Originally built for Northwest Bell as an emergency command center for coordinating natural disasters occurring in the midwest.
Renovation: AGA Medical
Originally built for Northwest Bell as an emergency command center for coordinating natural disasters occurring in the midwest.
Our goal was to transform a building which reflected a previous notions from the last energy crisis and an intent to protect and restrict access, into an image that inspires a connection to light and the site, while creating a new public entry that welcomes and educates.
Update: AGA Merged with St. Jude Medical in 2010
My Role & Experience:
Exterior Design, CAD, Modeling & Rendering, Photoshop, Award Submittal, Photography.
I had the opportunity to collaborate to a large extent on the exterior design and addition. I was heavily involved with modeling the project both physically and digitally from the Conceptual Design through Design Development.
I was largely the on-site photographer for any “pre-construction” images and took several of my own photos after construction, which have been used for marketing purposes.
Lessons Learned:
1) The most significant lesson from this project was the role in which a designer has in presenting alternatives and allowing the client to see directly the impacts of value engineering alternatives and allowing them to make the decision that feels right for them and the project.
2) This was also my first experience with modeling with SketchUp and was very formative on my interest of using it as a design tool over something more polished like a modeler such as 3DStudio Max.
3) The best compliment you can receive is imitation. Kind of a remarkable thing to experience seeing an addition being made to a project you finished only a few years previously. The language of the use of materials we had introduced had lovingly been adopted and taken to their natural resolution by BWBR in the new wing (of what became St Jude Medical). While I'm honored. I did think it was a little unnecessary to use the same shading system for the additions north facing facade. It does look nice, but I've always believed that sentimentality can lead to some expensive and unnecessary choices. It does look lovely though.
Award:
In 2007 this project received an Award of Excellence from the Minnesota Chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties