Contract - June 2011 - (Page 18)

industry Learning by Design Savannah College of Art and Design students create new Staybridge Suites® concept Design students at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) now can flaunt a professional project in their portfolios. Thanks to a recent partnership between the college and hotelier InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), Staybridge Suites® rooms that feature a SCAD student-designed concept are cropping up across the country. The collaboration began in 2009 when IHG approached SCAD to secure designers who could create the “next-generation of room décor” for its Staybridge Suites®, an extended-stay, residentialstyle hotel brand. The school launched a graduate course to “refresh” the brand’s interior concept. Students researched the Staybridge identity, cultural trends, and current hotel designs throughout their course to draw up the final scheme. Once the proposals were complete, two of the SCAD graduate students, Sarah Moellenkamp, M.F.A., interior design (2010), and Erin Tabolt, M.F.A., interior design (2010), were hired by IHG as summer interns to help transition the concepts to the new properties. The first location to feature the student-conceived design is Staybridge Suites® Houston Stafford-Sugar Land, in Stafford, Texas. Opened in January 2011, the three-story destination offers three guest suite designs—deluxe studio, one-bedroom, and two bedroom/two bathrooms. Another hotel has since opened in Tyler, Texas, and upcoming hotels are planned for San Antonio, Amarillo, Texas, and Liverpool, N.Y. The resulting concept (pictured above) features two color schemes, Vista and Spice, and includes new room elements that add to an upscale, residential aesthetic that caters to an extended-stay guest, taking into account the need for flexibility and storage—such as a desk hutch/worksurface, ottoman cubes with flip-over tray tops, a chaise lounge, built-in closet units with customizable shelves, modern bedroom furniture, and a variety of lighting options. Sustainability also was a key focus in the design. Eco-friendly elements include quartz countertops in the kitchen and bath areas, modular carpet tiles for easy replacement with reduced waste, lowVOC paints and finishes, tile containing pre- and/or post-consumer recycled material, and Fabricut fabrics that meet the “Environment Plus” standard.—SS Raising the BAR BAR Architects donate time and partner with Architecture for Humanity to design Haitian school In response to the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, San Franciscobased BAR Architects, an architectural, interior design, and planning firm, recently partnered with nonprofit Architecture for Humanity to provide professional design services to create a new school near Portau-Prince. Nearly two-thirds of the firm’s 75-person staff took part in the volunteer efforts, donating their expertise and time, including vacation days and unpaid work hours, to realize the project. “It was heartbreaking to know over 300,000 lives were lost due to poorly conceived and constructed buildings. I felt we had to do something and realized as architects and designers we could help make a difference for the people and this country,” says Lisa Victor, AIA, LEED AP, a senior associate at BAR Architects. The 38,000-sq.-ft. structure rests upon a rough terrain at 2,500 feet above sea level in an underdeveloped part of Haiti that has no existing 18 contract june 2011 www.contractdesign.com water, sewage, electric, or transportation infrastructure. The building, which will be constructed from local materials such as limestone and reinforced cinder blocks, will be entirely self-sustained, relying on http://www.contractdesign.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Contract - June 2011

Contract - June 2011
Table of Contents
Publisher’s Letter
Industry
Exhibition: Neocon® Preview
Focus: Right in Tune
Focus: Formed to Function
Materials: Carbon Connexion
Practice: Scenario Planning
Blazing a Trail
Perfectly Palatable
Leap of Faith
Details, Details
Dollars and Sense
Family Style
Trees & Terminals
Designers Rate: Milan Furniture Fair
Essay: Building Blocks of a Design Career
Process: Designing the Multigenerational Workplace
Sources
Ad Index
Perspectives

Contract - June 2011