This fun little project in the heart of Slabtown Portland was such a joy to work on! As a designer at *Vida Design, I was involved in the design of the interior, including picking out materials, the design of all the built elements, lighting selection, and assistance on furniture selection, as well as the renderings and full documentation of the space.
*This project was designed at Vida Design. https://vida-design.com

As you step through the doors of Rotigo you are whisked away to Europe on the charming patterned floor tile, and welcomed by a fresh euro-style market stocked with crackers, jams, cheeses, wines, and more. Warm honey-tone woods and fresh whites, balanced with pops of green sets the stage for your healthy eating experience — flavorful, thoughtful, and locally-sourced, both the menu ingredients and the interior materials in the space.

The overall design of Rotigo is a breath of fresh air, a playful but luxe ambiance with unique features and artisan character. The built in features in the market explore a playful language with curving niches and textural metal accents. A hint of brass adds a detail of luxury to the wine shelving.

Sustainability and conscious material use was very important to this project! We repurposed materials and features wherever we could in the space. Freshness is brought to you at the ordering counter with simple sleek white tile, reclaimed natural wood counters, and a unique feature wall of repurposed window-shutters. One of my favorite features of our design was the farmhouse style hand-washing station.

At the bar, you’re greeted by a wall of wine options on reclaimed wood shelving, a patterned tile accent, and a cozy niche wrapped in the unique green paneling. Featured wines are displayed on the modern ticker board bringing in another layer of euro-inspired details.

Cozy up in one of Rotigo’s many seating options, either for a casual lunch visit or a longer dine-in experience — a wine bar with stools, booths for 4 constructed with reclaimed metal, a perch table at the window in reclaimed wood, a cozy banquette niche in a unique green wrap, and a plush soft-seating lounge for individuals or groups.

The furniture in the space tells a casual but luxurious story with rich rust-tone velvets and warm supple leathers paired with boho-accents in accessories and lighting.

Top it all off with some greenery and the space becomes a little hidden oasis in the Northwest neighborhood.

What I love about this project: I’m obsessed with the pairing of colors in this one! The trendy green and all the reclaimed features really give this space that artisan character we were going for. I also love the little hints of brass and the shimmering ginkgo leaf wallcovering in the entrance.

https://www.rotigopdx.com

soft. meditative. relaxing.

In June 2020, I completed my Comprehensive Thesis Project for my professional degree in Interior Architecture. This project went through three stages: programming, schematic design, and design development. I chose a topic that is important to me and designed a Healing Center for Trauma Patients that addresses creating nourishing, thoughtful, and stress-reducing spaces that support a mindful experience for patients undergoing mental and physical trauma healing.

The center uses the Tamarack Building in South Eugene, adding an entirely new “connector building” to the site in between two existing buildings.

I focused design development on five signature spaces in the center that are integral to the patient journey. Each space addresses different behavioral needs of patients and staff: rest, heal, engage, hide, reflect.

• A space of choice and pause - Tree courtyard

• A meditative calming space to debrief and reflect - Zen Sand Lobby

• A nourishing and tactile Therapy Room

• A place to engage and unwind - Tea House

• A private soaking experience - Soak Tubs

Each space is curated with materials that address five main aspects of psychological comfort to support patients to trust and relax in the space.

• Stimulating the senses with tactility to address dissociation and assist patients to remain in the present moment, or to disengage from painful memories

• Cultivate discovery to foster an awareness of beauty around them, and spark joy from the little details

• True materials that do not lie to the users and allow them to trust the space they’re healing in; this addresses the specific behavioral trauma state of “fight-or-flight” that makes patients wary of potential threats or insincere intentions

• Finishes that do not leave impressions of past inhabitants to reduce the psychological impact of one patients’ trauma on another.

• Soft colors that reduce anxiety, are soft to the eye and soft to the touch. soothing greens, soft pinks, subtle creams and tans, tranquil blues.

