Cellar Area Render

conceptual rendering of water feature and bar in the cellar area at the Palace Hotel:

Concrete Columns

Considerable progress has been made to clear out the back end of the first floor at the Palace.  This is the roughly 10,000 SF concrete and brick portion on the western side, which was built in 1914 and then added on to in 1929.  Workers cleared the deteriorating wood lath, wallpaper and plaster off of the interior and returned the rugged concrete and brick structure back to its bare bones. 

As I stood in the middle of the newly exposed space for the first time, the possibilities of uses began to speak to me.  The 12’ tall ceilings and window frontage could make successful retail while the large space on the southern end could make a banquet hall, public assembly space, or even an exercise facility for local residents.  The passageway that cuts through the middle of the hotel is lined with brick arches and skylights, which could make a beautiful, sunlit alleyway for impromptu public meetings and walk-throughs. 

Here is the current break up of the programmatic uses for back end of the first floor.  As you can see the western end is retail (blue) while the large space on the southern end is an assembly hall (green) and the passageway (the yellow highlights the atrium above) cuts through the building.

The green squares dotting the concrete portion represent a 15-foot grid of large, 16” columns supporting concrete beams.   The columns are part of the concrete building's robust structural system which was engineered for a building two stories taller than the Palace.  These columns could offer an artistic statement in themselves, by either being covered with stucco and intricately detailed or sand-blasted and left with their existing, rugged appearance.  Although very different aesthetically, both methods could work well with the Palace, either by contrasting the interior finishes with an honest, gritty structure or the classical ornate.

Atrium Ideas

The atrium is a 100x20 foot rectangular void that is surrounded by rows of condo units and acts as the core of the 2nd and 3d floors at the Palace.  

Exposed by at least 60 windows, including 2 large windows at the 2nd and 3d floor entrances, the atrium is one of the primary visual focuses for the upper floors.  The space therefore has to be alluring and pleasing to the eye.  The space should also draw sunlight through windows into the condo units and through skylights to the first floor, and act as a meeting and resting place for residents.  I've been sketching out and modelling several ideas for the atrium, placing in different designs and then stepping back to see how they fit.  Here are a few of them:

Atrium sketch with a spiral staircase leading up to a walkway on the second floor,
and playful canopies to add form and color.

Atrium sketch with a water feature dripping down the furthest wall,
a fire pit, and vertical gardens.

Atrium rendering using the modeling program Rhino and rendering program
Vray.  The water feature on the furthest wall could collect rain water from the roof,
and then siphon down into another water feature on the ground floor.