Spec Sheets and Enlarged Plans

This semester, I am working on two separate books for Bright Device. The Office Design book is more about presentation for the client's viewing, and the Materials and Specifications book is mostly specification sheets as shown below. Each book is roughly going to be 16 to 35 pages. I am required to do plenty of specification sheets for upholstery, furniture, ceiling grids, carpets, drapery, ceiling tile, vinyl tile, etc.

This page is for my Office Design book. It gives a brief view of the textures and shapes that are in the space and locates power outlets, filing, and storage.

Updated Plans

I added more grass and furniture in the Engineering departments. I also filled in the interior walls which help to bring out the boundaries. Grass now has a texture pattern for a clearer visual explanation. The conference table in the large conference room is now rectangular and pushed to one side, allowing for a larger passing area rather than two small passing spaces. Major passage areas are now marked with dimensions.

For my Office Design project, I decided that for my final book that I want each page to be landscape. Therefore, I had to rotate each of my plans and my text as well. I also added titles, a logo, and page numbers for my final book. Both of the following plans have had some revision that help to explain my decisions more clearly.

I changed the symbol for my exit signs as well as for my LED troffer lights. The slash in the symbol helps to differentiate it from the wooden ceiling and acoustical tiles. I added acoustical tile to the kitchenette because it may get loud in there and I would not want to disturb the offices attached to it.

Extra Credit

I am going to take a break from writing about my Office Design project and instead write about the extra credit assignment that accompanies it. The assignment requested that I design one room to be my personal interior design office and that it should be 15' x 15'. I decided to do my space planning in Revit since I had been using AutoCAD for my other coursework and felt that I could use a refresher. Revit is nice because it adjusts my text sizes accordingly.

I feel that I have been using too many spring greens, teal, and sky blues, I decided to go for a different color scheme this time, which includes red, yellow, blue, white, black, and gray. I was very excited to render my SketchUp views for this mini project.

Though my ceiling design is simple, I am very happy with its correspondence to the windows and using the colors to create balance on every surface of the space.

Office Design SketchUp Views

Creating perspective renderings of chosen spaces in my floor plan help me as well as the client to clearly see my intentions in terms of textures, lighting, and space planning. The following images have been created in SketchUp:

This image corresponds to the Lobby/Reception area that is labeled in my floor plan and reflected ceiling plan. As part of creating branding for Bright Device, I made them a logo that incorporates a sun and grass as well as fresh colors that can be found throughout the space. Since I was asked to create a custom desk, SketchUp helps to show where I intended to place the 3form panels and also how much the counter surface protrudes. This view is not complete since I have not rendered it with the Shaderlight plug-in yet. Shaderlight helps to add lighting and texture to the space. I will also be scaling down the 3form panels so that they look like the actual products.

This is a view of the small conference room. I will also be scaling the 3form down on this image as well as it is way too big. I made the "Convene" table in SketchUp but was able to download the Criterion chairs from the 3D Warehouse and simply add the Closed Loop upholstery to it with the paint tool.

This is a view of one of the Engineering desking systems. I am really excited to render it in Shaderlight as it will appear a lot more realistic than it does currently. This view emphasizes the openness of the space because the filing is used instead of an actual wall. It also showcases the large size of the windows and how much light they can let into the building.

Office Design Colors and Materials

I have been using the internet as well as RIT's material library to choose samples for my office design project. Since I am in the process of choosing lighting as well, I put each sample under natural light plus fluorescent light, and also under natural light plus incandescent light to see how the colors react. I used natural lighting with each because the office space has many large windows. I created a chart listing which upholstery fabric went best with 3form panels, and which paint colors would suit the two together. For example, Designtex's "Chromatic" upholstery in the color "Apple" looked best with 3form's "Cirque" finish and Sherwin Williams' "Irish Cream" paint. Then I placed these combinations under different lighting. Most of my selections looked best under fluorescent light since the incandescent made my cool colors appear to be much warmer. Below are some of the materials that I have selected so far.

