Junior interior design class presents projects

Today at 9 a.m. the junior interior design class presented projects to this year’s visiting designer on the ninth floor of the Huntsman business building at Utah State University. This is the program’s first semester long-project.

This year’s visiting designer, Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz, assigned the students to work on a villa.

Noriega-Ortiz is a well-recognized interior designer and author. His clients include, rock star Lenny Kravitz and Mexican author, Laura Esquivel. His work has been featured in books and on television shows.

Darrin Brooks, an associate professor in the interior design program, said the students must move a staircase from the central area and then remodel and present the home for the owners for the project.

The villa, located in Puerto Rico, is owned by a Russian man and a Spanish woman. The students have the challenge of combining Russian, Spanish and Puerto Rican culture.

“We’re looking at Russia we’re looking at Spain, we’re looking at Puerto Rico and we have to pull those three cultures together,” Brooks said.

Kim French, a student in the program, said she was nervous to present to Noriega-Ortiz.

“I think more than nervous,” she said. “It was anxiety. We had worked so hard for it and we were so excited to show it to him but we weren't sure what the reaction would be.”

Another student, Madison Stewart acknowledged she was nervous to present as well but Noriega-Ortiz was nice.

“He came in and was joking with us. He was very personable,” she said.

The students said that while the project was worth it, it was stressful.

“Creating it, the whole thing was hard,” student Kaytee Lucherini said. “I think we had people that just didn't sleep.”

The students said getting into the rhythm of the project was the most difficult part.

“I felt like I was finally getting into the flow by the third room,” student Caitlin Lindley said.

The students created both a magazine and a video. The magazine was used in the presentations but was also intended to be a piece of work students could send to internships and possible jobs. The video was to present their design for the home.

“Once I got the hang of the video it was fun to make it,” said Lindley. “But it was totally different and hard to figure out how to present it.”

After the presentations the students attended a lunch with Noriega-Ortiz. They said it was a relief to be done.

“I feel so much better that we’re done now. It’s a relief,” Stewart said.  

The visiting designer series has been in place at Utah State University since 2003.

Brooks said the program has become a bit of legend.

“We cannot believe the legacy of our design program. We've brought in such significant figures and we only seek out the best,” he said. “Designers are typically honored to be in line with the celebrity status designers that have accepted over the years.”

Brooks said the visiting designer program has been a unique addition to the interior design program.

“I don’t know of any other university to work on such a project. We’re really unique,” he said.

Milieu Design completes dental office design

Milieu Design, a Logan architectural and interior design firm, has complete the design process of ABC Pediatric Dentistry’s new building in Providence.

The office is geared toward adolescents and teenagers so the firm needed a space that would be practical and inviting for both.

Stanton Allen, the owner of ABC, said he wanted the space to be enjoyed by all ages.

“Hopefully we’ll make it so when the kids come here they’ll like it and the adults will like it as well,” he said. “We didn't want to make it too baby-ish. We wanted to make it fun and useful.”

ABC was a building that took a different turn from Milieu’s usual rustic style. Kurt Leikis, a project manager, said that a difficulty with the project was finding good-looking yet tough materials.

“It’s not always something that we’re used to doing, thinking about how durable this is for a kid,” he said. “We had to bring in nice material choices but still have something durable and make sure it looked good in the overall design scope.”  

Allen said he is pleased with the outcome.

“I love it, I think it’s great,” he said.

Emily Barfuss, one of the lead designers on the office, said her favorite part was designing the architectural elements.

“There’s just some cool architectural features that we got to design,” she said. “It’s really different from anything we've done.”

ABC is currently operating across the street from their new building. Now that the design process is done construction will begin. The opening date for the new building has yet to be determined.

Sophomore interior design class remodeling sociology department

This year the Utah State University interior design program’s sophomore class will put their skills and knowledge to the test while they work on preparing models for the renovation of the sociology department’s graduate areas.

Professor Leon Anderson, the head of the sociology department, said he reached out to the interior design program because was interested in updating the graduate study rooms and a colleague referred him to the class.

“The graduate study rooms, which we call the bullpens, have not been updated since the 1960’s," he said. "There were old desks and stuff that had been moved in over the years. They didn't look professional."

The students are currently in the Interior Space Planning and Human Dimensions course taught by Sarah Urquhart where they learn how the human body fits into a environment. Designing a space helps the student’s apply what they learn in class.

“Space planning in particular is a very skill-driven class. It’s very much about human dimensions and understanding how the human body relates to the build environment,”Urquhart said. “There’s many things in our build environment that we take for granted. Like the height of a doorknob. Why is it there? Why is it that high?”

Each student will prepare their individual design model and then the client will choose their favorite idea for the space

Autumn Shakespear and Emily Thaxton are two students working on the remodel project.

“Right now we’re in the middle and just trying to fit everything in the space and decide what elements we want to include,” Thaxton said.

Shakespear said that she has enjoyed working on the project so far.

“I like it,” she said. “But I don’t think we've really hit the stressful part yet.”

Students will begin presenting April 20. Anderson said he is looking forward to the presentations.

“It’s a slower process because it’s got to be part of their overall learning experience,” he said. “I’m optimistic that it will be well worth the time to get through their design process.”

Largest class at Bridgerland Applied Technology College will graduate this summer

The interior design program at Bridgerland Applied Technology College will graduate its largest senior class this year.

Currently, the program currently has 13 students enrolled. Two high school students and four college students will be receiving their certificates of completion at the end of this semester.

“When I started the program in 2012 there were only four students including myself. So our program size has tripled in the past three years,” said Janae Wright, an interior design instructor.

Wright could only speculate as to why the program has grown but student Mikaela Sullivan said the program appealed to her because of cost and flexibility.

“I didn’t really want to pay that much to go to Utah State or another college, so I decided to go Bridgerland instead. It’s a lot cheaper and I will still get the same certificate as I would from a univeristy,” she said. “ I like that you learn at your own pace. It’s really good about making yourself accountable for your work.”

The other graduating seniors include Taylor Swenson, William Primmer, Kate Bennion, Natalie Howard and Carline Paulsen.

Smithfield adds new building

Milieu Design, a local architectural and interior design company, is heading the design of a new building for Smithfield.

The new building will be part of a larger business park that will be going up between 700 South and 800 South. The general contractor, Jeff Jackson of Ironwood Construction, said they hope to break ground in less than a month if their plans get approved.

The building was contracted by Prestige Solutions, a company that specializes in smartphone screen protectors and accessories.

Milieu Design was contacted two weeks ago by Jackson. “We met with his client to find out what his needs were and then from there we developed a concept,” project manager Kurt Leikis said. “Then we just barely showed them our concept renderings and we got their likes and dislikes.”

Ironwood has been working with Milieu for the past eight months and they are currently working on six projects together.  

“I don’t like the way that the traditional contractor and architecture relationship is set up,” Jackson said. “They’re willing to work with me in more of a design-build scenario where the general contractor has quite a bit of input in the design stage and this helps to help keep my customers happy. So far it’s been a very good relationship.”

According to Leikis, the project’s conceptualization has gone quickly. In less than two weeks a plan has been approved by the client with only a few minor changes requested.

Liekis said the next step is to send out loose plans to the engineering firm.

“Then we just make the necessary tweaks,” Leikis said.

The project does not have a start date yet because the plans need to be approved and stamped by engineers. “If contractors, engineers and the client all play nice and there aren’t too many revisions I would expect this part of the process to take less than a month and then construction can start,” Leikis said.

Milieu's concept renderings of the building are below.