Depot Client Artist Profile

During this stage of the design process, retrieving important information about my chosen artist, Catharine Newell, for the Northern Pacific Railroad Depot in downtown Pullman, was somewhat difficult. The main way that I got my resources were from a personal interview that I had with her over the phone that greatly helped me with being able to design a residential space, a studio and a gallery that would be suited just for her. The images selected on my posters were the chosen works of Newell's that I thought portrayed her art philosophy the most obviously. This part of the process was successful because the information that I retrieved is going to help me throughout the whole design process. A part that I am sort of fuzzy on going to be the use of materials in all of the spaces. Because most of her work is neutral and black and white, that leaves for a wide variety of color that can be placed throughout the depot. But overall, talking with Catharine was the most helpful.

Inclusive Design Related to Vision Impairment

For the Northern Pacific Railroad Depot in Pullman, we were asked in teams to do some contextual research on the railroad and Pullman history, design styles prevalent at the time, designers of the time, adaptive reuse, the history of the Northern Pacific Railroad depot itself, and art galleries. I chose to to focus on inclusive design that relates to vision impairment. I researched a residential case study that is of a foundation in Wisconsin that has basically a show case house that allows designers and architects to further their knowledge on accessibility issue and ways to accomplish their goals to reach full-accessible designs. I also had to research strategies for the vision-impaired and find an art exhibit that displayed some of these needs. When doing the visual workshop recently described on my blog, many of these strategies are put into play to help those with certain disabilities. I learned a lot while doing this project, and will definitely consider many of these new findings to develop my depot design.

Vision Disability Workshop

Recently, I had the chance to put myself in somebody else's shoes and feel what it's like to be legally blind. As a glass we worked in partners of two and we each had to go through different obstacles with sunglasses that had petroleum jelly smeared on them to reduce our vision. Our obstacles consisted of walking around the cub, going up and down stairs, using the ATM machine, and using the elevator. Because I am "legally" blind without my contacts or glasses on, I know how it feels and looks like to not be able to see.

Some of the problems that I encountered were that there wasn't any braille on the ATM buttons. This would definitely cause a problem for someone who was visually impaired. Throughout my experience I realized how important certain precautions and accessible materials used throughout the built environment are. Even though it may be costly, it is worth it to those with those disabilities who need them on a daily basis.

When looking through the glasses, I experienced that one of the things that what I could see resembled a rainbow. Everything wasn't completely black, but colors looked smeared around and blotchy. I also figured out how useful it was to have a partner who was there to guide me through the process. Being reliant on someone else isn't what most of us are fond of, but if the built environment payed more contributions to those with disabilities they could act more independent.

Carrie Vielle's Studio

Our present project involves designing a small apartment, art gallery, retail area, and an artist studio for a regional artist of our choice. What better way to understand the functions of a great artist that visit one of our own professors studios. Carrie Vielle gave us many pointers on the do's and don't for any artist. Even though all artists creative process may be different, there are some things that they prefer that are in common. Such as the amount of space. Many artists are not necessarily clean, but many are cluttered with their work because they need so much surface or floor space to finish all of the different stages of their pieces. As for Carrie, she could not emphasize enough how much space was essential. Not only space, but storage for all of her materials, books, knick-knacks, her artwork, etc. Some other pointers that Carrie shared with us was that lighting is extremely important for most artists. Blinds on all windows are usually needed, and task lighting is very important. Also, know if the chosen artist separates their studio completely from their other living space; do they need a refrigerator, microwave, etc. This studio visit helped me visualize some of the specific questions I need to talk to my artist about in order to design a perfect studio for them.

These are some photos of Carrie's studio and also her AWESOME Alpaca's and Llamas! :)