megan stroud
mbs
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The Relinnial Hotel
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MBTA Warehouse
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CoHo Collaborative Business Hotel
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CoCreate Community Maker Market
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Experience
MILLENNIAL VALUES
Community
ADAPTIVE REUSE
The
Connection
Roof Garden
Spa
Connection Experience Community
Authenticity Sustainable Sense of Place
Roof Garden: 4,400 sq. ft. Spa: 4,400 sq. ft. Hotel Rooms: 39,600 sq. ft. Fitness Center/Yoga Studio: 4,400 sq. ft. CafĂŠ: 1,983 sq. ft. Business Center: 2,416 sq. ft. Lobby/Check In: 4,400 sq. ft. Lounge: 1,983 sq. ft. Restaurant: 2,416 sq. ft.
Luxury Suites
Guest Rooms
Fitness Center
Cafe
Business Center Check In Restaurant
Relinnial Hotel
The Relinnial Hotel is an adaptive reuse project using the Reliance Building, designed by Charles Atwood in 1895. Historical buildings can be relevant to the millennial generation by designing for the shared values of unique experiences and connection through adaptive reuse. A design can be developed through connection to the local community utilizing values of sustainability, authenticity, and a sense of place. The principles of connection, community, and user experience were used to develop the programs of the design. Many of the hotel amenities are open to locals as well as hotel guests, the materiality of the project is majorly produced locally, and the historical significance of the building is highlighted by the design.
Lounge
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First Floor The first floor of the Relinnial Hotel houses a restaurant, bar and lounge, kitchen for those spaces, and a separate hallway from those spaces for hotel guests to access the floors above. The check in/lobby area of the hotel is placed on the second floor, as to remove hotel guests from the hustle and bustle of State Street. On the ground floor instead are amenities designed to pull in locals and passersby from the surrounding area, with the end goal that they can mix with those staying at the hotel. This floor also sees the base of the central metal screen, which extends up to the ceiling of the third floor. This screen serves as a visual sightline that generates interest in the space, as well as provides wayfinding; it can be seen from exiting the elevators on floors 1-3, as well as vertically as it goes through repeated openings on each of the first 3 floors.
Restaurant
First Floor Renders With the placement of a restaurant and lounge on the ground floor, a unique interface is created between hotel guests and the local community. Both the restaurant and lounge provide environments that are very sophisticated, yet also highly comfortable. The materiality here sets the tone for the rest of the design, using natural and local materials that are authentic to a deconstructed, architectural version of the original Reliance building.
Lounge
Open to Below
Third Floor The third floor provides more amenities for hotel guests and local patrons alike. As it is removed farther from street level, it will attract less random passerby, and more community members familiar with these spaces. This floor contains a business center and a cafe. The business center is different from the typical hotel, in that its size, design, and furnishings are more similar to an open office; it provides a third place for hotel guests to get work done while away and locals to escape from their nearby office or home office. The cafe provides a pit stop for those needing to grab a quick snack, for hotel guests or locals to come grab a coffee and hang out, or another third place for working hotel guests or locals. This floor also sees the end of the metal screen, as well as the end of the openings to below.
Business Center
Third Floor Renders The business center and cafe on this floor provide a third place for hotel guests and locals, as well as a cozy environment to grab coffee and hang out. The natural and local materiality continues on this floor, but with cleaner and brighter applications to reflect the stimulating functions of these spaces. A certain level of transparency is also implemented, in effort to allow in natural light and a feeling of openness, while still providing needed acoustic privacy.
Cafe
Guest Rooms, Floors 5-11
Luxury Suites, Floors 12-13
Guest Room
Spa, Floor 14
Roof Garden
Spa
Concept The concept for this project was Clocks: a Synchronized Collaboration of Motion. The MBTA’s location in the heart of the art district influenced our concept. Just as the clock is a collaborative unit whose pinpoint holds the mechanisms all together through a central location, the MBTA connects all points in the art district.
MBTA Warehouse This project was completed during my senior year of undergraduate studies. I worked with a group of six students, including one architect, three landscape architects, and two interior designers including myself. We worked with an existing warehouse building in the south end of Boston, MA and added on to it, creating a community center. The existing building was primarily being used as a parking structure while the site housed the SOWA market, an outdoor food and crafts fair. We incorporated some of the current uses, placing a large parking structure underground, as well as allotting a space within the building, as well as outside, for the market. Our programs included an art gallery, a coffee shop, gift shop, children’s play area, office suite, retail, open market for crafts and food, a rooftop garden restaurant, and a large outdoor pavilion and stage.
