Continuation of LaCrosse, WA Conceptual Project

This is a continuation of the LaCrosse, WA conceptual project.  Here I show what I plan to incorporate in my designs for Layers, a teen and senior center.  

Site Visit to LaCrosse,WA

Teen Center Case Studies

I am currently working on a hypothetical renovating project, creating a teen center in the place of old rock structures in LaCrosse, WA in attempts to revitalize their town.  Here there is decreasing in population each year.  I think it is time to re-amp their economy starting first with the next generation to populate their town-the youth.  I am researching other small town teen centers in order to compare and differentiate their mission statements to see why each town created their teen center, and how it has then affected their community and the individual teens within it.  Thus far, I have found that these teen centers have been created to encourage teens to participate in substance free activities as well as develop themselves into the best they can be socially as well as physically through various activities. Here is a poster I have created with the original stone work from the structures in LaCrosse, WA on the right which is the inspiration for my project.  These very stones are the foundation of the old and the new coming together emphasizing the rich history of the very foundation of LaCrosse, WA.

Pufferbelly Depot Final Project

Over the course of my spring semester at Washington State University I completed a project where I redesigned the old Pufferbelly Depot Train Station into a residential home, art studio and public gallery for my artist Kathy Hoiness and her husband. Throughout the project I had to design the space taking into consideration ADA requirements as well as designing for a visually impaired client. Because the building is on the historic registry I had to learn to take into consideration the limitations of changing the exterior and interior space, as I couldn't change doors or windows all that much and had to keep the historic ticket window located in the living room/ office space of the home.  The project helped me really get to know the entire space as I made 3-D models of the building and the rooms within it, as well as made multiple perspectives, interior and exterior elevations, an egress plan, a demolition plan, as well as a bench and fabric to coordinate with the project. My whole inspiration was based off of a rail road tie I found behind the Pufferbelly Depot.

This was my process board which included bubble matrix, adjacency matrix, a site plan, concept development sketches/ partis/ and my fabric module.  This was a very beneficial part of the overall project as you can see my project process and development of the space and how I used my inspiration within my design as I focused on the three main concepts of; foundation, timelessness and power. I found that his is a crucial board to have when presenting as it describes the project process and shows them your though process and inspiration object and how it was Incorporated in the bench and overall design. 

This board included a rendering of the Pufferbelly Depot Exterior as well as an exterior elevation of the Pufferbelly Depot's Exterior and a longitudinal section of the Pufferbelly Depot's interior.  The longitudinal section of the interior of the Pufferbelly Depot was a great learning experience for me as it was a new and challenging way of seeing the space and learning how to show what I had designed.

 This was my materials board which had a matrix showing the different material specifications as well as the different materials used throughout three rooms (two residential rooms and one commercial room).  Putting together this board taught me how to assemble materials together and in what formation to help make the more sense for the client.

 This board for my project had two different perspectives of the master bathroom and of the living room showing the historical ticket booth window wall.  This board also had two elevations of the guest bathroom as well as the laundry room.  My favorite part of this board was the furniture floor plan as you can see the different materials within the space that I had chosen as well as the different annotation explaining various aspects of the different rooms that you might not have known about unless I was there to explain in further detail. 

 

This was a perspective board of the art studio I designed for my artist Kathy Hoiness who does paintings and different sewing projects and one of the kitchen.  This board was particularly important to my learning over the course of the semester as it has proven I have the ability to portray my design ideas through perspectives as well as show my rendering skills and how they have improven.

 

 

 On this board I was able to show my egress plan and my demolition plan.  This was something new that I did not know how to do before.  I really enjoyed learning how to make a demolition plan as I was able to then portray my design, what changes I planned on making as well as show the different water walls I kept.  Also, the egress plan was a great learning experience as it showed me the different ADA requirements necessary as well as the major pathways throughout the space which directly related to my inspiration object of the railroad tie. 

 This was a board strictly dedicated to my exterior bench design.  It was also inspired my the same rail road tie as it represents the over shape of a train, the nail that split the rail road foundation and used the materials of steel from the nail and recycled rail road ties for the bench foundation.  This was a fun part of the semesters learning as it allowed me to be really creative in my design process.  My bench design was not only inspired by the rail road tie, but also by my artists design philosophy of how she wanted to make something out of nothing, which is essentially what I did as I took the nail from the rail road tie which is essentially nothing, and turned it into something- a bench.

 

 This was my three dimensional model of the Pufferbelly Depot which was hand crafted and rendered.  It allows people to further understand the space in 3-D.  This was a great challenge as it is to scale and was very time consuming.  Although it was very time consuming I think it was an essential part in my learningof truly understanding the space within and around the Pufferbelly Depot.



Overall, I learned a lot from this project, learning a new skill or further developing each skill on each board I worked on for the Pufferbelly Depot Project.

Wood work at its finest

The Outside of his Workshop

 A spiky chair made of driftwood

 Life size horse made of driftwood

 Life size whale in progress

 Interior decorative piece made of driftwood

 life size giraffe made of driftwood

 Abstract figure made of driftwood

 Jeffro showing off his piece that was considered

 to be in the Frank Lloyd Wright House

 Book made of driftwood that he uses as his portfolio to show off his work

 

Over spring break I visited a wood museum called Knock on Wood located in Tokeland, WA.  Jeffro Uitto is the owner and wood worker of his successful wood workshop as his works are known throughout the country as he travels from show to show.  One of his pieces of work was one of the top picks for being placed in the Frank Lloyd Wright house.  He did all kinds of wood working from interior decorations such as bird houses and decorative pieces to life size exterior pieces such as horses, giraffes, and whales. All of his works of art are made from driftwood ranging from different sizes and shapes.  Overall he is a very talented man, and I am so lucky to not only have been able to see his work but his upcoming work and the workshop as a whole was amazing to see.

Vision Impairment

By participating in the Impaired Vision experience I was able to see what living with a disability is like on a daily basis.  The first task was to walk around the cub building at Washington State University while looking through a zip lock baggie, which had been folded numerous times to show you what it is like to be legally blind.  I found that while looking through the lenses that was classified as legally blind, I was unable to make out any clear distinctions, leaving only the mere shadows visible to my eye.  The second task was to wear sun glasses with lenses that made us legally blind once again where we then headed down the elevator, where I found it hard to find the correct button if any.  As we exited the elevator we made our way to the ATM.  Here I found that it was hard to find the card slot as well as find or know what buttons meant what.  The third task was to go into the library and walk down stairs.  This task I found was very challenging and somewhat scary as I was unable to see where the next step was, and these particular stairs provided somewhat more of a challenge because of their slight curvature.  All in all, I found this experience very enlightening as I didn’t know how many challenges they faced in their day to day lives, and as a designer I will work to help solve this problem. 

One Bedroom Apartment & Common Space Design

Designing my one bedroom apartment and common space taught me a lot more than I could ever imagine. It was more insightful than a lot of projects I had been working on because it is an actual space in real life located in Palouse, Washington. When designing the one bedroom apartment I found there was a lot more to think about than just the simple things like how big do you want the bedroom, do you want just a shower or bath, etc. I found the hard questions arose of where are the windows, how do they work with the new walls you have developed within the space, what materials are you going to use, how do they work with others within the space, and are they sustainable? After much feedback from various designers and colleagues I have come to the conclusion that I am happy with my design and believe it would be a well liked space. My favorite part about this project was getting to design the space as a designer and getting feedback on it- this showed me a lot and made it just that much more clear that this is what I want to do for a profession.