Senior Interior Design Portfolio - ASU HIDA

Chloe Isabelle Cobb

As a new interior designer entering the industry, am eager to gain experience working with a team to grow and learn how to apply our creative skillset to be positive forces in our communities. Practicing interior design offers a combination of my background in fine arts and passion for serving others. I am excited to help further the efforts of the commercial design world to contribute to sustainable solutions. My focus in each design project is to curate a joyful universal experience for both mental and physical well being. Having a mom who is hearing impaired impacts how I approach the importance of accessible design. We all navigate our environment from different perspectives with a variety of needs.

Interior Designer

Steelcase Next Design

Steelcase Semi-Finalist 2023 13,000 sqf

The Boston Seaport is an adapted neighborhood with creative people and new businesses. Boston, like many other cities, lacks in school funding. Less than 1.5 percent of school funding is left for schoolroom equipment and supplies. The Boston office will further NEXT taking steps to fill the gap in access to STEM education both globally and in the local community of their developmental branch office.

Inspired by the gap in access to the Seaport neighborhood from the Boston T train route, the design interprets the intersections and visual pathways of the T map to represent the NEXT mission to fill the gap in STEM education with their culture and physical space. A place that celebrates the intersections of the creative process, uplifts innovation through variety, and employs a vibrant atmosphere with bright hues.

Project Room Design

The process sketch illustrates a form inspired by the Boston T pathways that becomes the consistent geometric strategy throughout the design.

The reception and entrance experience has a bright view of the Project Room maker space and the connection to the inclusive lab which serves the nextgen program.

Open collaboration is important to the NEXT teams. The workstation neighborhood layout ensures that NEXTERS are always steps away from a Project Room, team space, or individual work.

Each workstation neighborhood has a different level of privacy to offer employees comfort without obstructing wide exterior views of the seaport or visual access to team spaces.

The custom booths reflect the repeated metal partitions in a new way with the softness of plant life and comfortable cushions. The lowered ceiling and added privacy make the booths an intimate retreat.

In the work cafe, every seating option has access to power to encourage social collaboration and choice. The center dining space is multi-functional for hosting lunch and learns or casual meetings.

Mountain Park Health Center

Group: Camilla Rojas and Kaitlynn Le

The Gateway Center location holistically works to provide an affordable all-in-one healthcare service, with goals of serving, sustaining, and improving the local Phoenix community.

Our team goals were to facilitate rest, trust, compassion, and a feeling of togetherness through the design of the layout and community access. The symbolism of the desert ironwood tree as plant that represents the binding of spirits and community, translates both the goals of the project and the values of Mountain Park as a client. The desert ironwood is one of the largest and oldest plants native to the Southwest Sonoran Desert and serves as a “nurse plant,” giving nutrients to more than 500 desert creatures and plants. The Mountain Park Health Center design employs the color palette and system of community support of the desert ironwood to connect all users to a thoughtful healing experience.

The galvanized steel shade and partition structures with ironwood bark patterned perforation create an indoor garden effect while also providing shade at all times of day to regulate the interior temperature.

Custom casework lines the glazing with openings for modular Knoll sofas to be installed and easily accessed for cleaning and overall maintenance.

During the design process it was important to our team to maintain a sight line to exterior nature in hallways to promote mental health and improve lighting. Flooring materials distinguish each zone.

The collaborative relationship of the MA provider and doctor teams is supported by a system of private office rooms and open workstations. Each private office room has additional access to outdoor lighting.

Mountain Park needed the ability to use outdoor space for both medical staff to recharge and socially connect. Our team created a patio on both levels with visual privacy, acoustical materials, and soft seating.

For the overall wellness of the patients, we cleared a direct path to an outdoor garden from the public lobby space. The elevator and staircase are also positioned to view the garden as you travel between levels.

Valley Mars Hotel

Floor plan with Madi Magee & Emily Moss

203,100 sqf (18,464 sqf each level)

Located in the Windsor Historic District of central Phoenix, the Valley Mars Hotel stands as a center for tourism and an imaginative representation of the neighborhood’s approach to historical nods to Mid-Century Arizona.

Visitors are transported into the tomorrow-land of the desert; a whimsical space, featuring sleek metallic lighting of the 50s and 60s and the natural planetary elements of the Phoenix desert atmosphere. Integrated throughout the design are glossy corrugated glass, pops of bold chartreuse, layered terracotta hues of the mountains, and the distinguished gold astro man. The signature bentwood millwork, custom circular seating, and funky Cosmic Palm windows reflect the curvilinear presence of the building’s architecture and ode to the local mid-century Windsor historical neighborhood. The vibrant ambiance is matched by geometric tile patterns and lively cool toned paneling that follow you into the futuristic adventure in the upstairs lounge and hotel suites.

The Cosmic Palm restaurant concept leans into a quirky take on the desert landscape as an extraterrestrial environment with a rammed earth wall surrounding the entrance and indoor-outdoor bar.

In the lobby of Valley Mars, hotel guests are welcome to “Sit a Spell” to play cards at the high tables. The custom seating design encourages groups to socialize and enjoy a cocktail in their own lounge.

Upon arrival to the second level, guests first step into the surrealist lounge with an adjacent balcony space. The soft seating, currated bookshelves, and warm ambient lighting are suited to retreat into a good book.

This ADA compliant King Suite plays with the boundaries of privacy between functions. The continuity of the curvilinear millwork connects each element and draws the eye through the space.

