Growth Topography

Spaces have the transformative potential to inspire, uplift, and foster greater vitality for individuals and communities. I believe in creating meaningful spaces that people want to be in. This portfolio features a collection of projects that incorporate space planning, interior design, and architectural solutions designed with clients and collaborators. Each project incoorporates a holistic lens of analysis that incorporates psychological and material research in order to conceptualize, prototype, and implement spatial solutions at a variety of scales. These solutions are not only tailored to meet client objectives, including storytelling and branding, but are also crafted through a collaborative and iterative design process that aligns with regenerative goals.

Description: Steelcase’s North Showroom design in the Chicago Merchandise Mart serves as a counterpoint to the more sterile sister showroom to the south. Much of the 12,000 SF is minimally altered, with concrete floors, exposed concrete columns, and lighting that delicately frames the major ductwork. An algorithmic wood structure dips down to the floor at the entry, a nod to the relationship between technology and craft. Beyond this, the anchor point of the showroom beckons – a serve-yourself kitchen framed with the warmth of corrugated copper and shou sugi ban wood. To its side, a porch-like moment is created with plywood millwork, living walls, and the building’s exposed brick. This showroom set the stage for the evolving portfolio of brands and clients as well as the product launches of Neocon 2018, where we curated work ecosystems across the floorplan in a gradient-like manner: from the disruptive innovators of the industry to the expressly softer social collaborators.

Description: Carefully executed strategic adjustments were at the heart of this showroom transformation, infusing the space with a newfound sense of warmth and welcome. Introducing copper tones and extending the wood flooring enhanced the overall ambiance and created a more inviting atmosphere. Additionally, I conceptualized a new LED media wall integrated across the front showroom, serving as a dynamic backdrop for ambient videos during product launches. Complementing this, a sleek reflective black mirror wall not only imparts an open and spacious feel but also discreetly conceals back-of-house operations.

Description: The Flex product launch centered around themes of user agency, control, and team empowerment. A sequence of mini-scenes collaboratively illustrates how innovative tools can empower teams to be more agile, move quickly, and achieve greater flexibility. To complement the compelling narrative accompanying the Flex launch, we adorned the columns with braided power cords, metaphorically weaving the story throughout the floorplan while simultaneously enhancing the showroom’s acoustics by dampening sound.

In my role as co-lead on this project, I contributed to concept development, space planning, contractor coordination, furniture specification, installation, and art direction for branding and graphics. Beyond overseeing custom installations like the wrapped columns and flex signage, I spearheaded material research and development projects that made their debut in this initiative, including innovations such as dye sublimation and chameleon powder-coats.

This project entailed the development and design of an ecosystem of spaces aimed at fostering creative work; areas to collaborate, incubate, and iterate. Through strategic utilization of Steelcase products and new Microsoft tools, we innovated opportunities to enhance the desktop landscape and vertical planes to achieve a more cohesive integration of digital toolsets within inspiring workplaces.

The 2019 refresh of the Steelcase Worklife Showroom in Washington DC encompasses a comprehensive interior architectural overhaul. A meandering felted ceiling serves as a focal point, both anchoring and softening the raw concrete interior, creating an unconfined corridor that guides visitors through the showroom. Varied textures and palettes shift to form grottos and vignettes, providing spaces for meetings, impromptu conversations, focus work, and moments of respite.

In my capacity as an interior designer on the Steelcase Design Team, my role included close collaboration with architects. This involved iterative exchanges of rhino models to refine design elements, as well as contributions to space planning, furniture specification, finishes, and oversight of art direction and curation. Additionally, I spearheaded the design, management, and execution of custom installations within the space, such as a generative design table, custom parametric patterning for a waterjet cut steel wall, an infinity ADA sculpture, bespoke felt walls, and a bungee cord installation for a private office.

DESCRIPTION: The Neocon showroom experience was curated in alignment with the launch of Microsoft Creative Spaces. Extensive research on creativity and diverse creative teams laid the foundation for a set of guiding principles co-crafted by our design team.

Enabling spontaneous and seamless transitions between modes of work is key to fostering creativity, as it triggers different brain modalities. The creative studio, designed as a space of postural democracy, encourages frictionless access to a shared canvas for thinking aloud with peers and fearless iteration. Here, idea generation is empowered through positive and playful stances, allowing individuals to move effortlessly between zones of individual exploration, areas for cognitive resting, and spaces for social connection.

Ambient inspiration is cultivated through a stimulating array of analog and digital information. The ability to fluidly adjust between generating artifacts and combining them accelerates the ideation process. New technologies facilitate visualization and offer interactive ways to evaluate ideas collaboratively, fostering curiosity and discovery.

In my role as one of the lead interior designers on this project, I played a crucial role in developing the conceptual design, programming, and experiential narratives of the space. This involved creating floorplan layouts, specifying furniture products and finishes, collaborating with the graphics team, managing art direction for the creative spaces, and coordinating with contractors for electrical, construction scope, and installation. Additionally, I spearheaded several custom projects within the space, including an art collaboration with Preston Dane featured on a diagrid architectural element in the showroom entry, a felt spiral cocoon structure, an acid floor wash, and several custom table designs.