Design Competition

Currently, I am working through an extremely long-term, detailed project which involves many drafts of floor plans, sections, and elevations. I will write more about that project later, now I would like to share some photos from the first design competition that I have entered. It is for the Chicago South Shore Chamber. It is a design of a bike rack. The rack had to be able to hold two bikes and protect the frame and front wheel, as well as allow the use of a U-lock. 

For my entry I took the idea of the waves of Lake Michigan that run along the South Shore. I took that shape and designed a bench seat from it. From there I placed two metal box covers, at an angle, at either end of the bench. To tie them together, the pole that the U-lock attaches to connects with its twin. Also that bar breaks the bench surface into two seats. 

I incorporated a bench into the design to allow for more variety of placement of it. To allow the biker to park and have a break and maybe walk around a little in that area. 

Painted and Finished

The first project of this semester has come to an end. It has been a long road and many, many late nights.
In the end though, it was worth it. We received a positive review from the guest reviewer and our professor, which in the end was great to hear.

From the last post I have been working almost non-stop. This is partially due to the fact that at some points I was sitting there and actually watching paint dry.

Here are some photos from my phone taken over the several nights of work and painting.

Here's how it looked at the start of painting.

The painting started with working on the tall panels

Next came the painting of the larger, shorter panels

There was, of course, touch up work required for some panels. So, there was plenty of sanding, and painting going on, like with one of the brown/blue panels.

After all the painting was done the very, very stressful task of assembly took place. This was so stressful because the tall panels are made up of three pieces and can break very easily. This process took me late into the morning due to how carefully and slowly it all took.

In the end, all the work resulted in something I was quite proud of.