A well-designed space often produces a connection between a person and their built environment. SnapCab®, a company that manufactures both elevator interior systems, and in more recent years, WorkSpace pods, defines itself with a new tagline highlighting the flexibility of the design for its pods representative of the connection between a space’s design and its user: “Space to be you.” SnapCab, originally founded by Glenn Bostock, chief executive officer of the company, in 1983 as a company specializing in custom cabinetry, now has headquarters in two locations: one for SnapCab’s elevator interior systems in Warrington, Pennsylvania, and another for the SnapCab Workspace products in Kingston, Ontario in Canada. While both…
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The Caterpillar
In Core City, Detroit, urbanism is defined in unconventional terms. For the creative and technical minds behind the neighborhood development at the intersection of Grand River Ave. and Warren Ave., it is about investing in intentional and thoughtful ideas grounded in reality to create a place rather than a market or projects motivated by demand. It is about renovating and activating land that has been vacant for decades in a manner that not only honors the history, people, and space characteristic of the surrounding city, but also enhances and preserves the environment through developing as little real estate as possible. Core City envisions a depopulated urbanism, where public spaces like…
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In conversation: Jason Keen
Visual Artist, Photographer Detroit, Michigan With an award-winning portfolio of work, Jason Keen is a Detroit, Michigan-based photographer who documents the built environment and has spent the last decade capturing the iconic design and architectural work of firms like Gensler, Stantec, Smithgroup, Olson Kundig, ROSSETTI, Mathison | Mathison, Moody Nolan, PLY+, Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects or LOHA, McIntosh Poris Associates, HOK, and INFORM Studio, to name a few, garnering recognition from a number of well-known outlets and renowned organizations. Great Lakes By Design Magazine recently had the opportunity to speak with him about what drew him to the field, his inspiration, and his work on capturing the space, light, and landscape…
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The Michael Jordan level
Widely known for his gravity-defying leaps on the basketball court that earned the nickname “Air Jordan,” Michael Jordan is a businessman and former NBA player, with a basketball career and baseball days a legacy among sports fans—one that has extended into products and dining establishments celebrating Jordan’s accomplishments. The six-time NBA champion opened his first restaurant in 1993 through a partnership with Cornerstone Restaurant Group, then went on to open a steak house in 1998 and has since extended his reach in the dining world to the national level. In Oak Brook, Illinois, Michael Jordan’s Steak House was designed by DMAC Architecture & Interiors—the eatery’s design similar to the basketball…
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Great Lakes By Design: Ergonomics
CONTENTS DESIGN CORNER 16 Pergola | the freestanding architectural workspace solution that also functions as an office space divider by Haworth Inc. 19 Prospect | the one-of-a-kind coffee table featuring the unique shapes and grain patterns of harvested Ash trees presented by Room & Board Inc. DESIGN SPOTLIGHT 22 Elevated design | the innovative company leveraging its elevator interiors to create workspace design solutions for the modern office environment 32 The Caterpillar | the multi-unit residential project redefining urbanism and development through the innovative use of material and intentional use of space, light, and landscape FORM 44 Art work | the penthouse designed by dSPACE Studio Ltd. and PROjECT. Interiors Inc. is a dramatic composition of art, design,…
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Kemba Braynon, AIA, NOMA
Senior Architect Quinn Evans | Ann Arbor, Michigan Stories are often a powerful tool and intangible link of past, present, and future. They speak to the collective cultural memory as well as the personal, and the preservation of which can often leave an influential echo in the minds of those who come long after they have been written. In architecture, stories and narratives can be found in each building and every space within the built and natural landscape in an often visual and tactile form—or in the intentional use of the abstract space; from architectural vernacular, exterior stylistic dialect, and interior design language, to its surrounding context, and the…
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Art of hospitality
When Aparium Hotel Group LLC, a Chicago-based hospitality management company, looked to realize a new contextual, modern vision of luxury inspiration in partnership with Mark Mitchell, owner and local entrepreneur, on a prominent corner in Birmingham, Michigan, the company tapped the architectural design expertise of Booth Hansen of Chicago. At its core, the project and collaborative team sought to bring a world-class property deeply connected with the community, to life. Through intentional massing, a refined albeit eclectic palette of natural materials and rich hues, singular moments of architectural and interior delight—where the visual experience turns sensory—the Daxton Hotel seeks to capture the authentic flavors of Birmingham’s main thoroughfare—Old Woodward Avenue—side…
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Jackie Koo, AIA, IIDA, LEED AP, NOMA
Founder, Owner, Principal KOO | Chicago, Illinois In architecture, as in literature, arts, and other social sciences, there is a wealth of traditions, movements, applications, and analyses—avant-garde, thought-provoking, and otherwise—that have shaped their respective fields throughout time and have challenged scholars and practitioners alike to consider the world and communication around them anew. For many, architecture is a form of communication, a language written through form, function, and material—and for the deconstructivist, the exploration of tension and potential contradiction. For Jackie Koo, AIA, IIDA, LEED AP, NOMA, founder, owner, and principal of KOO in Chicago, Illinois, it was the combination of philosophy and the examination of architecture that first…
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Trina Sandschafer, AIA, LEED AP
Vice President; Design Principal; Team Leader Corporate, Hospitality, Residential Kahler Slater Inc. | Chicago, Illinois Scale, proportion, light: For Trina Sandschafer, AIA, LEED AP, vice president, design principal, and team leader of corporate, hospitality, and residential at Kahler Slater in Chicago, Illinois, they are often the defining elements of her architectural philosophy and client-based design approach. It is in the deft, informed use of them and understanding their nuanced, interdependent relationships, while centering client needs, that can ultimately deliver well-defined architecture. “Central to my architectural philosophy is to study scale, proportion, and light and to use them wisely. They are still free to use and so if you can…
