Final Train Depot Design

For my sophomore interior design studio our final project was to redesign a train depot located in downtown Pullman, Washington into an art gallery, art studio, and residence. I was able to reuse the train depot into these three spaces while obtaining some of the history of the old depot.  The art studio is for an art welder and the gallery is to display the artwork in a space that is ADA accessible, the residence is designed to the needs of a resident who is legally blind. Many different processes were done to reach a successful remodel of the train depot.

To help design these spaces I was able to take a trip to the train depot and explore around for an object that inspired the whole design. At the depot I was able to find the object that I used for my inspiration; my object was a door that had a gold plate that read push on it. I chose this object because it had me thinking about what was inside the other room and what’s behind the closed doors. These thoughts lead me to compare the door to the actual history of the depot and what had happen inside the depot in the past. The concepts of the object that were used throughout the whole design were inside, old fashion, lines, and anomaly. By visiting the site I was also able to get a feel of the space and how open the space is, how light it is from all the windows, and how tall it appears. . Taking the visit to the train depot and being able to be in the actual space was a huge help throughout my design process.

The main factor of my design came from my inspiration object that I found inside the depot. The door and its push plate had me thinking of ways of how I could incorporate that small bit of history into my design. The main concept from the door was looking inside or trying to look inside. I also liked the idea that the door had an old fashion look to it so I used that as a concept too. I pulled two main elements of design and principles of design from the door they were lines and anomaly.  Curved lines were used on the door with the wood grain, horizontal lines were used in the trim of the door, and the vertical lines are found on the elongated gold plate. All these concepts were to create a parti that was the highest idea generator for the design.

After depicting the thoughts and principles and elements of design from the door and its push plate I was able to take my analysis and create a 2 dimensional design that worked with all the elements. To develop my 2 dimensional designs I played around a lot with looking inside or through lines. Many of my abstract designs used horizontal and vertical lines as a barrier and what was being looked inside of. Curved lines were brought into the design because of the curved wood grains that were seen on the door. The design of the cured lines that I used was done to resemble a vintage doily that represented the idea of old fashion. Anomaly is used with color; gold to represent man made items on brown which represent natural wood from the door. My final parti/ 2 dimensional designs was the curved lines overlapped by horizontal and vertical lines, it was a way to add my entire concept into the 2 dimensional designs. I was able to use my final parti in a 3 dimensional way all through the depot. 

The most important part and the part I learned the most from in this project was designing the art gallery. I had to find many ways to add my concept into an actual space. The main part of my concept that I stuck to was looking inside, it can be seen in the art gallery on the vertical display walls that are made from reclaimed wood and have slits through them to be able to see through, also the away the display walls are displayed played with the idea of looking inside to the next sections of art. The reception area was designed to be a literal 3 dimensional space of my parti design; I worked with a desk that used the same reclaimed woods with slits on them to look inside where you are able to see the curved pattern on the back wall. Curved lines are also used with the display walls and to help move visitors through the space. This process is a great way to learn how to incorporate a concept into actual space.

My favorite part of the remodel of the train depot was the ticket window located in the art gallery. As a way to keep the history of the depot alive I kept the original ticket window and the wall that it is on. I redesign the ticket window to show unity through the whole gallery but kept the actual window and booth. The design includes my concept of looking inside because the windows are meant to be a way to look into the other side where the artist studio is located. Visitors can look inside the windows to see the artist work space and how the art is done. The wall that the windows are on uses the concept of anomaly and brings back the door that was my inspiration object.  Two thirds of the wall is covered with laminate gold plates to represent the gold push plate on the door and the bottom part of the wall is adorned with reclaimed wood that signify the wooden door. Anomaly is seen by using man made items on top of natural wood. The design of the ticket window was a way to add concept to a new space but also leave a little history with it.

This project was a great way to help me improve ways I can add concept throughout a whole design. By adding concept to the design I always have a reason for what I do; I do not just add a design in because I like it each reason is connected to my concept in some way. I was also able to develop my commercial designs and how to add ADA accessibility and universal design to spaces. By finishing the redesign of the train depot project I feel as if I have improved in many of my interior design skills and learned new traits for my future as a designer.