Season Finale

I did it! I survived the turn-in date! And with a successful board and presentation, I might add. This project was so much fun to work on. I cannot be happier with it. Of course with any student project, there are some technical errors, but I overlook those as a parent overlooks bad qualities of their own child. I'm posting the PDF of my final project right here. We had to create a book as well that documents EVERYTHING about this project. Mine was 175 pages full of my own research and work. It. Looks. Great. I can't put them on here because that would just be silly to put all 175 pages on a blog, but if you're ever around me I'd be glad to show it off! Maybe I'll carry it around in my purse for the next oh, I don't know, YEAR? Everyone in my graduating senior class did such a fantastic job. The 4th floor of the design building looks so impressive with all of our projects. They'll never admit it, but I know our department is so proud of us and will miss us terribly when we're gone! ;-)

Here's my final board layout! Mind you, it's bigger than I am and it's posted up on the wall in the hallway in the Design Building. It's 4' x 8' to be exact. I have a tiny materials and furniture selection printed on my actual board, but below it in the hallway is an actual physical materials board which, I think, is impressive just because of its size. I have so many materials chosen for this project.

Thanks for tuning in to the progress of my project! A whole year went by with me working in it and I had so much fun doing so. I appreciate all the positive vibes, affirmations, color quiz completions, etc. I appreciate the late nights in studio I had with my closest friends in the program. I appreciate that one night when a few of my friends who aren't in the program came up to my studio to visit me on a Saturday night while I was working and brought me a Cajun Lemonade Daiquiri. Most importantly, I appreciate the Department of Interior Design at LSU for guiding me throughout my four years of education in this program! Now I'm off to study for my LEED Green Associate accreditation exam......

Thanks again and signing my last blog entry,
Margaret

Hello world. I feel like I am perpetually glued to my studio chair. We've been in here every night until 3 or 4 (some of us even longer) and CANNOT wait to turn this project in on Wednesday! I present this project on Tuesday, May 2nd. I'm nervous but excited. So close to the end!

Anyway, I will show you what I've been working on the past couple of days. I don't want to share too much - I'll save it all for the end :)

 This is an image of one of the group therapy rooms where families can go in together and discuss lesson plans, the child's well being, etc. As you can see, I am using the art that that children have created throughout my entire space as decoration.

This is the occupational therapy room. I'm still working on this one because the lighting turned out very strange (polka dots on my ceiling.... eek!) You can see the different types of strength-building tools that are in the space.

This room is the physical therapy room. Child-sized physical equipment for those who choose to partake in any physical equipment. Special appointments have to be set up so they have the on-call physical therapist come and work with them.

This is the art therapy wing. Quite possibly my absolute favorite room in the building. You can't see from this view, but I have a custom-made ceiling fixture that looks like a artist's paint palette. That back wall is a dry-erase board where the kids can express more creativity. This is where they make their artwork that the EduCare mass produces and sells to raise money for the facility! Aren't the colors great?

 This is a narrow view of the play room. You can see the puzzle pieces: the taller ones are fabric-covered seats and the shorter ones are tables. The ceiling elements match the puzzle piece furniture components. In the back, you can see the jungle gym that is hovering over a ball pit. Used the same colorful paints and materials so the children can take a mental break from being tutored as they wait for their parents, etc.

 This is another view of the play room. I need to adjust the lighting because it seems a little dark. I also should add more people in there to make it seem more lively. I have those cubbies for the kids to store their stuff and have other toys in those boxes. That's a part of the jungle gym on the right side.

I hope these look good to anyone reading this! I'm still adjusting every single one and these aren't all of my perspectives. I have a few more I still need to render. My poor, poor computer is slowing down so much and has shut off without warning (I lost a lot of work the couple of times that happened). It's so heartbreaking. Unfortunately my laptop is my best friend/boyfriend/parent. My eyeballs are glued to the screen 24/7. At least today I got to take a mental break and walk around campus in the beautiful weather.

I have to enjoy these lovely days at LSU while I'm still here. I'm about to graduate from this place and it makes me so sad that I won't be a student any longer! Maybe I'll switch my major with the few weeks I have left so I can be here longer......... Nah, I'm so ready to be done with school.

Angels in my Building

Well, I've started building my spaces and of course it's taking a very long time. With only 24 days left until the zombie apocalypse, I'm attempting to work on everything at once. I am using SketchUp with the Podium rendering plug-in. I've never used it, so right now I am building my smaller spaces and playing with the materials and lighting. Here's an example of my very first rendering of my library:

Not very successful. It looks like the skies opened up and the angels came into my building. 