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Program Massing
Programming Diagram
Outdoor Dining
Design Development Working from the face of the clock to the inner workings of the gears, the site becomes a unified, functioning space through the landscaping, architecture, and interior design. Each space was carefully placed according to the paces of their functions, which correlates with three hands of the clock. Clock collages and tracings were created and then used to develop the site and building as a collective piece. Using the concept of a clock and its self-generating motion, we developed a series of diagrams to analyze many of its different aspects.
SLOW PACE
Offices
Open Market
Retail Shopping
Children’s Area
Coffee House
Galleries Open Studios
MEDIUM PACE FAST PACE
Concept Diagrams + Sketches
Concept development Starting with an old German-made clock mechanism, we disassembled it to discover hidden relationships and new perspectives. Using these discovered relationships we created 2D diagrams and overlaid them with circulation and adjacency maps to create a physical site diagram overlay. From this final diagram, our building’s main orientation, program, and overall form were developed.
Front Elevation
Transverse Section
Longitudinal Section
Site Plan
Sections + Landscape Plan The sections demonstrate the connection between the existing building and the addition created. Most of the existing buildings was retained and kept as is, utilizing the architectural features to influence the aesthetic and feeling of the space. The addition directly connects to the existing without disrupting it; we also added two floors within the addition, while leaving the existing as one floor so create an awe-inspiring feeling in that large, open-air space. The site plan demonstrates a plan view of the mesh between the existing building and addition. It also demonstrates the fluid motion of the site.
First Floor The first floor of the building house the art gallery, coffee shop and gift shop, art studios, and the children’s play area. The main entry is into the existing warehouse building, where the art gallery is also housed. It extends organically into the addition building as well. A secondary entrance is at the southwest portion of the addition building, where the coffee shop and gift shop are located. In between the end of the gallery and to the south of the coffee and gift shops is open art studios, where local artists can come rent out a space to do work, and visitors can watch the artist at work. At the south most part of the building in the addition, is the children’s area, where parents visiting can leave their children to play and create. There are stairs and elevators located together in the center, on the border between the existing building and the addition.
Art Gallery
First Floor Renders The art gallery takes up the ground floor of the existing building; the clear sightlines to the historically significant architectural features create feelings of awe. The walls of the gallery were designed from the movement and lines of clock hands. The coffee shop offers a resting spot for visitors of the center to relax, as well as for locals to meet up and hang out. In both spaces, the materials are raw and industrial in homage to the history of the building. The natural colors and textures create warmth as well, which is meant to entice the local community to make it a community center.
Coffee Shop
Second Floor The second floor of the building houses an office suite, open market space, a retail space. There is also plentiful of lounging areas for visitors to rest and converse, as well as picnic with food they bring or purchase from an open market vendor. The office suite is for staff of the building complex, located at the northeast part of the building addition. A retail space for pop-up shops and boutiques border the southwest edge of the existing building. And the open market takes up most of the space in the addition, extending from the office suite to around the corner and below the retail. Lounge areas are in between and the ends of this.
Reflected Ceiling Plan
Open Markets
Second Floor Renders The office suites include workspace for art gallery employees, restaurant and coffee shop management, and coordinators of the outdoor complex functions and open markets. The open market space is a flexible space for vendors, for the SOWA or other market events held, has plentiful space for product displays and visitors to move through. The drop down ceiling design was derived from the landscaping pavement patterns; raw, industrial materials are shaped into this pattern and then suspended at varying heights. In addition to being an interesting focal point in the space, it also aids in wayfinding, showing the path of the open market spaces.
Office Suite overlooking Open Markets
Site Plan In the first semester of my graduate studies, I worked on two projects with a group of two other teammates. We designed the Co Hotel, a hotel catered to business guests and local business people, and CoCreate, an arts and crafts maker community center. We selected Wolf Point in Chicago, IL, for the site of both buildings. This site offers great proximity to downtown and the River North area of the heart of Chicago; it offers prime views of the river in three directions, with the urban skyline of the city all around.
