Defining Moment

I'm going to show you a project which was a definitive fork in the road. The client pushed my limits of creativity, patience and empowerment. Nothing was the same after this and set me on the path of making my own way in the Design profession.

The project was for an Ad agency in Baltimore; Doner. To land the project, we had to do a two-part competition, which we won. The design I did was impossible to build, but I didn't tell anyone. The point was to wow the client and worry about the details later, plus it was something they were never going to build anyway.

The client told us to go all out, to push ourselves to the limit, to reinvent the ad agency. He wanted their clients to come to the office and feel they were walking in to a creative environment. He wanted the creative teams of the agency to stop meeting in offices and work in team areas, so we worked with the idea of Caves and Commons. We made offices purposefully small so people wouldn't cram in there and made generous spaces where teams could congregate to work on projects.

Just to be clear and not ruffle anyone's feathers, I designed the original portion of the project while I was an Associate at KressCox Associates PC and then designed an expansion while I was a Principal at Forma Design. You will find these projects on their websites.

Here's one of the plans. The colors represent different zones within the space. Umpteen years later I still think it's a great looking graphic.

The reception's main feature is the view of the Baltimore Harbor, which inspired shapes, materials and the overall aesthetic of the space. This project was published in Interior Design. It was a way of saying "I've arrived."

A view of the main presentation room, which came to be known as the "Shark Tank," a long time before the show of the same name. In face, well before reality shows. I designed the table for the space.

The outside of the Shark Tank. It got it's nickname not only because of the dealings in the advertising world, but it's proximity to the Baltimore Aquarium across the street.

Another Presentation Room with an open area. We had a great time designing this space, including custom designed furniture.

One of the support areas, surrounded by offices. The dropped ceiling is used for more direct lighting of the area. It casts a "shadow" on the ceiling above, which is painted a dark color and obscures mechanical equipment. The shape is again reflected in the carpet pattern. The one thing that gives the age of this space away is the computer. [grin]

One of the Common Areas. The technology is grossly outdated, but the space remains Oh-So-Cool.

Thanks for reading.

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Creative By Choice

I like to be in the mindset to photograph. My "day job" requires that I be creative on demand, so when looking for a creative outlet, I want to be relaxed. It therefore coincided with vacations that I snapped away. I have a preference for cities over country sides and being an architect, it's no coincidence I am drawn to architecture.

Much of subjects of my B/W photography are architectural, if not architectural photography, which is a specialty within photography. Black and white film photography requires patience and discipline. The patience is in recognizing that what you are seeing in color may not translate in to a good image in black and white, which is where discipline takes over. The mind needs to compose an image in black and white of a scene you see in color.

I don't have that many images from the 90's, either because I haven't had them digitized or the negatives have been misplaced or damaged.

Here's one of the survivors.

I took this image in 1994. I lived in Puerto Rico for twelve years, from 1970 to 1982. My parents stayed on for another 12 years before they moved to Miami. On what was the last visit "home," I went to Old San Juan and to to El Morro, one of the two major fortifications built by the Spanish, which guarded the city from naval attacks.

"Morro" represents those formative years of my life and an homage to that beautiful country of wonderful people.

Ciao.

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Tarzan The Architect

Earlier this year I bid on a five night stay at an ocean front resort in Costa Rica and won it. Little did I know Tarzan had gone on to have a very large family, who eventually sold the compound he built to a hotel chain.

The property is located on the Papagayo Peninsula in Guanacaste, fairly close to Nicaragua. The arrival was almost mysterious. Upon arriving at the Liberia airport, we were zipped through country roads to the gated entrance. At that point, the driver slowed down as we travelled through the golf course to the hotel Lobby.

We were greeted by name à la Treasure Island and taken directly to our room. "Check in at your convenience, Señor Santalla."

There are a number of buildings housing 175 guest rooms arranged around three pools. There are two beaches on either side of this very slim piece of land.  Our room faced the Pacific Ocean. The other side is the Golf of Papagayo.

We stayed on the ground floor of the building on the left. The Pacific Ocean is in the background. I don't know what the circular thing on the upper right hand side of the photo is because I lifted these images from the hotel's website.

This is kind of what our room looked like, but this photo doesn't do it justice. Our room had a very private covered terrace with the beach right in front of it.

There's a reason why I haven't shown you any pictures I took of the facilities and that would be that I forgot the memory chip for the camera and I didn't figure out how to get one until the next day. In any event, this place inspired a lot of laziness and after a 7.6 earthquake on day #3, eco-tourism wasn't appealing anyway.

The resort appears to grow out of as much as it seems to grow with the landscape. The roof shapes eco the curves of tree canopies. The materials are simple. It looks like it was meant to be there, which is a huge coup for an intervention of this magnitude in an setting like this.

This is an open air pavilion near the Lobby.