*Cue angelic hymn*

I blame myself for trying to learn a new program on my senior project, but I'll learn ANYTHING to avoid using Adobe 3ds Max. That program and I do not get along. I'll keep playing with the lighting to get it just right, but at least I know where I am as far as ligting powers and light types. It will all come together - it always does!

Zombie Apocalypse

For some reason, my AutoCAD decided to keep shutting my computer off while I attempted to put in my RCP. It is waaay too early into crunch time for my computer to start malfunctioning (that usually doesn't happen until rendering time!). It could be that I am working in SketchUp AND AutoCAD continuously, but even then it usually doesn't have a problem. My computer has always been trustworthy and I think I may be taking advantage of said trust.

Cue panic mode.

What I have for you today is I planned where I want my perspectives to be. I am uploading pictures I took with my iPhone... sorry. I know its lazy and all I really did is draw a person's perspective standing in the room of the areas I want to show, but it gives you somewhat of an idea of what you'll be seeing in the near future on project due day (27 DAYS). Sadly, I may start referring it as the zombie apocalypse (referring to the sleepless nights that will turn the design students into zombies).

Here are the areas I am already building up in SketcUp, but may have to reconsider again. You see, I have a total of 13 rooms that I want rendered. That's A LOT. Maybe I'll get it down to 11 rooms?

As you can see, this is the first floor. The rooms I have highlighted for perspectives are: the family library, administration offices (this is a maybe), lobby, group therapy room, nurse's station, occupational therapy, and physical therapy.

The second floor I have: children's play room, art room, parent's corner (this is a maybe, as well), private tutor classroom, and the children's library.

The spaces are all so unique that I have to show a lot, especially since I am using neat custom made ceiling installations and great colors throughout the space. We shall see.

Crawling along, sleepily

I noticed that I never put up my promised second floor space planning, so I will introduce it to you now. Unlike the first floor, which focuses on the more therapeutic an psychological aspect of my building, the second floor deals mostly with the educational and "play" parts of the space. It includes the private and group classrooms, children's play area, art studio, and children's library. While I'm at it, I am going to include the first floor space planning as well - I finally added in the physical therapy equipment! Right now I am working on my reflected ceiling plan (lighting my space). I've completed the second floor's RCP but have yet to put in into CAD. I am still working on the first floor. I decided to start with the second floor because I wanted to work on the neat custom shapes of the ceiling and lighting elements.

Here is the first floor space planning with the completed physical therapy unit (Oversized so you can see the details): 

And here is the second floor space planning (Oversized so you can see the details): 

Anyway, I will hash out the details to my reflected ceiling plans. I can't wait until those are finished in CAD, I know they will look really good. In the meantime, I will continue ordering samples and working on my chromo therapy focus. ONE LAST THING that I almost forgot about - I made a survey asking different questions looking for emotional responses to color. It was very successful I might say, with over 70 responses. If there is anyone reading this blog and would be willing to take it, please do so and help me out! The link is:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BVDJQRR

That's all for now. It is 1:19AM and I am still in my studio with a couple of my fellow students. It seems to be quite the routine nowadays, staying up here in the design building until the early hours.

Good morning!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Top o' the mornin' to ya! I am writing this post after a full day of not working and celebrating my Irish heritage here in Baton Rouge. Due to fun times throughout the day, I am stuck at home working all night on my project and digesting the copious amounts of green food and drinks I consumed today.

This was me celebrating this morning before the parade struck and I caught about 10 lbs of beads and trinkets:

With the fun aside, tonight was productive on my end. I took today to order several samples for my project. I still do not know exactly the materials and finishes I want for my building so I thought I'd start now while I'm ahead. I ordered several different fabrics, many with crypton backing (for the messy kids; it's very durable and cleans easier) and mostly high performance fabrics that will withstand the constant flow of kids and educators. A majority of the patterns I chose for my fabrics are large in print and very geometric; almost contemporary. Children respond better to bolder patterns and brighter colors, so that was the aim I was going for. I also ordered many great wallcoverings and paint samples. I'm thinking of using dry-erase paint on a few of my walls so the children can express their creativity and imagination on the walls with markers, while also maintaining the cleanliness of the space. Hopefully that doesn't encourage them to draw on the walls at home or school :).

