Boundary County Library Design

The Boundary County Library Project is one that we have been working on for almost the entire semester, and we have gone through many different stages of design to finally end up at this point. We began this project by visiting the town of Bonners Ferry and speaking with the community members of the town to discover what they wanted to see most in the design of the new community center. We then formed teams with the landscape architects in SDC and began to work on this project as a team. This design that our group came up with is that of a brand new building, which entails demolishing the existing building in order to incorporate all of the square footage needs that the different organizations moving into this building require. This is the best option for the town of Bonners Ferry as it will give them all of the space they need, and it will allow for the design of a building exterior that will be better incorporated into the design of the rest of the town. The facade that we came up with mimics the look of the old mill in Bonners Ferry with a pitches roof. It also uses logs on the exterior of the building and river rock to tie it back to the history of the river in the town. Overall, this project gave me experience working with a community, working in a group, and also improving my ability to be flexible and work on my development conceptual design.

Case Study: Rosettarray

This case study was done on a light and art installation in the Rosetta office building in Seattle. I chose this to do my case study on because I remember seeing it when my Dad worked here and also because it was similar to the type of thing I would be designing for my own Atrium project. The glass panels act as a sort of wall between the hallway and the offices on the other side, much like the atrium and the offices that are on the other side of the windows. Researching this design gave me inspiration and sparked my own ideas on what to design for the Atrium in the IT Building on the WSU Pullman campus.

WSU IT Building Atrium Design

The main goal of this design was to create a space that the patrons who will be living with space on a regular basis, would be happy with. In order to accomplish this, our class conducted interviews with the patrons who have offices surrounding this large space. The space as it is now, is completely empty and completely dark with offices surrounding it. Prior to the closing of the atrium when the football stadium was built over top of it, the space was a beautiful outdoor space with natural light flooding in, and plants and trees. Now, the patrons with the surrounding offices look into a completely dark room, with absolutely no natural light. When talking to the patrons, they realize that there is no real way to get natural light into the space, but they would like a space that was usable and functional, but without compromising the privacy of their offices. Many said that they would love a place to go and have lunch and a place that everyone could go and gather outside of their offices. Because of their responses, I came up with this design that not only gives the patrons the privacy they desire, but also a place where they can go and enjoy their lunch, get a coffee, and just take a break from the confines of their office.

Working with actual clients on this project was a great experience, especially since most of the people we spoke with were very enthusiastic about the project and the redesign of the atrium. It was interesting to hear first hand all of their opinions, and was a fun experience being able to apply their wants and needs into my design. Finally, being able to present to the clients and get feedback on my design was another great experience because I could tell how excited they all were to see a positive change to the space, and one that could feasibly be implemented into the space.

Southern Oregon Research and Extension Center

Before doing research on this particular extension center, I had never even been introduced to the term before. After doing research on the Southern Oregon Research and Extension Center I came to the understanding that extension centers are of the utmost importance to the research and development being done at universities. They not only provide research assistance to the universities but they also provide educational opportunities for people of all ages to enjoy in the locations where these centers are located. Learning about this extension center gave me a better understanding of how to design my own extension center and what their spacial needs will be.

Sammamish and St. Croix Falls Libraries

Completing research on these two libraries gave me two very different perspectives on how to design a library, and ended up being very applicable to my work designing the Boundary County Library. The Sammamish library is a completely brand new structure that was built on a completely different site than the original library. The St. Croix Falls Library utilized an old building in town and completely refurbished it to become a beautiful new library. Both of these designs were very effective and work well for each of their respected communities. The design challenge with the Boundary County Library was whether or not to tear it down and start new, or to add on to the existing structure. Learning about both of these buildings gave me an interesting perspective on both when thinking about my own design.

DC Fab Lab

Doing this case study helped me to get a better understanding of what exactly a Fab Lab is. Before doing research on this, I had never even heard of a Fab Lab. After learning about this particular Fab Lab, I was able to understand exactly what the purpose is and how it can be utilized in communities as a learning tool for people of all ages.

