelves 昀椀t together with housed lap joints, so they don’t require any tools or hardware for assembly. 46 47

Custom Autos Hand built chopper made from vintage parts locally begged and borrowed Camper van designed and built in the smallest available van, a Ford Transit Connect 48 49

Thank you for your interest. All photos by Cam Jones unless otherwise noted 50 51