Cummins Project Sonitus continues to progress toward completion. Many parts of the building are receiving finishes and the Test Chamber is coming along nicely.
Like most the HCMer's extracurricular activities involving getting outside and being active is a huge priority for life outside the office. This past weekend Liz B participated in an endurance and power competition hosted by Lifetime Fitness and Powerade in Chanhassen, MN. She placed 43rd overall with a time of 20 mins 50 secs against over hundred male and female participates from around the metro area. The course pushed you to your limits, testing your strength by pushing every muscle group and ending with endurance including 1.5 miles of hills pushing your cardiovascular abilities. Overall there were 12 stations and lots of fun.
Finishes, materials and lighting selections for Colossal Cafe.
HCM and Colossal Cafe have been neighbors for years. This past spring HCM had the pleasure to design and document a second location for Colossal Cafe located across the river in Saint Paul. The overall design and layout was based on the below Brand and Design Concepts:
A. Brand Concepts:
a. Restaurant operations – self-order, self seat with table service.
b. Breakfast and lunch menu – identical to Minneapolis
c. View of food prep and kitchen staff is critical to the concept presentation and brand.
d. Seating to be for 50-60 people
e. Space to be very casual, comfortable, clean & friendly.
f. Develop ties to local neighborhood (i.e. meeting room, neighborhood postings, etc).
B. Design Concepts:
a. Make the order process and route easy to understand and navigate for the customer (distance, open views, etc).
b. Create a cozy and casual neighborhood gathering place.
c. The kitchen to be open to the customer to promote casual interactions and display the quality and craft of the product preparation.
d. Maintain natural light through existing openings (increase glass at storefront and glass block at north wall).
e. Community Room to be visually open to the public area but maintain “out of the way” location.
f. Second exit will divide rear service spaces – develop a logical separation of spaces
g. Menu board to be easy to see and understand.
h. Space to have varied seating types
i. Café counter and its configuration promotes the brand and customer interaction with staff.
Materials and Millwork were designed to provoke an Overall Feeling of: “Farmlike” kitchen, Fresh, Comfortably Used, Funky yet Traditional. While the Furniture selections focused on: Wood/Rustic, Cleanable, Not precious, Relaxed, Natural, Dark Bottom(Chairs) with Light top (Farm-table). Finishes and Key design strategies consisted of: Playful yet sophisticated tiles, Venetian’ painted wall with bold colors (Red), Rhythmic Scones and table features, Rustic stone kitchen window wall (exhibit kitchen). We introduced a sturdy, cleanable floor with Vinyl sheet striping with slight textured, 3 colors. The one partition wall that divides the community room and dinning area was designed to be a sheer wall divider, curtain like. Translucent barrier that will provide semi-privacy while keeping the cafe 'open'.
This project completed CD's in June and is currently being priced.
HCM is currently preparing a presentation for the second community meeting for the Hennepin County - Roosevelt Library renovation. The renovation will include basic accessibility and ADA building code requirements, restrooms on the main floor, new furniture throughout and exterior maintenance work such as masonry tuck-pointing and roof replacement. The renovation will also provide the opportunity to reconfigure existing space to better accommodate library patrons.
At the last meeting Preliminary design concepts were discussed by attendees and are depicted in the document below. The project budget does allow for the addition of a meeting room. Meeting attendees were asked to provide feedback on community discussion questions including how they currently use the library and what they would like to see in the renovated Roosevelt Library.
The second meeting's goals are to focus the responses from the last meeting through selected images and key words as well as presenting more detailed diagram space plans to obtain more specific feedback from the user groups.
After a fast paced winter schedule, the new Highland Aquatics Facility is open for business. The city of Saint Paul was happy to unveil the renovation project with new locker-rooms, concessions stand, admissions space, water slide and entrance/parking lot on June 18th. Patrons are thrilled about the increase in parking, but especially excited about the new flume slide and large amount of shaded areas throughout the facility. With the City, we created a place that fits into the Highland Park aesthetic, but is also fun and colorful to fit with the energy and excitement generated at the pool. This facility is perfect on a hot summer day for all ages; go check it out!!