The Gold Canary

Building Plan with Hoa Vo & Tran Nguyen Awarded Design Excellence

The project was to create a community collective concept with several different businesses and programs within the iconic MonOrchid building. As a team we were inspired by the building’s significance to the community and its story starting in 1937 during the Phoenix expansion spurred by Teddy Roosevelt in the 30s. Art deco design flourished as seen in Frank Lloyd Wright’s design of the Biltmore Resort, and Hollywood stars made Roosevelt a vacation hot spot, encouraging further development of Phoenix nightlife. We proposed to service the urban community of creative professionals in present-day Roosevelt by providing a space for collaboration and an homage to the area’s history of art deco design and Hollywood cultural influences.

The hidden gem of the building, The Gold Canary speakeasy, an escape into the area’s past world of singing canaries from old Hollywood jazz. You enter by going into the fake music store, where you are instructed to switch the 1930s radio to “The Hot Canary” by Ella Fitzgerald, which then opens up into the bar.

1930s Radio will be built into the door and serve as the hidden entrance.

The concrete bar gives a cinematic impact with a movie palace light fixture. The iconic geometric shapes of art deco inspired the custom bar stools, and mirror panels featured along the back.

The lounge allows for both individual and two-top viewing of the live music. The stage is accented by a metal feather design on the acoustical panels and a birdcage inpired glass door.

hand-painted canary ladies are applied to floor to ceiling wooden panels which add contrast to the moody charcoal.

The layered relationship between the patterned fabrics on the club chairs along the booths, checkered throw pillows in the lounge, and the bar stools work together to create a reinvented design of old Hollywood class.

The

Dinétah Live/Work

IDEC Design with Hoa Vo & Tran Nguyen Submitted as a Class Representative

The 2021 IDEC student design competition prompted design teams to utilize two shipping containers to create a live/work unit for a Navajo textile artist and her partner. The client needed maker space, a retail storefront, and private living space all in one. The core driver to her business was to invite the local community into learning more about her craft, culture, and story.

Navigating limited square footage, the layout design was the primary challenge. While ideating through the possibilities for this unit, we found that the core component of the artist’s needs was flexibility with the dining and entertainment space in congruence with both their private life and hosting retail events with the community to promote their business. To blur the lines between public engagement and private residential space, we made the dining area the flex space, opening up possibilities of how the retail space could function. We felt it was also critical to provide the client with a sense of peace as they move from work space to sleep, and organized the structure so that the bedrooms are separated by outdoor space and a private entrance.

Retail Identity

Dinétah is named after the Navajo phrase, “among the people,” because of the stories woven through the living loom of the Navajo culture. The practice of weaving is unified to the earth through the traditions of Spider Woman, one of the Holy People, who first taught the Diné of the loom and the different spindles representing elements of nature. Each material and tool is ethically and sustainably sourced, and the process of creating handwoven textiles emits no additional carbon footprint.

Interests

Ortus Light

Orange Wine

The design of the Ortus light (sunrise in Latin) was inspired by the charm found in an everyday kitchen accessory, a wooden knife block. The clean stripes of the wood are reminiscent of the horizon lines of ocean tides and in celebration of this reference the light is designed as the rising sun on the horizon. The LED light is push-top operated and the shelf on the light provides functional storage.

Light For Hope

ISA Philanthropy 2021 - 2023

The Light for Hope event is an annual non-profit auction hosted and organized by the Interior Student Alliance of ASU. As the Philanthropy Assistant for LFH 2021 and the Philanthropy Director for LFH 2022, I had the pleasure of taking on a leadership position in facilitating the event. Each year, a panel of judges made up of local designers, volunteer their time to assess each light submitted and select a first, second, and third place. Additionally, all guests are welcome to vote on a “fan favorite” light fixture. All proceeds made from auctioning the student creations are directly donated to the local non-profit, Free Arts Arizona. Free Arts’ mission is to provide children in need a place to process their trauma by expressing emotion through art alongside meaningful mentorship.

Hearth

The Orange Wine lamp is a mixed media fixture repurposed from a wooden wine bottle holder. Lit by an amber LED bulb, the Orange Wine lamp emits soft light through warm stained glass and corrugated black metal. The contrast of the stained glass and black metal makes the lamp feel modern and geometric. The corrugated black metal creates both an indirect and direct lighting effect.

Hearth is made from a cassette organizer box and paper to create a table lamp. Inspired by the 1960s mount ceiling lights by Hans-Agne Jakobsson, I altered the wooden slats to have dynamic dimension and cause light and shadow interaction. The sheet of corrugated metal that backs the light finishes the design and casts a pattern onto the wall behind the fixture.

The philanthropic auction not only serves the people of the Valley but also brings students at the design school together. Students who have made light fixtures for the event often work on them with family and friends and have rich stories to go with each piece. On the evening of the exhibition of all the fixtures in the auction, guests socialize with local designers and connect with fellow design students across different disciplines. The nature of handmade art encourages reusing found materials in imaginative ways. Each of my light fixtures have utilized objects found at home such as a knife block, vintage cassette organizer, and a wine bottle holder.

Personal Artwork

My entrance into creative expression was physical artwork across any medium could get my hands on. From a young age spent hours upon hours interpreting the world around me through colored pencils, watercolor, print making and more. Throughout my life, I often pour my artisitic efforts into showing my love for family and friends by making birthday cards, wedding menus, pet portraits and depicting important memories.

Today, have the pleasure of applying that background to interior design. From analyzing a case study to creating custom artwork for my design projects, almost always start my design process with physical sketching.