Unfortunately, our projects are never done until they're done. That may sound redundant, but really there is always something that needs to be changed or fixed or added, even when we print out our boards and pin them to the walls. With that being said, even though I ordered so many samples, I will probably spend many more hours going through catalogs and websites and ordering different flooring and paint samples, etc. I know I am not in this program for decorating, but this is one of my favorite parts of the project. I love mixing and matching the colors and patterns to help create the space.

That's all I have for now. It's late and I did a lousy job of saving images of the fabrics I ordered, but tomorrow I will try to put up images of the materials I ordered. I will post more soon as I will have had a lot of progress by Thursday.

Book Madness

 The past few days have been absolutely nuts with my project. In my midterm reviews we discovered that since I want to add an extra floor to my building, I did not take in account that the structural load-bearing walls had to remain where they were. Needless to say, the floor plan I had for my building was wrong. Very very wrong. I had to essentially redesign the whole place. It was stressful because I have the problem, I'm sure like many of my  fellow designers and classmates, of liking my first design so much that it's hard to change it around. And it was. By the time I was finished my first floor space planning, I ended up really liking it. I still have not put in the equipment for the physical therapy room because I am still waiting to hear back from a company that specializes in children physical equipment. I need to get those measurements still and quite possibly find blocks in CAD so I don't have to draw them in myself :).

Here is my first floor space planning:

I am still working on my second floor and am almost at a good stopping point. I don't want to put it up on the blog until it's finished. I might do that tomorrow. By next week I need to have my floor plans, reflected ceiling plans, and elevations all underway and close do complete AND my 3D modeling started. *phew*

We turned in our books today. I am actually quite pleased with mine. I have a lot of missing pages, but who doesn't. I am planning on adding on as I go. It's all falling together quite nicely, really. My original book layout from last semester was SO UGLY. This one is more creative and colorful and is an overall better layout.

Project: EduCare

Well, better late than never I delve into the details of my project. The only update I can give right now is I am still space planning and finalizing my floor plan. Of course that takes FOREVER and we are never satisfied until the very end. Regardless, it is coming along and I am getting more inspired each hour I work on it. I had to change my focus a lot from last semester, as well. I was focusing on childhood psychology and school reintegration, but Phillip (focus teacher) suggested I go into more depth. We came up with a good idea to utilize the research I did for school reintegration and apply it to my new focus, which is color therapy and color psychology. The two go surprisingly well, as color is a helpful factor in quick "fix it" emotions for people (definitely not a permanent therapeutic means).

The building I chose is (ugly) located on 5220 Essen Lane. It is in the center of the "medical center" of Baton Rouge. This city doesn't really have one. I am from Houston where it has the largest and best medical center, so bare with me. Not only is it easily accessible right off of I-10 for parents, but it is in the perfect location near: Women's Hospital, Our Lady of the Lake Hospital, Baton Rouge General Hospital, Ochsner Medical Center, Surgical Specialty Center, Our Lady of the Lake Children's Hospital, Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center, Earl K. Long Hospital, Vista Surgical Hospital, and the Baton Rouge Clinic. PHEW. With all of those hospitals combined, there are sure to have enough kiddos to fill up my developmental center.

HERE is the building I chose (might I remind you, I did not choose it for its looks. It was a wonderful location).

Anyway, that's it really. Not to mention it has an immense amount of daylight and a spacious parking lot. I proposed to add another floor, because it is only about 12,000 sf and I need a lot of space for the types of rooms I am building.

I really hope this project is well received with everyone. I am really getting into it. As far back as sophomore year when I first heard about the senior capstone projects I knew I wanted to help the cancer babies I've grown to love with my years at MD Anderson. If this were to ever truly exist, I hope my visitors would leave my building THIS happy:

The little cutie in the green dress and the curious lad in the purple are silhouettes of some of my favorite patients at the hospital.

What am I doing?

My capstone project for my senior year will be a hands-on tutoring and daycare facility for children who cannot be in school full time due to various illnesses and disabilities. It keeps them updated with school and their classwork with state of the art psychologists and educators. Through extensive research in school reintegration, I have managed to gather enough knowledge about how the process works with keeping adolescents in tune with their grade levels.

This project is inspired by the hundreds of kids I have helped through M.D. Anderson's Children's Cancer Hospital, especially Delany Starcher. She is my inspiration throughout this semester. A quick history behind her: Delaney was a 5-year-old patient at M.D.A. who had a Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Clioma (or, more simply, a tumor on her brainstem). She passed away two years ago because they could not operate on the area where her tumor was located. She could not be in school full time due to various treatments and physical/speech therapy sessions that would last hours in the day.