Alpine Art & Framing Inc.

   
     My final project of last semester is officially here people. And what a fun one it was! It was in my Studio II class and we were able to redesign a local framing and art gallery shop in downtown Salt Lake called Alpine Art & Framing Inc. It's located on South Temple. The building was first built for an electric car company, then an oxygen plant and eventually now a retail space so this building has some really interesting style and feeling. I absolutely love this building. If only walls could talk!! It has some fun brick and industrial iron, yet the owners like modern contemporary so we were able to play around with some ideas along that scale. My group described the style as "traditional modern meets classy vintage."
     Our part was pretty simple. The owners were asking us to rearrange their personal office space, along with designing a room for a huge printer. They wanted the printer in a room to block out the noise. They will use all their original furniture and asked to keep the floors as they are. Really it was a space planning issue. So here's what we came up with!

     Every time we start a project, we create a concept board. Here's what we were going for. Again, we're keeping with the classy vintage style of the building and then also adding in modern pieces, like the chair in the upper left corner. We wanted the printer room to be transparent and airy just like the picture in the middle. We also were keeping to how Salt Lake looks so we added in a pic of downtown. I love that picture!

Side note: We needed to come up with a name for our group and had no clue what we should do. We didn't want to be like everyone else and do a combo of our names and we wanted to stay classy. As we were brainstorming someone brought up the Bachelor and BAM! we found out that we all watch the show. Hence our group name. haha Rose for the rose ceremony and Est. just because it sounds great alongside Rose....also because our second thing in common that we love is this cute cafe/restaurant downtown called The Rose Establishment.  We always said we'd work there as a group....yet it didn't happen. Oh well. One can dream. 

     Here's the floor plan. The original looks just like this except we moved up their desks and added a printer room and space in there for a table to layout what they print. The front door is the far left door and you walk through into a local art gallery section. Alpine Art hosts the Gallery Strolls that happen every so often so they needed a little seating area and open space for their guests to roam. The large rectangles are their work spaces. The dashed lines indicate the difference of flooring. The front is all terracotta tile and then it transitions into carpet as you walk farther down. There's a hall that leads to more work space and then also into a break room. They didn't need us in the work space area, just the store and the break room. Then as you walk farther towards the back of the break room, there is a small restroom. Originally they have steps leading up into the space and it's all just super cramped. We broke it up and leveled it out so it's ADA accessible. 

     This is a simple viewing of a reflected ceiling plan for the floor plan. The tables indicate what materials we are using for certain rooms. We kept the paint on the walls pretty neutral to not out do the industrial vibes going on in the interior. We loved that about the building. 

     This is what we selected for the front art gallery section. Industrial looking light pendants and scones, and bench seating of course. 

     My group member Natalie did this sketch on Sketchup to show what the seating arrangement would look like. The furniture is selected from Steelcase. 

     Here's another amazing sketch from Natalie. This is what it would look like in the main area of the shop. They have these amazing industrial braces on the ceiling. We did notice that it needed to brighten up a bit so we added more pendant lighting. Especially over the work stations. 

     Here's the furniture we selected for the employees. Again, systems furniture from Steelcase. We love them!

     Here's our printer room, or as we actually called it the copy room. haha. We custom made the middle counter space to fit the art that is being printed for their clients. Shelves and storage were also built in. 

     Moving onto the break room, here's a rendered elevation of what the wall would look like with all the cabinetry and appliances. We kept the cabinetry pretty simple and sleek sticking with the modern feel we were adding. The owner told us they didn't need a table or a whole lot of space for their employees to eat because they all eat at their personal desk so there isn't a table and chairs. We did leave space for someone just in case they needed to sit and make their lunch. And since they host gallery strolls, we made a spot for a catering cart to fit under the counter top. 

     Here's what we had in mind as of what it would all look like. White and black were our main colors in mind. We brought in some subway tile to bring the industrial feel. Also quartz counter tops are all the rage right now. I mean why not?! And gold pulls. Yes please! 

     And here's the restroom. White, black, and hints of gold again. Keepin it sleek and classy. Always. 

I loved doing this project! I've always wondered what goes on behind the scenes of a shop like this. They were so nice and awesome to us when we all came in to measure everything. I would totally suggest taking your framing business there. 

xo, 

Meagan