First Week of Reconsideration

In the past three days, I have learned a few things about myself and design, the first being that I push myself way too far and don't even realize when I have gone too far. After sitting down with my professor (Elizabeth) and later on with my critic group (Addie and Alyssa), I realized the scope of work I had planned to do would only be possible if I did not sleep the next several months and had a team of 5 people to help me!

After this discovery, I have narrowed down the amount of work I will be doing for my capstone in order to remain sane and healthy. By focusing mainly on the two mezzanine levels, the lobby portion of the first floor, and a section of the second floor, I will be able to touch on each area of design while remaining as close to, but still a little over, the required 30,000 square feet. The second floor will contain hotel rooms that can be duplicated on floors 3-9 but will not be added into the overall square footage of development.

When narrowing down the spaces, I was able to place the entire restaurant/kitchen along with the laundry, maintenance, and facilities on the first mezzanine level. The restaurant will be accessible to people on the street along with the hotel guests. I originally wanted to create a large conference/business center however, time and space do not allow me to accomplish this. Instead of a conference center, a business center with several small conference rooms and individual work rooms will be located on the second mezzanine level along with a lounge and the flower shop.

For the hotel rooms/levels within the building, I have chosen to design the southeast corner of the floor with intentions of that particular space to be mirrored for the rest of the floor. This will allow me to devote my full attention on a smaller area of the building while still accomplishing the idea of developing the entire hotel space.

My critic partners and I discussed each of our projects today at length. The talked about the pros and cons of developing only these small areas of my building but came to the conclusion that developing smaller areas of the building would allow me to design several different spaces to the fullest. Other input with my group included ideas of space planning for the mezzanines and first floor that helped organize the ideas and goals I have for the project. When discussing Addie and Alyssa's project (specifically Alyssa's) I learned that the disconnection of the spaces and pieces within my building are issues that others are dealing with as well in order to design the required amount of square footage. It is also good to get advice from people who are doing different types of projects that will be able to look at my design from an outsider's view.

Current Neiman Marcus Building 

One Marcus Square 

 Original One Marcus Square building

 Existing Escalators 

 Existing Elevator Lobby & Interiors

Location of the building (purple square)

Overview of the Project

Our senior capstone project is to take an existing building and create a new use for the structure. The building must have a multi-use function that is multiple stories and at least 30,000 square feet. The building I have chosen to redevelop is the Neiman Marcus building (One Marcus Square) in downtown Dallas. 

One Marcus Square currently houses the first Neiman Marcus store along with some of the corporate offices and Zodiac Restaurant. Since the opening of the building in 1914, One Marcus Square has undergone 3 additions and several interior renovations. The building is located at 1416 Main St. in Dallas, Texas on the corner of Main and Ervay Street. It expands the entire west side of Ervay Street and extends half a block across Main. This structure currently stands at 9 stories tall with an ornate exterior design. The additional two stories added on most recently continue with the same style exterior with less ornamentation around the windows than the original 5 stories. 

The building has a total of 279,000 square feet of rentable space, each floor spanning 31,000 square feet. With views of the north, south, and east, the users of One Marcus Square are able to obtain views of downtown and uptown Dallas. The area surrounding the square contains many corporate, offices, restaurants, and loft apartments. Two other boutique hotels are within the vicinity, however when designing the facility, I plan to take a different approach in design that will distinguish itself from the others.

The current Neiman Marcus store is known for the exceptional design of the interiors along with the preservation of the original elevator doors and escalators. These unique pieces of design will continue to remain in the design of Marcus Square Hotel. These features will unite each individual part of the building (Hotel, Restaurant, Flower Shop, Business Center) and give a greater emphasis on unity within the building and within downtown Dallas. Another interesting feature of the building are two mezzanines that sit on the south side of the building directly on top of one another, looking onto the first floor.