Week 5: Finishing the Design and Modeling

This week has been a very busy week finishing the design of the building and beginning the process of modeling the space. After meeting with Elizabeth on Monday, I realized that there is only so much space planning I could do before moving onto looking at the space three dimensionally. I began looking at different options of how the lobby, lounge, and restaurant layouts would translate vertically.

After finishing the design and layout of One Marcus square, I began the modeling process with the hotel rooms and suites. This experience has been very interesting because I have been focusing on every detail of the room from the door placement to where the wall and exterior meet. I have modeled most of the furniture and developed the wall unit that will sit behind the bed that functions as both an intricate detail along with a head board.

With developing the room I have also found a room divider unit made by the sliding door company that I will incorporate into the design. I have chosen the room dividers rather than walls and windows in order to use the space efficiently and also take into consideration the existing exterior window placement. Other areas of development are the restrooms in each room/suite along with space planning the lounge, theater, and business area of the hotel room floors.

The meeting with my group members this week was short and productive! With Addie, we discussed the issue with her middle loft and how there was no window in the bedroom. We helped her think of the best solution for that center space and discussed placing the gym in that center space. With this, she was going to have to adjust her program, however it was important that this change be made since her building plans were not to code with the middle loft. Alyssa continued working on the development of her restaurant and lounge. She worked with Willie more on the concept for the interiors and creating a model of these spaces. We were also able to see the model that Willie created which showed the interiors and connection of each space much better than the drawings we had seen before.

Week 4: Thinking volumetrically

This week I continued to develop my floor plans more clearly. I used all the advice I received from my peers and professor to come up with the best layout for each area. After spending so much time on the floor plans and refining the details of how each area would be laid out and set up, I began to think three dimensionally. This 3D thinking turned into several simple elevations of areas. This allowed me to understand what would be going on in each area and how my ideas would be executed and where they would be going.

When refining my floor plans, I looked to my partner’s for advice. Addie looked over my restaurant with me and Alyssa helped me with my hotel rooms and restrooms. Each of them gave me great advice on the layout of the areas that I applied to my design.

During our weekly group meetings, I helped both Alyssa and Addie with a few of their issues they were having with their projects. Addie had trouble understanding the direction of the egress stairs. Alyssa and I both looked over it with her and determined the flow egress and which direction/set of arrows she needed to use in her floor plans. We also gave her the idea of using the elevators in the top story of the loft apartments. She was going to cut off all use of the elevators to the top floor but by allowing for only use of the top floor by the resident, it allows for a handicap person to live in a 2 story loft. With Alyssa, we helped her determine what needed to go in a few different areas and also helped her with some of her three dimensional ideas and how to execute them. I also helped her think of a few different ideas of what she could do for her third design area. We discussed some type of retail and came up with several different types of stores that succeed in this atmosphere. 

Week 3: Further development of floor plans

Week 3

This week I continued to develop and redefine each floor plan. I focused mainly on the restaurant and penthouse suites and came up with 2-3 more options that work better than the original layouts. These designs also are more clearly defined, especially the penthouse suites because I have picked out the furniture for these areas.

After much confusion on how a restaurant kitchen works, I did more research on how they are laid out and the process in which things are made. After developing the kitchen in a way that has access to a wet wall and access to the receiving room, I was able to focus on the development of the restaurant itself. This included a process of designing dining areas with different types of seating rather than just tables and chairs. I also learned that it is best to have tables up against the wall in order to create more floor space and seating.

The past week I helped Alyssa determine which areas she needs to focus more on when developing her floor plans. She was over in square footage and we found areas that can be out of scope but will eventually be developed with similar aesthetics to other areas within the building. When meeting with Addie, we discussed and looked at the circulation in her building, mainly with the upper levels. I also looked over the floorplans she has developed so far and commented on furniture layout and design.

Week 2 & Snow Days

Week 2 started off well when meeting with Elizabeth. I gained some good feedback on my stacking and block diagrams that I created and discovered that there are several more options that the building interiors could be laid out. I have been struggling with the flower shop's location mainly and trying to find the best place for it. One option is to have it on the 2nd level mezzanine that will overlook the lobby and could be accessed by visitors but would mainly be used for the restaurant and hotel. However, with this idea I lose the customers on the street. Another option was to bring it into the lobby and have a separate street entrance. 

After meeting on Monday, we got hit by a blizzard along with a second set of snow. This has caused a huge delay on my project and has put me behind somewhat. During the blizzard I was able detail my program which allowed me to see exactly how much square footage I needed per space. I then was able to move my car and get to studio for a day and begin working on schematic floor plans. These plans were only for the hotel rooms and suites (excluding the penthouse suite). The rooms were quite tricky to design because I had to create an intimate space that worked around windows and columns. The suites were also difficult to design because of the limited amount of space I chose to design. The section of the hotel area in which I will design has ample space for 3 suites however, because of window placement, one room will be considered a small suite while the others are large suites. 

I wasn't able to meet with my group this week however we did discuss what we had done over email/facebook. I look forward to meeting with my group next week when the snow clears out. Hopefully I will be able to get my car out of the ice and snow and get to studio tomorrow in order to come up with 3 schematic floor plans for the restaurant, 2nd mezzanine and also the lobby area.