This past Spring, HCM had a very special opportunity to design a memorial piece in honor of Carter Geyen. Carter was 12 years old when he died last year in a tragic accident at his favorite playground doing what he loved most, playing and having fun. Carter's parents came to HCM looking to contribute an interactive play sculpture that captured Carter's spirit, attitude and love. After research and collaboration a playful 'form' was developed to create an environment that would encourage sand and water play through its trench design while capturing donated park amenities such as a bench, drinking fountain, sand box, paths and gardens. The overall design is to bring something more meaningful to this small neighborhood park while embedding Carter's memory through play, learning and exploration. Through many hurdles, such as park board approval, council approval and local community impact meetings the design was embraced with open arms. Next steps include, landscape design; Linder's is working with the Family as well as others who would like to contribute plants to create a garden that surrounds the piece. Construction organization; the Family is working with multiple contractors and engineers to develop the construction plan and schedule. Friends and family will have opportunities to help at different phases of construction, i.e. planting flowers and trees. And of course lastly construction, anticipation start day will be mid Aug. It is absolutely wonderful how many people have already contributed to this amazing process and cause so far.
Cummins Project Sonitus is moving along and some better weather has allow the site work to make substantial progress.
The City of Minneapolis's Aldrich site is progressing nicely and should be ready for move in by the end of the month!
I couldn't resist this gem from a past office outing!
The last portions on the Valspar analytical lab are finally done and look great! We were informed that the function and look of the original project; the Analytical lab, has far exceeded their expectations, but we were brought back in to add that special flare this high profile world class laboratory needed. All the branding pieces work in harmony to showcase Valspar’s mission, goals and overall character. The design intent was to capture users/visitors as they enter the lower level lab and draw them in by telling a graphic story of Valspar.
The CPGO in Shoreview, MN has the entire 3rd floor framed and gypsum board work starting. Also on a more exciting front, 2/3 of the new skylight opening has been cut into the existing roof.
I was supposed to photograph our office lunch with the IAC team from England, as we had seven Brits over for lunch on the patio last week, however, I forgot to take a single photograph, so instead, here are some photos from my most recent site visit. Things are shaping up nicely around the site with the help of some drier weather. The first acoustic wedges are on site and you can get an idea of the scale of them in the interior photograph.
On the Anoka County Highway Dept. project (photos below) you can see that the existing building has long corridors that are exactly that – corridors! We recognized the opportunity to open these corridors to the ‘people spaces’, allowing the office area to enjoy the skylight and more usable space.
Our office met for a site tour at the Cummins Power Generation, Sonitus project this week and afterward went out for lunch. Despite rain and dreary weather we had a fun tour and everyone from our office attended. The project is about 85% complete and IAC (our direct client) is now on site installing acoustic panels in the Hemi-Anechoic Chamber.
We are completing the final design documents for the Anoka County Highway Department, a ‘public works’ type facility in Andover, MN. The project consists of a new Fleet Services addition (in orange), a fully remodeled Office/Admin area (in blue), a completely reconfigured Traffic Signs and Signals shop area (in green), and a centrally-located locker room area (in red) available for all staff.
Exploratory demolition has begun at the new CPGO Shoreview office facility for Cummins Power Generation. Overall, the project is about taking the identity of CPG and reflecting within the existing building through the creative use of gathering/work/meeting space, circulation, natural light, color, and more. Although the schedule of this project is short and tight; staff will be able to move in December 2011.
Perfect timing led to a great, sunny outing with Schreiber Mullany Contractors (yes, contractors actually like us!) on the Rush River this past week. After an afternoon of fly fishing we enjoyed a few Wisconsin only New Glarus beers before a chicken dinner and trap shooting under the lights.
Cummins Project Sonitus continues to proceed toward completion with rough grading of the exterior, finishing touches on the exterior cladding and fit out of the custom acoustic panels on the interior.
It's been rainy, cold and very wet, but work on the Cummins Project Sonitus building continues despite a lack of cooperation from the elements. Below, contractor works on the roof installation.