What I love about this project: I love creating relaxing and nourishing spaces that just make you say “ahh.” Design development and thoughtful, meaningful intentions for material selection is my favorite part of every project. I love creating moods and atmospheres for interior spaces, and love doing it with a goal in mind; for this project I couldn’t get enough of mixing and matching ways to promote curiosity and discovery while balancing that with soothing and anxiety reducing vibes that really support this idea of letting your guard down and accepting healing. I could talk about this project for hours! If you’re interested in seeing my full comprehensive project book, contact me!

old and new

The Map Chocolate Shop project on Main Street Springfield, OR, merges the old and the new, giving a modern chic edge to a comfortable traditional style. The art of chocolate making has an old history, but the business of craft chocolate is new and budding! The space supports chocolate production, workshop teaching, retail & chocolate tasting, and packaging & storing.

Every element in the Map space design conceptualizes the pattern of segmentation from the classic divisions of a chocolate bar; the window divisions, the ceiling tiling, the built out frame walls, the layers of spatial zoning, the divisions of the custom casework, the lighting spacing, and it doesn’t stop there.

The flavor of the space guiding the material palette is derived from one of Map Chocolate’s delicious flavors, Lemon Poppyseed Donut White Chocolate. The materials together create a mood of decadence but simple accessibility, because chocolate is for everyone. The palette features a tin ceiling, lemon glass tiles, white countertops with poppyseed speckling, black hex tile floor and white chocolate terrazzo floor, neutral ash wood in custom pieces, fluted glass, and rich velvety upholstery.

To fit in with the Main Street facade language and appeal to a classic “chocolate shop” look, the Map storefront exhibits tall elegant windows with elaborate carved ash wood mullions, and fluted glass at the base of the storefront.

This project focused on the understanding and creation of accurate construction documentation in the form of permit sets and thorough detailing. For full construction documents, email me a request!

What I love about this project: creating a “flavor” of the space, designing custom pieces and detailing their construction, and creating something that is timeless but modern enough to appeal to all ages!

connect. expand. socialize.

The Fort Vancouver Multicultural Center is the heart of activity on the Fort Vancouver Historic Site. As visitors come to the site to explore the historic fort and the nearby river and bridge, the Multicultural Center’s amenities provide opportunity for more experiences, more cultural immersion, and a social hub for their visit. The Center provides visitors with a stop for food in a full-service cafe, a handy bicycle shop for repairs and rentals, a multicultural exhibition for rotating artifacts and animal shows, and a small auditorium for cultural showings, and community events.

The strong diagonal axis through the building activates the site with a social path that leads from and to main attractions on the site. This axis connects the center with the site’s rich history, the historic fort itself, the surrounding hilly landscape, and views of the nearby river and orchard. As a social and physical path connecting various routes of circulation, the diagonal supports foot and bicycle traffic.

The Center has strong outdoor connections with its integrated window-paned garage doors that can open to the outside and expand interior spaces to the outdoors, providing additional social space, seating, and opportunity for larger community events.

The building was originally built and used as an automobile repair shop in the 1930s. With the auto-inspired and PNW-inspired material selection, the atmosphere will convey this history. Industrial steel made from the site’s very own blacksmith, warm locally sourced woods some stained to resemble gasoline, and the quirky use of reclaimed automobile and bicycle parts integrated into the furniture and flooring. This space has a quirky, yet comfortable personality.

What I love about this project: being able to take a simple shell of a building and turn it into something dynamic and compelling that pulls visitors through the site and inspires them to check out all the interesting attractions of the site!

flowing. towering. translucence.

On Suttle Lake, Sisters, OR, The Wanderer Seasonal Restaurant displays blue parametric walls protruding through the space that capture the glittering essence of historic glaciers that once inhabited the lake. This parametric form separates and unites the dining experience with the cooking and test kitchen space as well as the outdoors towards the lake.

All materiality speaks to the site’s bold colors and textures during the autumn season. Rich warm leaves contrasted with the cool of the lake.

The volumetric forms take inspiration from the local morel mushroom. The project started with a focused specimen study of the morel and silicone prototyping for the parametric wall feature. The meandering directions of the morels surface, the translucence of its squishy walls, and the depth of its surface guided the parametric exploration.

