Set along the levee-lined edge of the Trinity River in Dallas, this project transforms overlooked land into a vibrant, community-focused destination. Rooted in the principles of Semi-Discrete Architecture, the design uses modular systems and responsive materials to integrate architecture with the site’s sloped terrain, reconnecting the city to its riverfront. Through digital fabrication, casting, and a landscape-driven approach, the project blends circulation, public space, and building mass to reframe the levee as a connective threshold into opportunity.

This project envisions a mixed-use community woven into the dynamic terrain of the Trinity River corridor, responding to Dallas’s ongoing efforts to revitalize its urban waterfront. Located between a roadway and a 30-foot levee, the site posed both a challenge and an opportunity: to reclaim disused land and reconnect the city with its natural edge.

Grounded in the theoretical framework of Semi-Discrete Architecture, the design reinterprets the urban fabric through a modular, performative, and materially responsive approach. The project emerges from a studio that emphasized digital and physical making, including digital mold-making, casting, and component-based systems, techniques that not only shape form but also rethink how architecture can engage with social, environmental, and industrial contexts.

The sloped terrain is reimagined through an assemblage of architectural elements that blend landscape, circulation, and building mass. By aligning built form with natural gradients and viewsheds, the design fosters connectivity, accessibility, and engagement, turning the levee from a barrier into a vantage point.

Ultimately, the Trinity River project demonstrates how modular tectonics, ecological integration, and community-focused programming can coalesce into a vibrant riverfront experience—one that redefines the relationship between the city, its people, and the water.