Wednesday, November 19, 2008


The lab is going gonzo with so many people doing renderings for there finals, here is a rough sample of what I have been thinking about. I would like to use several composite drawings both in my digital presentation as well as my booklet for details and sections/ perspectives, etc... With so many details within the space There will need to be great deal of referencing to other drawings so this layering of information should prove to be helpful. This Image still needs a great deal of work but let me if it makes sense at all.

Monday, November 17, 2008


Some work on branding from over the weekend. Please comment there are more on the way.

Friday, November 14, 2008





I was begining to get a little bogged down with things, but this exercise helped move things forward. These are a few ideas for some of the display areas within my market space. Some of the things I still need to resolve are branding for the products as well as storage of goods. hopefully today in studio Some light will be shead on these areas.

Friday, November 7, 2008

A few more images from the past few days.



Some of the work from the past few days.

Things have been slow coming this week until yesterday afternoon. I was becoming rather frustrated with myself and decided it was time to go for a walk. I didn't have to go far to find just what I needed. I hope to share my find with my classmates today in studio!




Sunday, November 2, 2008

FREE YOUR MIND......

With a market place that carries produce from all over N.C. I feel it is important that the architecture of the space speak the same vernacular and regional architectural language. Not exactly the same materials used in the same manners but perhaps old building systems with new materials or the other way around, reminiscent of my concept overdrive project with the use of materials in ways they may now generally be intended. Also I would like to use textures, colors and forms from nature. I would also like to use agricultural architecture, barns, greenhouses and silos to give a few examples but put a more modern abstract twist on them. Think of the features that really make them recognizable and try to incorporate these into the retail space I am working on. After a discussion with Suzanne on Friday it became apparent that this space would ultimately tell a story of the people and places that the produce are harvested. This could really help bring life to this space and give it a soul that would really help the customers relate to the products carried here. I REALLY want to strive to recreate these iconic forms and design elements without reproducing them piece for piece. I don’t want to reproduce a barn or greenhouse but capture their essence in order to create a market place. I feel that my concept as changed a great deal from using nature as a palette to more of an abstraction of vernacular farm structures. These structures often do use natural materials in there construction so I may not stray to far from using nature as a palette but focuses more on the materials that are relevant to this particular space.

Thursday, October 30, 2008


If I keep working, something might happen.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Case Study # 3
A Very Yummy Weekend

This past weekend has been an opportunity for me to travel around the state a little on a mission to find the most amazing specialty food stores around the triad as precedence studies for our upcoming studio project. After visiting several locations around Greensboro I began to feel a bit daunted about adding another notch to the post but after doing some research on the Greensboro GIS website, http://images.greensboro-nc.gov/maingisviewer/ , I realized that there are no grocery stores of any kind in the vicinity of Revolution Mill. This information reenergized my pursuit.
In Greensboro I visited Deep Roots Market, Cariceria El Mercadito meat market and Spring Garden Bakery. I chose these three locations because they are privately run establishments that have been a part of the community for several years and cater to specific markets. I also visited several larger corporate grocers such as The Fresh Market, Whole Foods and Harris Teeter since they have a local produce section now. Surprisingly each market handled the display of goods in very similar manners. I feel that this has a great deal to do with refrigeration of food as well as dealing with the shear volume of dry goods and produce.

The Deep Roots Market is a co-op run grocery market that specializes in organic goods. The layout and design of the space seemed very utilitarian and tight.



Spring Garden Bakery is a bakery and coffee shop with a small indoor dinning area as well as a few tables at the storefront. Many of the bakeries goods are carried at several other establishments around town, Tate St. Coffee as well as Deep Roots. The bakery takes up a majority of the space and the dining area seems a little cramped and eclectic.



The Hispanic meat market I visited was full of fresh meats, seafood and cheeses as well as unique produce and spices common in Hispanic dishes. They also have a restaurant that uses the fresh meats and produce in there dishes.



