UG3
UNDERGRADUATE STUDIO
ARCH 432 - FALL 2024COORDINATOR
Jacob ComerciPROFESSORS
Jacob Comerci, Craig Borum, Olaia Chivite Amigo, Angela Cho, Dawn Gilpin, Francesca Mavaracchio, Malcolm McCullough, Keith Mitnick, Cyrus PenarroyoThe Postal Service
The United States Postal Service has played a critical role in the early development of the U.S., establishing a communications infrastructure that connected cities, towns, and remote settlements. In its early years, the USPS promoted literacy, education, and commerce while enabling civic discourse. It provided an affordable and reliable means for people to stay connected, regardless of distance.
Today, the USPS remains the most widespread government agency, with the largest fleet of trucks and the most brick-and-mortar locations across urban and rural America. However, its role has diminished significantly. The rise of digital communication, e-commerce, and electronic payments has drastically reduced reliance on traditional mail. Since 2006, the Postal Service has been unprofitable, facing competition from private couriers, internal inefficiencies, and regulatory constraints. This decline is reflected in post office architecture, where older buildings conveyed permanence and civic identity, while newer ones are often smaller, more generic, and cheaply built.
For architecture students, the post office presents a multilayered design challenge: balancing logistics and security with public-facing operations, integrating with the larger postal network, and reimagining its role in civic society.
PROJECTS
Malak Atwi - Bioregional Market
Katerina Jonna - UNBOXED
P.O.+ [Post Office Plus]
You might not think about the U.S. Post Office all that much. Maybe you haven’t visited in a while. Perhaps your prevailing associations with the Postal Service are limited to junk mail, long lines, cheap construction, and disgruntled employees. It’s true that the Postal Service as an American institution is hurting, and has been for some time.
Historically, the United States Postal Service has been a cornerstone in the development of the United States, responsible for creating a communications network that linked diverse communities across the nation. It promoted literacy, education, commerce, and civic discourse by providing an affordable and reliable means for communication. In contemporary America, the USPS remains the most widespread government agency, with the largest fleet of vehicles and the most physical locations in both urban and rural areas of any government or commercial entity. Despite this reach, the USPS continues to face significant challenges, grappling with cultural, social, and technological changes that have led to a decline in use of their services.
Post Office + addresses this decline head-on, challenging students to propose a new model for a post office in the city of Ypsilanti, Michigan. The imperative for the USPS to adapt or face obsolescence calls for creative solutions that not only address current issues but also reimagine the post office as a vital civic center for years to come.
What’s your Post Office +?
STUDENT
Malak Atwi
PROFESSOR
Jacob Comerci
The USPS’s current work is largely involved with package delivery, especially with the decline of paper mail. But with its network and infrastructure, the USPS has the potential to be more than just a passive handler of products.
This project proposes that the USPS take on a more active role in commerce by connecting suppliers, makers, and consumers, by being involved in the production and distribution of goods.
Today, advancements in service focus on convenience and remove social interaction, thus increasing social isolation. This project addresses this issue through a sensory-rich Bioregional Market to reintroduce meaningful interactions within the physical space.
STUDENT
Katerina Jonna
PROFESSOR
Jacob Comerci
This reimagined USPS integrates a commissary kitchen and market, transforming the post office into both a social hub and an exposed system of infrastructure. The commissary kitchen provides affordable, shared space for local food entrepreneurs, using the USPS’s distribution network to expand their reach. Meanwhile, the market fosters everyday social interactions, positioning the post office as a civic gathering place.
The design reveals the USPS’s back-of-house operations—sorting, packaging, and distribution—through layered circulation, allowing visitors to engage with the unseen logistics that sustain both postal and food economies. This transparency strengthens connections between infrastructure, commerce, and community.
PROJECTS
Carlos Morales-Amates - Hollow
Fatimah Almutawa - Surface Exchange
Post Office Box
This studio foregrounded architectural approaches toward establishing resilient community resources that looks to recent histories, current situations, and future possibilities. We paid close attention to material ecologies, embodied and operational energy implicated through the act of making and the ongoing, but uncertain occupation of spaces constructed through those acts. Additionally, we became familiar with passive systems that address a broad array of challenges brought on by the increased frequency of extreme weather events and shifting weather patterns while elevating the expression of the architecture as a collective community value.
