WSU IT Building Design

Office Space Case Study

Case Studies

Gentry Public Library

Community Woodshop

Stuttgart City Library

Happy Lab

Pufferbelly Station Remodel

         This Semester we were assigned to remodel the Pufferbelly Station here in Pullman Washington to become a gallery, studio, and residential space. We were to find a Northwest artist and design our space for them. I designed for Fields and Fields who does glass blowing in portland. We also had to find our inspiration from the Pufferbelly station and I found this broken down wall that showed layers of lass, brick, and plaster. And from my inspiration I came up with my concept of layers, texture, and organic lines. From my inspiration and artist I came up with the title Naturally Occurring because the art work from my artist is inspired by nature and the idea of the wall slowly breaking down over time naturally occurred.

        The textile design was pretty enjoyable for me because it was something different then we usually do. It was challenging to pick out your final parti to put into your design and to figure out the pattern you wanted. But it was rewarding to get your design on the computer and printed. It was exciting for me to do this because it was another part of design that we got to work with that I never had the chance with before and to now have the resources to do that again is excited. Designing the textile was a new experience that I enjoyed very much. 

        Another component of for the project that was enjoyable was the bench design. What I loved about the bench design was that I was able to find components from my inspiration and my parti that I liked and put them in my bench design. I was able to see a lot out of my bench design so it was exciting to be able to continue it in my design of the Pufferbelly station. I also learned a lot about welding in my design because of all the research i had to do for the construction of it. 

       Space planing was a difficult task for me on this project because the artist I picked did glass blowing and an ideal glass blowing studio is in need of about 2,000 sq. feet. The square footage of the pufferbelly station is about 4,000 feet and with the space given I was having a difficult time of using the space. Another challenge with the space planning was to fit the residential space that was ADA accessible with 36" door ways, 4 foot wide halls, and 60" wheel chair turning radius in all rooms. So figuring out the space planning was difficult but I am pleased with how my design turned out. 

        This was my first time ever design a gallery space and I found that to be difficult because I didn't want it to be simple and white like more gallery spaces you see. So to make it a different space I brought in my concept. I use the materials and the designs of my bench design and turned it into shelving and display units. being able to use my concept in my gallery space made the space have so much more personality and I felt like it really worked with the art work of Fields and Fields. One thing have could have worked on better on the space and the flow of walking through the space. 

       One of the most challenging aspect of this project for me was 3-D modeling. I haven't yet figured out how to model yet. It was difficult to do the roof as the skill to model a rood is different from putting up walls. I think it would be beneficial someday to take a class in 3-D modeling. I'm happy though that my model actually came together/.
      I am pleased with my final product it was a great project that challenged me in so many ways. It was a project that worked with both commercial and residential spaces and making them work with each other. I believed it to be a great project that taught us many things and was challenging at the same time. I enjoyed this project vary much. :)

Process Board- With Fabric detail/ inspiration/ concept statement/ and site plan

Exterior elevation/ and section focusing on ceiling hight

Floor plan with furniture

Egress and ADA access floor plan

Gallery View and gallery materials 

Kitchen and kitchen materials

Office/ studio/ and living room views and materials 

Hotel Lobby Sketch

Last Semester we were learning how to draw perspectives and this is a hotel lobby I sketched up. My idea was a fun, unique, modern, city hotel lobby. I was learning how to render cement flooring, and wood coffee tables. I would someday like to re-draw this lobby and see if I have improved on my rendering.

Textile Design

Parts of the text-tile Process Design

My inspiration for this text-tile was a picture I took of a broken down layered wall. From my inspiration I used layers, texture, and organic lines for my text-tile. We did a process of inspiration exploration and abstract sketching, and working in photoshop and designing the pattern. I am pleased with the outcome of my fabric and plan to use it in my semester project. Also a thanks to SpoonFlower for printing out my fabric.

Art Gallery Experience

Entrance to the Emily Carr Exhibit

Inside the Exhibit

The Emily Carr exhibit is in the Greater Victoria Art Museum down town Victoria B.C. Canada. Emily Carr is a painter that uses oils and acrylics. She studied art in France and came to Canada to use the landscapes as her inspiration. The exhibit is a smaller exhibit it is about 40 by 45 feet and approximately  1,800 square feet.  The wall were moveable and it was minimal light on the art. The walls were colored block and it represented her art well but it was slightly distracting because her art also used a lot of color.  The ceilings were wood planks and the floors were cement with a glossy finish. It was a simple layout which was easy to fallow and made it so you wouldn't miss any work. Color blocking the walls was a way for you to fallow it. There was lots of open space between the pieces so multiple people could look at the same piece at the same time. There is also a bench in the center of the exhibit so people can look at the work and take a rest. One thing that I thought was nice for the exhibit was the story of the artist was the first thing you saw once you walked into the exhibit. It was a smaller exhibit that was easy to fallow and represented Emily Carr well.

Impaired Vision Experience

Using an ATM machine and feeling it to find the numbers 

One experiment was to read an article through a plastic bag

We had to wear glasses with rubbing cream on them. This is a photo with the glasses on and the glasses off.  

As a class we have to do a vision impaired test, so we can see what are important things to have in an environmental space for the visually impaired person. The reason for doing this is because our current project is designing a residential space for a person who is visually impaired. On thing that I realized through all the experiments was that there are several different types of impaired vision and that it should be a goal in all designs that it should always be accommodated. I have two uncles that are fully blind and the accommodations for someone that is fully blind and vision impaired are different. When I was walking through the halls with the glasses with rubbing cream on them I was depending on the lights in the room.  Lighting is really important and smooth surfaced floors. It would be difficult to live with impaired vision so as designers it is important for us to accommodate for the vision impaired.