Broken Movement

My redesign of the Pufferbelly Depot was a multi-faceted design project that incorporated many steps to get to my finalized design of the residence, studio and gallery. I began by visiting the site to gather information on the space and its history as well as to gather inspiration to begin my entire design process. Once I settled on my inspiration, I then went on to develop my concept, design a textile and a bench, and create a floor plan for an artist of my choice and his visually impaired wife.

The first component of the design process, which was also one of the most fun steps, was going on the site visit to the Depot. I enjoyed this aspect of the design process because I liked being able to actually visualize the space that I was about to embark on redesigning. The goal of this site visit was not only to get a sense of the space and its historical nature, but also to find inspiration for the rest of the project. I took pictures of everything from the light fixtures, to the floor, to the seating and even the exterior sidewalk which is eventually what I ended up choosing as my final inspiration image. I was attracted to this image because I felt that it captured the history of the building and also the purpose of the building. From this image I then moved on to the concept and parti development phase of the design process.



Inspiration image from the sidewalk outside the Pufferbelly Depot



This next stage of the design process, the concept development phase, was the most challenging for me. From my image I knew fairly quickly what I wanted my inspiration words to be; movement, brokenness and intersection. These words were very clearly represented to me in my selected image, but the challenge for me was figuring out a way to visually represent them without being completely literal. I began by only looking at portions of the picture at a time and got ideas that way, but I wanted to come up with a way that I could represent all the parts of my image in my final parti and concept model. After drawing many parti sketches I finally came up with a way to represent everything that I saw in my inspiration image in my final parti and also eventually into my final 3D concept model. I not only wanted to show the inspiration words that I chose, but the color and the shapes in my image were also inspirational to me so I made sure that these were represented as well.

Final digital parti used to create my final textile design

The next step in my design process was to implement the parti that I created into a pattern that would then be created into a textile that I would use in my final design of the Depot. To do this, I recreated my final parti sketches that I had chosen in Photoshop so that I could more easily manipulate them digitally into a repeating pattern. This part of the process was one of the most fun for me because it allowed me the opportunity to really be creative and design something that would actually be a tangible element in my final design of the Depot. I struggled to come up with my final pattern but once I did, I was very happy with the result. Once I came up with my pattern I needed to pick a color scheme for the fabric. I knew I wanted to incorporate the colors from my inspiration image so I settled on a complimentary color scheme of oranges and blues. The final textile that I created is something that I am very proud of not only because it took so long to get to the finalized product, but also because I then had the opportunity to apply something that I had actually created to my final design of the Pufferbelly Depot. 

Final textile design created from my digital parti shown above

Once the concept development was completed, the next step was to design a bench that would be incorporated into the exterior design of the Depot. The bench was to be designed based off of the concept work previously completed. This part of the design process posed to be yet another challenge that I had to overcome because I wanted to create something that wasn’t just an ordinary bench. I started by drawing out many rough sketches that were inspired by my final parti sketch pictured above. At first my sketches were very literal and resembled my parti almost exactly. Although many of these designs looked cool on paper, if they were to actually be built they would not make for very feasible designs for people to sit on comfortably. My next step was to not just look at my parti, but to look more at my actual concept words. When I did this, I came up with a bench design that incorporated aspects of my parti, and also my conceptual words, and was something that would be comfortable for people to sit on. The next step of the bench design was to build a model of the bench I had just designed. This posed yet another challenge for me because I decided to make it out of clay, which proved to be a challenging material to work with. After building the model, it did not turn out as I would have liked, but it did show my concept and if built at human scale, it would have been a comfortable place for people to sit. In my exterior rendering of the Depot the bench is located on the front side of the structure near the entrance to the office.