We took advantage of the material and architectural resources of the the U.S. Postal Services (USPS) as an abundant and broadly dispersed yet underutilized urban and rural fixture. After reaching a peak of around 213 billion units in 2006, USPS has experienced a year-on-year decline in mail volume every year since. In 2023, the volume of mail delivered by the USPS dropped to just 116 billion units. This has resulted in a shift toward centralization and a constriction of the broad network of postal branches, leaving behind a significant inventory of buildings and outposts. Our studio used the U.S. Post Office Building in Columbus, Indian by Roche Dinkeloo as a model to adapt to a more resilient community asset along side a reduced USPS operation.
Our aim was not be to redesign the postal service, but to re-conceptualize the role that a public institution can play in supporting a community.
STUDENT
Carlos Morales-Amates
PROFESSOR
Craig Borum
This project merges a post office with a resilience hub, both centered on communication. While post offices bridge physical distances, resilience hubs provide essential services like internet access and education. Inspired by Kevin Roche’s use of arcades for connection, I reimagined circulation and focused on the building’s large hollow columns (6x6x14 ft). Each column takes on a unique function, workspace, storage, water retention, or satellite support, creating a modular, self-sustaining environment. By repurposing these historical elements, the design blends past and future, ensuring accessibility, adaptability, and resilience for the community in Columbus, Indiana.
STUDENT
Fatimah Almutawa
PROFESSOR
Craig Borum
The design expands on the civic role of the post office to facilitate various forms of exchange. Through the keeping, peeling, and superimposing of basic architectural elements in the existing post office building designed by Kevin Roche in Columbus, Indiana, the new space becomes a hub for intercultural displays of resilience. Tables, walls, grounds, and sinks simultaneously accommodate both the mundane tasks of a post office visit and the unplanned programs during times of crisis. The result is an architecture composed of localized moments that come together and reinforce the collective identity of the space and its users.
PROJECTS
Tala Dababna - PodHub
Jae Won Lee - Interaction
PopUp Postal
This studio proposes utilizing temporary “pop-up” strategies as an alternative framework to traditional post office building. Here, "pop-up" refers to structures and spatial configurations that can appear and disappear; potential scenarios are tested and alternative uses are considered through research into materials and technologies for what a post office might offer.
These types of structures have played a role in development throughout the US Postal Service’s history, from inhabitable vehicles like highway buses, rail, and air mail services to pop-ups during high-demand periods and disaster events. Building upon this past of innovation, the studio will explore transient strategies that may offer new ways to maintain, expand, and embed post offices within the communities they serve.
Pop up postal explores imaginary scenarios that consider alternative networks, partnerships and uses for post offices through pop up strategies. These pop up structures have played a role in development throughout the US Postal Service’s history, from inhabitable vehicles like highway buses, and rail mail services to pop-ups during high-demand periods and disaster events. Working in Kalamazoo, MI, the studio explores these transient strategies that may offer new ways to maintain, expand, and embed post offices within the communities they serve.
PROFESSOR
Olaia Chivite Amigo
STUDENT
Tala Dababna
PodHub reimagines USPS spaces, aligning with Gensler's vision for a new future for USPS real estate by integrating a podcast that focuses on community engagement, and business support. The design includes a post office, a podcast space, and a fabrication area, all within a flexible structural grid that blends functionality with urban design.
PodLock, a modular movable pop-up, hosts different events aimed to support local businesses while also being a package pick up spot. These spots are determined based on the PodSpots map, that strategically relocates the PodLock to drive foot traffic to underserved businesses. Inspired by the postman’s deep connection to communities, PodHub revitalizes USPS as a dynamic space for interaction, storytelling, and economic growth.
STUDENT
Jae Won Lee
PROFESSOR
Olaia Chivite Amigo
Revitalizing postal spaces, the design integrates pop-up post offices and a hub building to enhance accessibility and engagement. Inspired by Kalamazoo’s mural history and the WPA program, it merges art and function to foster community interaction.
Rotating walls enable flexible layouts, support local businesses, and provide a platform for artists. The hybrid HUB design connects indoor and outdoor spaces, while mobile pop-ups adapt throughout the day. Using murals as storytelling tools, the project strengthens community ties, promoting activism and shared narratives. Reimagining the post office, it becomes a dynamic, interactive hub beyond its traditional role.