Notice how the ceiling is made out of curved sections of wood and steel and the largest ceiling fans ever.

I loved that most every space was open air; with all sorts of birds, lizards, crabs, and the occasional scary looking creature roaming freely.

This is the Tico Lounge. It is the main passage way from the terrace level to the Lobby above. The gold wall is a nod to the Mayan culture.

We were there right after Labor Day, hence the conspicuous absence of guests. Tarzan took care of every detail, including many of the light fixtures, which fit the place perfectly.

Most of them are made of waxed parchment paper.

The service was excellent. The staff was there when you needed them, otherwise they were invisible. I think this is one way they do it and another way they blend in to the surroundings. 

At the end of our stay, the Tarzan myth was dispensed and I learned that Ronald Zürcher Guardián was responsible for the architecture and Brayton + Hughes Design Studio is credited for the Interior Design.

Adiós and hasta la vista.

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Treetops-The Full Results

At the end of Treetops Part 1, I left you with this image of a Clubhouse my office redesigned for a residential complex in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

This building had a very utilitarian entry. The front doors led to a bulky stair that connected to the balcony you see at the top of the image. As part of the renovation, the plan involved relocating the stair to a central location in the building, which opens up the front space as a double height entry foyer.

The stone walls created the context from which the color scheme was created. With this, we created a connection to the existing building, while working within a decidedly contemporary aesthetic. I showed this image during an interview for a new project and was asked if this is a boutique hotel. I smiled.

In this kind of project, part of our job is creating an image of a lifestyle. The front office, therefore, "feels like home."

This image shows visual continuity between the lower and upper levels. The goal was to make a clear delineation of "old" and "new," in a comfortable way. 

It's debatable when the timber columns and beams were added to the building, but we decided to keep them. Track lighting mounted on the beams, which to me look like birds, is used primarily at night. The exposed ductwork and the low walls further the notion of old/new.

We broke the space down in to smaller areas with furniture that can be easily moved if needed. Notice how the stair is an integral, but a secondary feature within the space.

This image is taken from the Exercise Room, tucked away behind the stair. When I founded Studio Santalla in 2001, we used the tagline "Bringing Simplicity to Complexity." I think this image illustrates that concept well.

Here's another view of the entry from the outdoors.

Happy Monday, even though some would argue with the concept. I'll be in touch.

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Motorcycles, Angels and Dinosaurs

I recently saw a time lapse video showing the construction of a 30 story hotel tower in 30 days from ground breaking to complete interior fit out. It was impressive and commendable on many fronts, including sustainability. What the video didn't discuss is how much time it took to design this structure, because to make it work, just about every single item that went into the building was pre-fabricated and arrived on the project site ready to install like life size Legos.

The point is architectural projects take time and are not the indulgence of choice when looking for a dose of the pleasure principle.

To that reality of my profession of choice, I've found other creative outlets, which yield instant results, like photography. I first started taking photos with film, which I processed and then printed. In a matter of hours I'd see results; the creative equivalent of one of those energy drinks.

This is one of the first photos I took with my one and only camera, which I now refer to as my pet dinosaur.

Form/Function

I took this image in Ithaca, New York when I was studying Architecture at Cornell University in 1983.
I haven't digitized any more images from that time and it was years later when I started photographing again. In 1989 I spent three amazing weeks in Paris. Here are some images I took of the Opéra Garnier.

Opéra Chat

Opéra Fille

These images were taken at the Père Lachaise cemetery.

Chemin

Ange

Back from the trip, the dinosaur went back in the cave and the pictures in to the drawer. Out of sight and mind, I found them when moving some years later. That's when I realized this might be more than a hobby.

More soon.

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Treetops Part 1

Amenities sell. Golf resorts always have spas. Malls always have lounge areas, many with massaging recliners. Apartments have stainless steel appliances and granite countertops. And housing complexes always have Clubhouses, which usually come with pools, gyms, and Sales and Management offices. I have to say Clubhouses are fun projects. Come to think of it, almost all my projects are fun. Insert happy face.

This two-floor Clubhouse, located in West Chester, Pennsylvania was built inside an old stone barn. We encountered a 1980's interiors ready for renovation. As we were ready to start construction, tragedy hit. A fire destroyed the interior. A sad day for the insurance company became a good day for us because we were able to now dismiss of some of the most egregious offenders.

Egregious Offender #1
The entry stair

The stair was so close to the entry I couldn't get far enough away to photograph all of it. I suppose they wanted to get the message across you needed to get upstairs in a hurry to meet

Egregious Offender #2

The Bar

A non-stocked, non-operating bar. It's sad what some people get talked in to. I get the country charm motif with the pine, but the globes must have been left over from the '60's. Except that the complex hadn't been built in the '60's.