The Individual Traveler
The Local Worker
The Group
When creativity and strategy are in sync, a company is better equipped to adapt to the changing demands of tomorrow’s business. Co. Hotel is a hotel designed to cater to business professionals exclusively; it is innovative in its functions for delivering interaction, environment, and team building needs of the future businessperson. With a multitude of areas for all kinds of workers, including collaborative spaces and individual work spaces, Co. Hotel is able to provide for any kind of worker.
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First Floor The first floor of Co. Hotel includes the check in area and a spacious lobby lounge, a restaurant and bar, and an art gallery located in the center. The sweeping geometries of the plan were developed from the exterior form; openings to above are located at the bottom above the bar area. The geometry and openings, as well as all glass exterior, contribute to an aweinspiring space with prime views of the river and surrounding urban landscape.
Lobby/Check In
First Floor Renders The lobby area is designed to capitalize on the growing trend of guests moving to hotel lobbies as a third place to do their work. In this space, plentiful lounge furniture and collaboration-supportive furniture are used throughout; the warmth of the colors and material selections, as well as the function able furniture, encourages guests to conduct their group or individual work here.
Restaurant
Second Floor The second floor contains the bulk of the guest rooms, as well as a continuation of areas for working. Flexible furniture in the guest rooms allow for convertibility between resting functions and working functions. The atmosphere created by openings in the floor plate to above and below, as well as the continuing glass exterior, invites guests out of their rooms and into these common areas. A central business center is also placed on this quiet floor, serving guests with a place for more private and individual work.
Guest Room, Sleeping Function
Guest Room, Lounge/Work Function
Second Floor Renders The convertibility of the guest bedrooms is shown above; with a bed that flips out into lounge furniture, guests have the opportunity to conduct work in their rooms. This allows for guests to do their work privately, as well as provide guests with space for having colleagues join them for a more private group setting. The render to the right shows more of the collaborative space, and the incredible views the floor plate openings and glass exterior create. Highly flexible and varied furniture selections further contributes to a successful work space.
Collaborative Space
Third Floor
Fourth Floor
Cafe and Collaborative Seating, 4th Floor
Third & Fourth Floor Renders The third floor contains more space for collaboration and individual work, guest rooms, as well as large activity spaces for those travel groups visiting for team building programs. On the fourth floor is a fitness center, with settings for individual exercise and team building active programs; a gaming area for guests to get away to relax and play; a cafĂŠ with plentiful seating and collaborative furniture; and finally a resource library with various equipment for guests to utilize in their work.
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4
Collaborative Area, 3rd Floor
Project Banner
Retail Maker
Swing Space
Performance
CoCreate is a community center, with functions of retail, maker labs, and performance space, designed to provide Chicago with a venue for a maker-community experience. In an effort to redefine the concept of a modern commercial “market�, CoCreate seeks to create a unique interface between the artist or craftsman and their client. The design seeks to physically and functionally combine these programs so that they work together to provide the local community with opportunities to connect, experience, and create. The space planning of these programs is designed to provide each function some separation when needed, but also unite all to provide shared experiences and unique interfaces.
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First Floor
Swing Space
Retail Space
Overview of Retail
First Floor Renders The design includes spaces for the retail to sell merchandise, spaces for artists and the public to work on their crafts, and spaces that combine both functions simultaneously, thus providing that sought-after interface between maker and user. The design of the performance space is located so that all parts of the building have access to it, so that it is a shared, community-felt experience. Finally, the central swing space is designed so that it has flexible capabilities of performing any of the other functions of retail, production, or performance, so that any type of user can utilize the space as needed.
Performance Venue
Second Floor
Second Floor view of Performance Venue
Second Floor view of Swing Space
Second Floor Renders CoCreate is an innovation of community centers in its unique ability to combine the three functions of performance entertainment, creative production, and arts and crafts retailing. The design seeks to physically and functionally combine these programs so that they work together to provide the local community with opportunities to connect, experience, and create.
Maker Space
Project Banner
ABOUT ME
MEGAN STROUD is a Master of Interior Design student at Harrington College of Design in Chicago. Having graduated in May 2013 with a Bachelor of Interior Design from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, she chose to continue her education in Chicago. Her work experience includes working in the facilities planning department at Texas Tech University and an internship at the Coalesse Showroom in the Merchandise Mart. While highly proficient in several 3D visualization programs, she also loves to hand sketch. Her interests are in user experiencefocused design, particularly in hospitality and workplace, with additional interests in third place, materiality, and designing for place.
mbs