The Baha’i House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois stops you in your tracks. And this makes it a place that works. Its curving form and decorated surfaces force you to notice it. And since most visitors are not familiar with the Baha’i faith, the building can initiate discussions of meanings and practices. My fellow Northwestern graduates and today’s students are known to trek up to see “the temple in Wilmette”.

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‘Tis visiting season. People are traveling to see friends and family members while the weather is generally pleasant. Humans are territorial animals, however, which is one of the reasons that those visits are seldom tension-free. We feel most comfortable when we have a clearly defined physical territory, and houseguests who leave their own territories at home, can disrupt those of their hosts.

In South-Eastern Ohio, Greg Campbell and Jean Marie Cackowski-Campbell have designed and built a freestanding tower on their property for guests. It’s a place that works because it acknowledges that sometimes continual togetherness can be too much.

The tower is set across the deck from the main house and has a total of 521 square feet of living space, spread across 3 octagonal floors – octagons were selected to optimize the useable area on each floor. Read more…

Individuals send messages about themselves that they feel are important and set a mood through the way they personalize their homes – they make certain sorts of experiences more likely than others. Organizations also convey information and produce psychological effects through the design of public environments. HOK’s New York office is a place that works because it effectively uses its design, and particularly its art collection, to encourage desired conversations.

Photo: Eric Laignel

The art pieces and photographs used throughout the HOK office represent applied branding, while the views of exemplary architecture framed by the classic modernist windows in the space are integral to the office’s design. All three elements matter and have a significant influence on visitor experience, but the art and photos are the focus of this discussion.

During an interview, Rick Focke, the Director of Interior Design at HOK and lead designer for the New York office, explained in detail how the office’s designers used 8 to 9 pieces of purchased art and a collection of photographs and models from client projects, to put viewers in the mood for productive, thoughtful conversation. The art intrigues viewers and leads them to wonder what is being expressed in the piece, as HOK wants to inspire visitors of its offices to be inquisitive, alert, and questioning. Read more…

The Urban Garden Room at One Bryant Park (Bank of America Tower by Cook + Fox Architects) in New York City is a place that works – and not simply because of its greenery and daylight. These elements appeal to our senses and emotions in a deep, primal way. Extensive writings on psychological value of being in spaces with green plants and daylight document our needs, as do my previous posts. I bring it up, again, because in a high tech world we need these connections the earth more than ever.

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The Seattle Central Library works so well because of something obvious: its architects carefully considered the role of a public library during its projected lifetime and designed it accordingly.

When Rem Koolhaas, Joshua Prince-Ramus of OMA/LMN, and their teams set to work they went into a detailed analysis of what it would take to enrich citizens’ lives and how the job of the building would evolve with the institution it housed. They assessed how technologies and the social and cultural roles of the library would change, for example, at a time when libraries need to house new media, rather than just paper technology.

Opened in 2004, the library’s functionality has been constantly given positive reviews for the past 7 years. Read more…

Courtesy of the Trustees of Sir John Soane’s Museum. Photo: Martin Charles

We have a fundamental psychological need to express who we think we are by personalizing our homes which, in turn, give us comfort and solace. Our personalized rooms tell others about us. They have the added benefit of reminding us about what we feel is important to us. Unfortunately, homeowners are often tempted to follow design trends that, sometimes, don’t mesh with who they really are, causing tension and stress.

When I think about what makes a home a uniquely personal expression, Sir John Soane springs to mind. Read more…

The library at Gensler’s Chicago office is a satisfying space in many ways. By being situated on one of the design firm’s main circulation routes, this resource room naturally occupies the center of the action. The materials and catalogs that fill the shelves communicate, to employees and visitors alike, how much this group of designers value knowledge. The library shouts this nonverbal message.

This library is not a static place, fixated only on books and periodicals. There is a learning place in the first bay, dedicated to exhibits by artists, craftspeople, and manufacturers, among others. The shows can focus on topics that are outside the general comfort zone of people who work here.

It’s also the place where experimental uses of furnishings provide the firm’s design staff with ways to test out and understand furnishings options available to them. In this way the library becomes a platform for the quick prototyping of space design.

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A curving bench dominates the pocket park next to the Chicago Temple, at the corner of Washington and Clark. The first time I walked by it, I realized that this piece of furniture is a masterpiece, psychologically speaking.

Research tells us that we flourish in places where we feel in control, and this bench provides all sorts of options.  I’ve seen people arrange themselves along its length when they want to make eye contact with others OR NOT, knowing, instinctively that connections can happen when we catch each others’ eyes. These eye-links can read minds. For introverts, though, continuous contact can be unpleasant; and even the most extroverted of us needs a little alone time once in a while. But no matter what your preferred “interaction alignment”, you can sit at some point along the bench and experience it. Read more…

Years ago, a small town in Michigan, best known for its annual tulip festival, diverted waste heat from its power plant into pipes that run under streets and sidewalks in the central business district.  For generations Hollanders have appreciated their forefathers’ prescient decisions, especially in hard, freezing winters with their Lake Effect snow storms.  Thanks to the underground pipes, no matter how cold it gets, the sidewalks stay clear and dry, all because someone was thoughtful enough to use an industrial by-product that other towns blithely discarded. This early decision, which lead to the installation of 120 miles of tubes, have kept downtown Holland alive, even as towns of similar size have been decimated, with shops decamping to nearby malls. Read more…

Image courtesy the Milawaukee Art Museum, Photo: Timothy Hursley.

Whenever I’m in the Quadracci Pavilion at the Milwaukee Art Museum, I have to catch my breath. Being there is an exhilarating, intensely positive experience. The space works hard to prepare visitors for the experiences they’re about to have as they proceed to view the collection—this makes the dramatic pavilion a place that works.

The Santiago Calatrava addition to the museum opened ten years ago, in 2001. The structure’s famous wings that open and close, change the amount and quality of sunlight that enters the area immediately beneath them. This reception hall, used for many community and private events, is surrounded by an auditorium, a store, a café, and room for temporary exhibits.

I find the reception hall most intriguing – particularly as I amble deeper into the space, and get closer to Lake Michigan.   Read more…