Technical Difficulties

For the past few weeks I've been trying to figure out and correct the technical aspect of my design. The original building includes an atrium, lots of columns, 2 existing stairs and 4 existing elevators. My main objective was to figure out sightlines and how my seating would work best. The orientation of my buidling causes the front to face Decatur, while the back faces the Mississippi River. I wanted to take advantage of the view of the river, so I chose to make my main entrance in the rear of the building and the back of the house to face Decatur.



Site Map of The Jax Brewery and surrounding area.

Jax Brewery Floor Plans/Sections

Sixth Floor

Fifth Floor

Fourth Floor
Third Floor

Second Floor
First Floor

The original Jax Brewery building has an atrium that contains multiple columns. One of my biggest design issues will be working around these columns and producing a successful theater. Above are some pictures of the original floor plans of the 1st through 6th floors. Below are sections of the North and West sides of the building which are located on St. Peters and Decatur.

Decatur Section / St. Peter Section

Research

This week I've been drawing the North and the West sections of the Jax Brewery and revising the floor plans of the 1st-3rd floors (I will post the drawings as soon as I'm done revising them). Once I started drawing the sections and being able to actually see the space that I'll be designing in, I noticed that my original proposal might change a bit. My teacher really wants me to focus on the theatre part of my project because that is the "meat" of my design and the part I am most interested in. So the other spaces of my proposal will only be designed if I have room and time for them.

Today I'm going to the library to find some theatre design books and some lighting design books since lighting will be my focus for this project. A book is required at the end of the semester with all of the research and information that we gather for our design. I've been playing around with some page layouts for my book and will soon start adding info to the pages I've gathered thus far. I plan on designing my book in InDesign but I've never used it before so I will be also looking for books to help me get started with that.

Logo Design

The assignment given to us the second week of school was to determine a name for your project and to design a logo for it. The first step was to pick out three existing theatre logos and to analyze them. We had to ask ourselves the questions: What type of font is being used and what size, what shapes, if any, are being used, what colors are being used and is there a graphic or is it just words?

Then based on our research and analysis we were to design the first draft of our logo. The top logo is a bottle cap since the original Jax Brewery manufactured Jax Beer but it really didn't imply theatre at all so I moved on to the next one which includes a lighting element. I want the design of my theatre to reflect both the elements of whimsical and elegance. The second logo expresses the elegance that I want to convey, while the third logo indicates the whimsical aspect.

With the suggestions given by my classmates and teachers I revised my logo once again and will continue to do so throughout the semester.

My logo thus far:

Introduction

I am an Interior Design student at LSU and for our senior project we have to propose a design in a building of our choice. The project that I proposed thus far is a multi-use design that includes: A theatre, restaurant, gallery, bookstore and possible education spaces.

The building that I chose for my design is the Jax Brewery located on 620 Decatur in New Orleans. The reason for my proposed design in that I have a minor in theatre and have always been interested in the entertainment industry. Since Hurricane Katrina, all the existing theatre's in New Orleans have not been re-stored. The Jax Brewery is a beautiful building with such interesting elements and architecture, in addition to it's location in the heart of downtown New Orleans.

Right now the building is vacant and for lease. The first through third floors were used for retail spaces while the upper two floors were condominiums. The sixth floor is accessible as a rooftop deck. I want to use the first through third floors to design my theatre, etc. The remaining two floors I will leave as existing condominiums.