This project focused on taking heavy inspiration from the site. An integration of poetic narratives written throughout the term guided our design work. These poetic narratives capture the overall feeling of being in the space, exploring all the senses:

Site - A crunch beneath her feet, dried fallen autumn leaves, shriveled and curling at the edges, and a softness, the breathing forest soil, spongey and springy. Tall and proud, the kings of the forest stretching through the mist surround her, a breach in the clouds and radiant streams of morning sunlight soften the arms of dripping sap covered needles, gleaming with warmth, fizzing in the misty air, like sparkling honey golden hair. Frigid fingers of a breeze prickle her skin, a deep breath of cool crisp air fills her body with the sharp scent of pine and fir, a wisp of refresh. Then the subtle lapping of water on the sandy shore, opening her eyes, she gazes across the steel blue lake, clear, vast, calm, as flat as paper. A singing bird, the trickle of the creek, the pair of ducks swimming by, a snow-capped mountain beyond, a valley where a colossal glacier once sat. Beauty, serenity, the outland.

The Morel - A canyon, a series of ridges, meandering like river channels. Pockets of translucent space, hugging each other closely, collapsing into each other’s shapes, tugging on each other’s walls, a stretched honeycomb structure. Deepening into shadow, darkness, depth, contrasted with the shared light above. Inside the canyon, dark shadows consume us, but around us the walls light up, sun comes down and through the translucent membrane, permeable to light and moisture alone. Rich forest brown, in tone, in smell, and in taste. Spattering in a pan, the morel shrinks in plumpness, cavities depress, oils coat the outside. Wilted, oily, chewy, much like meat; rich like the forest, buttery, supple, and soft. Design inspiration: depth, light and shadow, contrast, composition.

Prototype - Tall thin rubbery walls tower above, organically meandering like rivers, wiggling to the touch like a bowl of blue jello. Inside the canyon below dark shadows consume us, but around us the walls light up, sun comes down and through the translucent membrane, permeable to light and moisture alone: Inside the depths of the surface of the morel mushroom.

Atmosphere - A sizzle, a crackling, hot oil in a pan, the rhythmic chopping of metal meeting wood, the schump of a pepper’s flesh being sliced in rounds, a bubble a boil a splash of hot water.

The chatter, the clinks, the festive appraise, the footsteps clamor, the melodic hum of voices.

A twinkle overhead, a light or a star? shining high up in the forest ceiling. A wall that seems to glow, light pierces through.

Turning to the window, the bathing warmth of golden sun cascades down our faces, soft warm woods surround us.

Above us, the pattering of a brief soft rain coming to join us for dinner.

Stepping outside, the clouds breaching, the sun peeking hello, shutting the door behind and only the sounds of flittering songs flying above, the lapping of water, the crinkle of wind through the leaves. A deep breath. Tranquility.

Materiality - Autumn by the lake, a landscape of color. Deep tranquil blues, smooth glass. Vibrant ice, glowing. Fluffy soil brown, velvet soft. Rich rusty orange, crinkly. Bursts of bold golden leaves, the gleaming sun. Charcoal grey, a pile of wet basalt. Sandy creams, the lakeshore. A building of the season.

Plan - Waiting to be seated; Walls translucent, a hint of a figure beyond. Around us, Spaces that seem to become one another, tugging this way and that; Light streaming through them, set to life. Smooth walls, with a glow following, flow us through the space to our seat. We glide across the floor, like ducks on water through a river’s channel and arrive into the warmth of the sun.

Spatial Essence of Ice - A glow. A vibrant icy blue, quite chilled to the touch. Up, up, up, gazing up, towering, a top that disappears around its bend. And beyond and through the frost, a shape a shadow a figure, gliding with faded movement. Smooth and flowing, a surface meandering through and across the space, out it continues towards the water. People looking up, people peering through, people gazing out. Awe and ice.

What I love about this project: the awe-inspiring essence I was able to create through form and material of the parametric blue walls. I’ve created an artistic dining experience unlike any other that could have people saying “you’ve got to go to that glacier restaurant, what a fascinating atmosphere! I can’t wait to go back.”