Perspective Rendering of my final bench design



The final part of the design process was to actually design the Depot. The first step in my design process of the Depot was to determine how I was going to apply my concept words (movement, brokenness, and intersection) to the floor plan. The theme that I came up with was “broken movement.” I applied this theme by creating a floor plan that was very open, but was broken up by the occasional wall, or grouping of furniture to differentiate the separate rooms. I represented intersection by creating all of the more private areas on the edges of the design, and having the most common areas in the central area of the design so that the two intersected in the middle. Once the floor plan was created with universal design and ADA requirements in mind, I had to design the space. One of the challenges of this design was that the spouse of the artist I was designing for was visually impaired so I had to do research on design techniques that are most suitable for someone with this type of disability. At first I thought that this would mean making sacrifices to my design style, but in actuality it made my final design better. It forced me to use more color in my design as well as to incorporate other aspects such as low pile rugs to help differentiate spaces, and to include additional lighting throughout. All of these things are helpful when designing for a visually impaired person, but they also helped to aesthetically improve the space. With this project I also had to consider egress, universal design and other ADA requirements that I haven’t had as much experience with. Overall, this part of the design process was the most fun, but it also challenged me in many new ways and forced me to think outside the box.



Board 1: Rendered Exterior Elevation



Board 2: Concept Development



Board 3: Bench Design



Board 4: Living Room and Studio Rendered Perspectives and Materials



Board 5: Demolition Plan, Textile Application in Gallery and Bathroom Elevation 



Board 6: Rendered Persepctive of Gallery with Materials





Board 7: Annotated Furniture Floor Plan





Board 8: Annotated ADA/UD Egress Plan



Board 9: Rendered Kitchen Perspective with Materials

Board 10: Overall Site Plan and Longitudinal Section

After completing this design project I feel I have grown tremendously as a designer in more ways than one. I not only gained more experience with space planning and furniture placement, but I learned about designing for someone with a disability, egress planning, and other universal design aspects that I will be able to implement in all of my future design endeavors. This project challenged me to design based not on just what I think looks good, but to design with a purpose and to design with a strong concept in mind the entire way through.

Vision Impairment Exercise

Understanding each individual client’s needs is a crucial part in being able to design a space that is the most suitable for them. Recently, I had the opportunity to experience what it would be like to be visually impaired. After completing this exercise I have a new understanding of how living with some sort of vision impairment affects a person’s experience in a space.

To mimic how it would be to be blind I did a few different things to try and get the best possible representation of what it would be like to be visually impaired. The first thing that I did was put a plastic bad in front of my face and attempted to read a newspaper, which proved to be very challenging. Everything appeared to be very blurred and difficult to read without getting extremely close to the paper. However, the larger the text the easier it was to read. Then, using the same plastic bag, I folded it in half and attempted to look through it. This exercise represented being legally blind. When looking through the folded plastic bag it was hard to see anything at all. I could make out the general shapes of things and some colors, but trying to read the newspaper was virtually impossible. The room I was sitting in was very well lit, which I noticed was very helpful as it made way finding and seeing larger shapes much more manageable.

Another exercise that I completed to simulate visual impairment was looking through a vision simulator, which had four different circles of vision loss to look through.  The first vision simulation was central vision loss. In this example the center of my vision was lost which required me to turn my head from side to side in order to get a full circumference of vision. The next example was loss of parts of vision. This type of vision loss made everything seem fuzzy and made things in the room seem very distorted. Tunnel vision was the next simulation. With this type of vision loss it required me to move my head a lot more than was comfortable in order to see everything, much like the central vision loss example. Finally, the last example of vision impairment was complete blindness. With this example I could not see anything.

The final exercise I participated in was wearing a pair of sunglasses smeared with petroleum jelly, which created a type of homemade vision impairment glasses. Wearing these glasses made my vision appear very blurry, but I was still able to see outlines, shapes, colors, light and if I got close enough, I could read some words. While wearing these glasses I walked around campus and tried to complete basic tasks. I rode an elevator and had to make sure I was punching in the right buttons to get to the right floor, I tried to use an ATM which proved to be very challenging because I had to get very close to the buttons to use them, and I also climbed stairs which proved to not be quite as difficult as I would have imagined. The stairs were white, but they had black no-slip strips on the edges of them, which helped me decipher one step from the next.    

Doing these exercises gave me a much more comprehensive understanding of the challenges associated with being visually impaired, and will help me when designing spaces for someone with this type of disability.  I learned that using contrasting colors between different levels of floor is extremely helpful, along with handrails to give people something to hold on to for extra support. Using no-slip strips on stairs is also a necessity on stairs to prevent injury on stairs. The use of natural and artificial light in spaces is also very important because it helps to better be able to see outlines and colors of objects within the space. Finally, using text that is bright or contrasting in color to it’s background is important, especially when the text is trying to convey an important message such as exit signs. Also, the larger the size of the text the easier it is to see. Overall, participating in these exercises was a beneficial experience from me and will help me in future design projects.