Egregious Offender #3
Crumpled walls

Oddly configured walls lead to peculiar room shaped rooms, hard to furnish, like for instance this bench crowding the doorway.

Finally, a last first impression of the space.

Note to self: colors have connotations. Blue and green don't relate to barn, rustic and earth. I'm sure this space had it's moment, as in one, of glory.

Ok, I know I'm being a rude snob, but I wouldn't be writing about a project completed ten years ago if I didn't think it still looked good.

This is the new First Floor Plan.

We located the stair in the middle of the space to create an entry foyer, which doubles as the seating area for the Sales Office, which we relocated to this floor. The restrooms and jacuzzi were undamaged by the fire, so they were not changed.

Second Floor Plan

No surprise we eliminated the bar, we opened up the central area as a multipurpose space, added a small business center, bottom left of the plan; a small pantry, an accessible restroom and moved the workout room to the space adjacent to and behind the stairs.

Given the statistics on the blog, I've determined most of you read it at work, so I'm going to let you get back to doing what you are supposed to be doing in the first place. Hopefully, this image of the finished renovation will get you back for more.

The new entry foyer.

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Space For Thought

Design Houses, Show Houses, Designer Houses, Dream Houses, whatever it is that the sponsor decides to call it, are an opportunity to explore ideas. In 2006, I had one such opportunity at the Washington Design Center. The theme was WashingTen Spaces, because it featured the work of ten firms and was sponsored by the former Spaces Magazine.

Generally speaking, the house was a ring of rooms around a main room, which is the one we designed; a living room of sorts, but more a multipurpose space. One of the things I often find jarring in these ventures is the rooms tend to clash, which could have been easily aggravated by the fact that five of the rooms had direct access to and from our space.

Our spatial concept was simple: a room within a room, which we defined by creating a "buffer" zone all around the space for circulation and also diminish potential visual clash with our neighbors. The space within the space was architecturally delineated by two end walls, a dropped ceiling and the floor. Contrary to one of our current favorite clichés, we were thinking inside the box. The use of color further defined the two areas; the most obvious choice being black and white, we took a step away and used ivory and brown.

An image will help show what I mean. It's not easy to explain the visual world accurately and a photo saves a thousand words, you know.

This was a multi function space, with the exception of watching television, which could have been easily incorporated, come to think of it.

I took the jump with this project to make my photography very large. Not only did it make up for the lack of windows in the space, the photos have a very strong architectural scale.

Once the basic areas were defined, we broke our own rules and blurred the lines so it would be much more "livable."

This side table, the dining table and the bench are Studio Santalla custom designs.

A detail of the seating area. The magazine chose another space for the cover, but I still think this one would have been perfect. [grin]

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Design In Retrograde

When I moved to DC in 1984, we were in the throes of Post-Modernism. We had rediscovered classical architecture and had once again started adorning our buildings with columns, pilasters, cornices, acroteria and palmettes. We shunned Modern Architecture for all the damage it had inflicted on the quality of our lives and the planning of our cities and thought this Re-Renaissance would provide the answers. Those at the forefront of the movement reinterpreted classicism, making bold expressionistic statements. As most everyone, I was exhilarated by what was going on in architecture and poured over my books looking for sources of inspiration in antiquity.

Luckily, it was a fad, a hiccup in the careers of those who were caught by the frenzy. I still think some of the work I did during this period is good and I’m happy to share it.

The building in question is The Colorado Building, located at the corner of 14^th and G Streets in downtown DC. I worked on this project while employed at KressCox Associates.

Built in 1903, the building was in bad shape and needed a major interior renovation and restoration of the façade. The ground floor level bay windows were fully restored according to archived drawings, which we were fortunate to find. The most exciting part for me was the two-story roof top addition, designed in such a way that complemented the existing structure. As to how these types of additions should be done, if at all, is still a controversial subject.

The Lobby was re-envisioned as an extension of the exterior, with fine woods, stones and metals. An existing marble staircase and plaster ceiling were restored.

Once the major renovation and restoration work was completed, the firm was engaged to design a number of the office spaces, which became my foray into the world of commercial interiors.

My favorite space was designed for the international law firm WEMED. The client told me the building gave them “establishment,” so he wanted a contemporary interior, and I was happy to oblige.

This image is from a 1999 renovation done when I was at Forma Design, Inc., which retained much of the original design, such as the wood paneling, the frosted glass, furniture, etc.

Here’s another view of that space.

I think the WEMED space, originally designed in 1990 still looks great, while the 1988 Lobby, makes me cringe. I’d be happy to “repent” for past indiscretions, however, and redesign the Lobby and do something which focuses on the quality of the space and incorporates the items from the original design, which were found during the renovation, as opposed to focusing on surface decoration attempting to make them blend in.

Post-Modernism was a short-lived. A lot of exciting and innovative work has been produced in Washington, DC since then, I am happy to say.

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