3form finishes: Cirque, Ting Ting, Bear Grass
Sherwin Williams Paint: Belize, Irish Cream, Tamarind
Designtex Upholstery: Chromatic- Apple, Chromatic- Pool, Closed Loop- Robin's Egg,
    Closed Loop- Willow, Brisbane- Pool, Delaine- Grass, Delaine- Sea
Wallcoverings: Maharam 005 Straw; Maharam 016 Eucalyptus
Carpet: Flor "Take me Over" in Lime; Tandus "Curly Q" in Bukhara
Faux Wood: Centiva "Queensland Walnut" and "Canadian Maple"

I have used these materials along with chosen lighting and furniture to create an image board. The image board is a refined version of a mood board that includes actual furniture that maintains the atmosphere that the mood board had initially created for the client.

My floor plan is coming together nicely as well. At this point all of the interior walls, millwork, and furniture are in the plan and I am now working out the correct layers, line weights, room dimension labels, and text sizes.

My First AutoCAD Project

I learned how to draft at the beginning of my second year at RIT in a class titled Architectural Drawing, or at least that was what it was called in the quarter system. At this point I know basic rules about drafting, and I am excited to learn more because I understand the importance of creating a document that is clear for everyone reading it. Each part of the plans needs to be explained thoroughly because there may not be an opportunity to explain it in-person. Much can be explained by line weights and in the areas that the lines are placed. Dimensioning also varies depending on if the wall material is masonry or not. It is also important to create everything to scale, in this case 1/8th of an inch is equal to a foot.

For this project, I was given the exterior walls for the basement and first floor in a packet and I had to draw it in AutoCAD. I used my architectural scale to get the dimensions before putting the floor plan into the program. Layers were created with different colors and line weights to distinguish exterior walls, interior walls, dimensions, lighting, electrical work, windows, doors, and furniture. Page A1 and A2 are shown dimensioned without furniture, and millwork such as cabinetry does not count as furniture. The kitchen counter and breakfast bar are my original custom designs.

For this project, I was allowed to leave the dimensions on my furniture plans (A3 and A4) but in a real life situation I would turn that layer off so that the plan appears less complicated. For the basement area, I decided to create a recreation room complete with a mini bar, television, pool table, and additional seating. In the first floor plan, I chose furnishings for each room and decided to create a home office rather than a guest bedroom, but this depends on the needs of the client.

A Reflected Ceiling plan shows everything that is touching the ceiling, including interior walls, lighting, and differences in ceiling height. For the basement I chose overhead lighting, which would be ideal for using the pool table. On the first floor, I chose to create focal points using chandeliers in the sunroom, dining room, master bedroom, and the entry. The use of a chandelier near the entry serves to make a good impression on guests. Recessed compact flourescents are used in closets, the garage, hallways, laundry room, and the bathrooms. One thing I would have liked to change is that the smoke detectors should be on the Reflected Ceiling Plan rather than the Switching plan. I also would have used less flourescent lighting since this is cool-colored lighting that makes people look less attractive. Flourescent lighting is cheap and more appropriate for a public school or a shopping center. Since there was no budget for this project I could have used something more flattering.

The Electrical plan shows the placement of outlets, including power and data. There are also more specific annotations for outlets that require more energy which are included in the Legend. Looking back I would have liked to make the symbols larger because some of them have subtle differences. There is also a rule that smoke detectors must be in bedrooms and in hallways.

This part of the floor plan has been enlarged to go into greater detail, and that has been annotated using dashed lines on the original floor plan. Each page, such as A9, should match up with its symbols. These elevations help orient the viewer through different line weights that explain which objects are the closest. The darker the line, the closer the object is.

Elevations help to describe what the original floor plan may not, such as the bookcase attached to the kitchen cabinets, and that the chairs are taller than they appeared to be and have a different shape. It also provides stylistic details such as the leaves decorations on the cabinetry.

My plan for the fireplace was to have a smooth white matte surface with added acrylic, opaque squares in different shades of spring greens. Though the elevation shows the general appearance of the fireplace, one day I would like to put this into SketchUp and render it with appropriate colors and textures.