                                         Me looking through a plastic bag on campus. 

Spring Break visit to the Frye Art Museum

Spring Break visit to the Frye Art Museum

The Frye Art Museum at 704 Terry Avenue in Seattle Washington opened in 1952 and is the legacy of Charles and Emma Frye who were early-twentieth century Seattle business leaders and art collectors. On display in this 18,000 square foot space are pieces from the Frye Founding Collection of late nineteenth and earl-twentieth century European paintings and also exhibitions that the museum hosts for extended periods of time. When I visited the museum over break the exhibit that I focused on was called 36 Chambers, which is the title of James Joyce’s first series of poems. This exhibit helps to continue the museum’s commitment to the “citizen curator” by inviting the staff of the Frye Art Museum to choose works of art from the Founding Collection based on James Joyce’s poems in 36 Chambers. From this collection I chose one piece of art to focus on that I liked the best. The piece I selected is titled Summer Night, by German painter Hans Thoma, and is oil painted on paper on fabric.

                                                                                                                       

 

Hans Thoma

German, 1839-1924

Summer Night, 1882

Oil on paper on fabric

Frye Art Museum, Charles and Emma Frye Collection, 1952.171

XXIV                                                   

Sleep now, O sleep now,                  

O you unquiet heart!

A voice crying “Sleep now”

Is heard now in my heart

The voice if the winter

Is heard at the door.

O sleep, for the winter

Is crying “Sleep no more.”

My kiss will give peace now

And quiet to your heart –

Sleep on in peace now,

O you unquiet heart! 

Summer Night is a painting of a young boy sleeping in a woman’s arms. The little boy looks tired from what was probably a long, hot summer day and the woman, who I imagine is his mother, looks down lovingly at the boy as the day turns into night. The landscape in the background of trees and a full moon add to the peaceful theme of the painting. The poem paired with this painting makes the painting even more meaningful. The words of the poem speak of love and peacefulness. “My kiss will give peace now and quiet to your heart…” I think this part of the poem is beautiful because it represents the woman’s love for the boy as he is sleeping in her arms.

The design of this museum is simple. When you walk into the museum through the lobby you immediately pass a gift store and then enter into the gallery portion of the space, which is divided into massive rooms with very tall ceilings. The expansiveness of the rooms allows viewers to enjoy the artwork from different angles and distances. In the middle of these rooms were benches with seating for about four to eight people. This was the only seating offered throughout the entire space, which helps encourage the viewer to continue to move through the rooms in the museum. The way the rooms are arranged seems very arbitrary and encourages guests to wander through the museum however they feel. The different exhibits that are being shown in the museum usually have a description of what the exhibit is to help the guests understand what they will be looking at in the separate rooms. The paintings are spaced far enough apart so that the guests viewing the different works will not disturb one another while they are enjoying the art. The paintings are hung at the average eye level for the normal person who will be viewing the art.

The design of this space encourages the best possible viewing experience of the artwork. The walls on which the art is displayed were mostly white/off-white throughout the museum, however in the 36 Chambers exhibit, the walls were painted lilac and the lighting was dimmer than in the rest of the spaces. In the spaces with the white walls there was track lighting on the ceiling, which was the only source of light in the space. The lights were placed so that they did not create a glare, but rather made the viewing experience very pleasant. The combination of the white walls, light hardwood floors and soft light made the space calming and created a neutral slate for the art to be displayed. In the exhibit with the lilac walls, the paintings all had thick frames to separate them from the color of the walls, which helped to frame and emphasize the artwork. The dimmer track lighting made the spaces darker, but did not take away from the viewing of the art.

My visit to the Frye Art Museum was not only enjoyable because I got to view beautiful artwork, but also because I learned a lot about the layout of gallery spaces that I will hopefully be able to apply to my own design work.