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.

One Bedroom and Common Space Assignment

Our final project for the semester was a one bedroom apartment and common space at the St. Elmo's Hotel. Our final  project had to show two floor plans, eight elevations, four perspectives, a section, and materials. The apartment space given had very few windows and since the building was on the historic registry the exterior could not be changes, so there couldnt be any change to the windows. so to bring in more light into the room i lowered the interior walls to eight feet from ten hoping the light will travel. Also the client wanted use of glass blocks so with the bathroom walls the covered the last two feet with glass blocks. I went with an analogous color scheme of greens and yellows with neautral accent colors. I incorperated my concept statment of memories being layers with modular shelving not only are they usefull for storage but they also add a creative design esthetic. The overall project was a lot of work and inclued countless hours. compared to my other past projects i have seen a huge growth in my design, sketching, and drafting. Since there was so much space to work with in this final project it was difficult to make sure everything worked well with each other. You can never tell if things work until you see them in a perspective or a colored model. Below is images of my colored model. This way you can see how all the colors and materials relate to each other.

over all of the apartment

living room

kitchen

bedroom

bathroom

Habitat for Humanity

We had the opportunity to work with the habitat for humanity house in Union Town Washington. As a large group we cleaned up, put up dry wall, painted doors and the garage door as well. A few girl and i worked mostly on the dry wall and it was a lot of work but it was something that we were pretty excited about doing. When we were done for the day the garage was done. It was so much fun bonding with all my class mate and of course it always feels great giving back to the community.

Client Brief

This semester we met up with our client Seth owner of the st. Elmo's hotel in Palouse WA. His goal is to renovate the hotel into apartments and spa. His goal was to keep the original building as much as possible and keep the building as eco-friendly as possible. There were several complications with the building but there came to be solutions with every problem through out the project. One material that Seth could not go without was glass blocks. At first I thought it would be complicated to get that into a mondern comtempuary deign but as always we figure out away. In our client brief its is noticable that there were complications and goals that every client has, and as an Interior Designer it is your job to solve it.

Project Feedback

Over this past Thanksgiving Break I had the opportunity to get positive and critical feedback on my current one-bedroom apartment project. I met up with Interior Designer Sarah McGroven from Milieu Design downtown Spokane Washington. McGroven gave me several tips on my floor plan and helped me strengthen my creativity on how to bring in more natural light into a space that doesn't have much flexibility. She also gave me more ideas on how to show off my concept in my design of the one-bedroom apartment. It was an educational experience to learn from her in our meeting but it was also a valuable experience to see the day and the life of an Interior Designer. McGroven took me to her studio and a few of her co-workers studios and I had the opportunity to look at some of her current projects. It was so nice to get advice from a professional Interior Designer. This opportunity also made me realize that there is no right or wrong answer to Design it just on how you see it and creating something that you think will please others. Sarah McGroven helped me so much in my project, I'm excited to see the out come. :)

St. Elmos Bathroom Design

For the Past two weeks we have been working on a bathroom design for the St. Elmo's 2 bedroom apartments. For this design I stuck with my concept model of diagonal lines, layers, and natural hues. I also brought in a little inspiration from the paint "The Birth of Venus" with it's sweet natural color hues. I found some parts of this project difficult because it was focusing on ADA design and making it wheel chair accessible. To make it wheel chair accessible there is front and side access to the toleit, five foot turn around, large shower, grab-bars, three foot door entry, and front access to the sink. I found it challenging to find the right tiles but i enjoyed it. I wanted to go for the natural stones and not have it feel so cold. I picked an Italian mosaic tile that captures the light. I also brought in a artistic pendent light that i enjoy that resembles the "Birth of Venus" well I believe. I am pleased with the outcome of my design and ideas.

Sketch Crawl With The Urban Sketchers

We went to the Seattle Sculpture Park and had a great time sketching. It was a beautiful day to just get out and draw what was in front of us. I have never gone out with a large group before to just do some sketching and share our work after, for it being my first time I really enjoyed it. One of the things that made this experience even better was that the Urban Sketchers joined us and they are a group of extreme talent, they shared their work with us and one lady gave me some useful pointers. A pointer that I will take from is this that to bring your eye to only one area and just make that part shine that other area of it is just the frame. After looking at her work I feel like that is advice to take. It was a great time and I just simply enjoyed it. :)

With Pastels 

Flare and Color Pencils 

Habitat For Humanity Home of the Future

Habitat for Humanity was having a display in Seattle by the Space Needle of the home of the Future. It was mainly focused on susantable materials and energy saving. Ways they came up for energy saving was the wetbox. They had all their appliances all connected to each other, this includes sinks, dish washer, washer, toilets, and water heater. This way there would be only one water line. It doesn't just save on cost but it make the building process a lot faster. They also did double wall insulation and double windows to keep the heat in the home. Another idea was that they used large windows to the home seem larger and to bring in more natural light. I thought that the home layout was interesting and it was a great opportunity to learn about the habitat for humanity organization.

Quick Sketch of the Home

Job Shadowing With Starbucks

This was a great day I had the opportunity to spend the day at the Starbucks Headquarters and learn about their design and concept. We toured the headquarter and had the chance to admire the beautiful building.  We had the opportunity to meet several people and learn about their position and the work that they provide for Starbucks. I learned that Starbucks has three base design concepts, Heritage, French Industrial, and Artisan. A lot the the employees there gave us a lot of pointer for an interior design life style. A lot of the Things that were shown to us where top secret so unfortunately i wouldn't be able to share them with you. But overall experience was wonderful and I hope someday to work for them, I feel like its a different rout for design that is so appealing to me. One main thing I gathered from them was practice practice practice and time management.

Kitchen Design

Over all Presentation of Kitchen Design 

Materials used

Perceptive Sketches

Model of Design

From my concept models I wanted to show layers, diagonal lines, and organic tones. I provided layers by having multiple counter heights. I also provided a lot of shelving units and display cabinets. My corner sink and cabinets were inspired by the diagonal lines in my concept model. Also the color scheme and materials chosen were inspired by the organic tones, I stuck to greens, white, and browns; and sustainable materials. I was pleased with the final project and I feel like it represented my concept model well. Also with the display shelving I designed a opened display unit representing the idea of having multiple view points. On the cabinet fixture I chose a white paneled pattern because the inspiration chosen was a country song and also my rustic light fixtures were also chosen for the same reason. I wanted to related to my inspiration and concept model while design my kitchen and I believe I did the best I could. This project was a lot of work but I was please with the out come.

Ride Don't Walk

Me at the counter, with starbucks <3

Having the experience of riding in a wheelchair and having to perform daily task was eye opening. Having proper hight is really important and also door openings and sometimes turnarounds were hard to perform. One problem i did have was trying to get to a door when the door was on a slope. Even though the door was automatic opening for wheelchair access it was really hard to get to the door and help was needed. I also learned that people that have to get around in a wheelchair must be really strong.

My view to a counter 

My sketches From the Wheel chair perspective

Me at the sink

My view at the sink

Concept Models from Inspired Song Lyrics

My inspiring song for my concept models was the House That Built Me by Miranda Lambert. from this song were the words memories, to go, and tree. The word memories resembles layers to me they can be the same size and different sizes. The phrase "to go" paints a directional line so lots of vertical lines. The word tree gave me the idea that organic feels had to be involved, so texture, shape and color. For my models that what I focused on layers, diagonal line, and organic feels. After modeling my three concept models I decided that I wanted my final model to feel more open and have a view point from all angels. So my final model represents layers, diagonal lines, and multiple viewpoints.

Concept Models

Final Concept Model