I also made a trip to Chapel Hill to visit A Southern Season and Weaver St. Market. Weaver St. was very similar to Deep Roots in the products that they carried as well as size and consumer base. The layout of Weaver St. was typical of a grocery store full of isles and coolers stocked with goods.


http://www.carrboro.com/wsm2001.html

The most exciting of the stores I visited was A Southern Season. This store has EVERYTHING one would ever want or need when it comes to food and preparation. It seemed a little overwhelming to be honest. The layout of A Southern Season was the most interesting though still somewhat typical of what one could expect at a grocery store. The shear amount of products that this place had was amazing.


http://www.jsarc.com/southernseason/image5.jpg

I am hoping to create a space that can carry products and goods from all over North Carolina and cater to several target markets simultaneously. I hope to also come up with some creative ways to display the produce and goods in an interesting manner because everywhere else I visited didn’t really blow me away in that dept. I am aiming for something between Southern Season and Deep Roots when it comes to size and product selection. I am currently searching for co-ops and production facilities within the state to find what kinds of goods could be included. Look for future posts with this information.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

here we go again!

It’s time to catch your second wind I suppose. After a nice fall break we were welcomed back to class with a new project, I guess that is why we are here after all. Our project now is to design a single retail store within one of the two proposals for revolution mills. We were told to decide on the products that will be sold within the store by today.
This was quite a task, we all bounced ideas off each other for several minutes but I spent the whole class trying to decide. After talking to my classmates I was able to decide on a store that carries specialty meats and produce as well as food preparation and serving utensils.

This kind of retail space would be perfect for Revolution Mills because it could relate to any target market because it is food, come on!

This space could carry food from local farmers as well as specialty items from around the state and region.

Display / demonstration areas could be very interesting and interactive.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Where did I put my soapbox?


It was very refreshing to see so many great ideas from my fellow students in studio this past Friday. Nice work guys! I was having a great deal of trouble finding a good place to begin. After hours of aimless sketching I finely found a decent starting point and began to expand on this idea of new materials growing into the existing structure and framework of the building. During a discussion between Ashley and I, we began to use the term “healing over”. The idea of any alterations that are to be made should speak the design language of the 21st century not that of the original mill and how these two come together should respect the materiality of both time periods as well as act as reference points for the additions that are to be made.
I heard a great deal of talk about removing columns and existing walls and floors in order to begin with an absolutely clean slate so to speak. I personally can’t understand how this could be helpful in any way if a designer’s intent is to preserve the history of the mill. After several discussions and debates, (Jimmy and Emily) about to what depth we should exercise historic preservation and its true meaning; I have come to the conclusion that the path I have chosen could have merit as a strong design. As Lynn described, the architecture of the mill was directly related to the function that the space was to be used for. The story of this space should be able to live on and if too much of the original design is compromised then how will anyone ever see it. The machines and workers of the mills yester year are long gone; this past life is just that, in the past. It is now time to begin a new life for Revolution Mill to once again be a beacon of prosperity for the city of Greensboro and the people that call it home. The idea that the new and the old could and should exist in the old Revolution Mill is wonderful and I personally look forward to the great ideas that my classmates and I come up with this semester.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

A second industrial revolution for local Greensboro mill

Being familiar with the story of the Cone brothers, Moses and Ceasar and how they transformed the city of Greensboro into a major textile production center of the south in the early 20th century, as well as knowing people that work at the mill today, it seems Revolution Mills would be a special place for me. In the early 1890’s Greensboro began to catch a glimpse of the Cone brothers vision of a textile empire that could bring life to the rural south. The Cone brothers brought there dream to Ashville North Carolina in 1887 but quickly realized that in order to compete with the mills of the north they would need to be located closer to the farms and transportation. This decision brought the brothers to Greensboro where they soon built several mills and finishing facilities. Revolution Mill was built to become the first modern flannel mill in the south and it later became the largest exclusive flannel producer in the world. Operation of Revolution Mill continued until 1982 under the Cone Mills name. Afterwards the mill changed hands several times until early 2003 when Revolution Studios, LLC, purchased the facility. The renovation of the mill has since expanded to a $40 million project including office and residential spaces.

My friend of several years Christine Chapman is a project designer for Revolution Mill Studios and has worked closely with this project for a little over a year now. She is also my roommate so I get to here all of the latest news about what is going on at the mill on a daily basis, (I feel this is about to come in real handy). Also my brother works at the mill on one of the construction teams, so I get to here the story from both sides. He has told me several stories of his time at the mill and about the rich history within this space.

I look forward to having conversations with these two about our upcoming studio work and about what is going on at the mill. I feel that the Cone brothers, who gave so much to the city of Greensboro in the early 1900’s, would be proud to know that their dream was still alive a century later at Revolution Mill.