Eager to put our nascent engineering skills to use, I joined Barry Beagen in founding Design and Engineering for Education and Development (DEED), a student-run design-build organization bent on sustainability and social impact.

For our first project, we partnered with Jack Jensen, a local developer who started Community Building Works!. Jensen asked us to design a house that would cater to single parents and minimize utility costs. I designed the Celestory House with an overhang that blocks sunlight only in the summer months and a central brick chimney that radiates and stores heat. The kitchen sink faces the back yard, allowing single parents to watch their kids play as they wash dishes.

In 2010, we partnered with the Downtown Ithaca Alliance to reimagine the site of the Challenge Building, which was overdue for redevelopment. Neighbors had voiced concern about losing solar access and views, as well as enthusiasm about high-quality housing and retail. We embedded 3D massing models of surrounding buildings onto the terrain in Google Earth in order to iterate designs that fit these constraints. I proposed several massing schemes to our partners, such as the Terrace (left) and Branch (right) concepts.