• Featured

    Force of Nature

    DesRosiers Architects, an award-winning architectural firm located in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan has specialized in custom residential, institutional, and commercial design for five decades, working with clients to tailor solutions that fit their personality, lifestyle, and brand. Founded and led by third-generation architect, Louis DesRosiers, AIA, president, the firm has built upon a rich legacy in traditional and contemporary design, supported by a team of registered architects, technical draftspersons, and designers. Its residential architecture portfolio is one that reflects a pursuit to create a physical statement through a harmony of art and structure, inviting the natural beauty of the surrounding landscape into the home, whether dynamic mountain range or compelling freshwater…

  • Creative Endeavors,  Featured,  Print Edition

    Invisible, by design

    Though the portfolio of the design-driven, multidisciplinary firm of M1DTW Architects in Detroit, Michigan reflects a distinct breadth of commissioned works from the design of objects, artifacts, identities, and spaces, there is a commonality to the principles and tenets woven throughout each project. There is a sensitivity to resource and material, an intentionality to use and reuse, and a drive to push the boundaries of its creative practice to ultimately deliver spaces, objects, and materials that are nuanced, minimalist, and dynamic. “We think a lot about the role that design can play in people’s lives. I think while it is front-of-mind for me and it is the thing we work…

  • Creative Endeavors,  Featured

    Work culture designed

    For more than 30 years, Farmington Hills, Michigan-based design firm Davis & Davis has been transforming interior spaces with a foundational belief in the compelling and persuasive power of design. Since its founding by Michelle Davis and Howard Davis in 1990, the firm has refined its portfolio and design process by engaging clients in their own design programming, taking care to emphasize the unique narratives of each client, no matter their industrial identity. “This results in innovative space planning, optimized function, and an enhanced team experience that gives employees a sense of ownership and autonomy, while also supporting collaboration, innovation, and productivity,” said Michelle Davis, principal and design director of…

  • Creative Endeavors,  Featured,  Form

    Empathy in industry

    A reusable epinephrine auto-injector; a minimalist household composter; an eco-friendly and contemporary ceramic and glass toaster: there’s no lack of innovation within University of Cincinnati alum Mary Friedl’s expanding portfolio. The industrial designer graduated from the university’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning last May 2020 and promptly won a competition for designing an eco-friendly toaster as a part of the Industrial Designers Society of America’s Sustainability Deep Dive 2020 conference. With an overarching goal for creating empathetic and impactful design work, Friedl has delved into design research and work that promotes health and sustainability, whether through products purposed for medical environments or those of which simply bring people…

  • Creative Endeavors,  Featured,  Travel

    Momentum in medium

    Uplifting, multi-modal, and expressing hope amid challenging times, the exhibition “Illuminate” by Springboard Arts Chicago—one of Wicker Park’s latest arts tenants—brought a timely curation of fresh artworks to the gallery’s opening in November 2020 through February 2021. This spring, the gallery has built off its inaugural exhibition with a new exhibit, “Momentum,” which embraces the challenges that “Illuminate” brought to light, using them as a catalyst of change and for fueling forward motion. “We had to keep moving forward. We’re in a time in our world when there are lots of walls put up; we’re stopped sometimes, because COVID is stopping us and all sorts of things that we would…

  • Creative Endeavors,  Featured

    Design Corner: Work Tents

    Steelcase Inc. recently introduced a new solution in flexibility and privacy, known as Steelcase Work Tents. The architectural space divider designed for the office environment delivers the comfort of the camping tent to the workplace. Created in collaboration with a world-class tent designer, Steelcase Work Tents are meant to bring a sense of spatial security and enclosure to commercial spaces, while promoting individualized focus and privacy. The small, enclosed structures will be available in three versions and introduced to the market in three phases with the Boundary Tent currently available and the additional two versions, Table Tent and Pod Tent, launching in spring and summer 2021, respectively. The Boundary Tent…

  • GLBD - Flight Centre | Steve Tsai Photography
    Featured,  Form,  Travel

    Flight work

    When leveraging design-based research and brand strategy of one of Toronto’s largest, independent multidisciplinary design firms to create a new space for a global travel services company, the result is an award-winning, four-and-a-half floor office environment uniting staff from roughly 300 various locations throughout Toronto into one seven-story building. Designed by Figure3 to support the ever-evolving needs and culture of the Australian-based Flight Centre, the full-service travel agency’s new Toronto-based office has recently been recognized with a Value of Design Award in the Innovation in Workplace Design category from the Interiors Designers of Canada, or IDC. Departing from existing office layout that closed employees off from one another, Figure3 worked…

  • Design Spotlight,  Featured,  Print Edition

    Will to rise

    It is often said art is expression, where it can take on the language of communication, the catharsis of introspection, and the function of conduits for societal commentary. The role of art throughout time and communities has been an important one that continues to lend voice not only to the artist, but also to emotion, collective memory, and ideals. There is a power in the medium, where abstract, realistic, and symbolic—with its inherent ability to move audiences—have invited onlookers on a journey of reflection, disruption, and inspiration. For Jenny Vyas, contemporary fine artist based in Chicago, Illinois, whose art is influenced by the beautiful complexity of the human condition, art—particularly…

  • Creative Endeavors,  Featured

    Contribution in landscape

    Since its founding in 1899, the American Society of Landscape Architects has been in place to advance landscape architecture in areas like sustainability, education, and advocacy. Each year, the society inducts several fellows to further this mission, as awardees are chosen based on their exceptional contributions to landscape architecture.  This year, Brenda Williams, PLA, ASLA, NOMA, principal and director of preservation planning at Quinn Evans in Madison, Wisconsin, was nominated by the Wisconsin chapter of the ASLA for the ASLA 2020 Class of Fellows, one of 19 designers chosen throughout the United States. Williams is recognized as a national leader in the field, specifically in the conservation of cultural and…