This project is a 14,000 square foot tenant fit out of a former Office Max anchor retail space into a new, family-focused, indoor rock climbing facility.
Offering bouldering climbing only, this gym has no top ropes or belaying cables, making it perfectly approachable for climbers of all ages and abilities.
Underscoring this core value is a kids-only climbing area just inside the front doors. This area features an age-appropriate level of climbing difficulty with a 9’-0” top out wall and platform ledge. Kids are able to climb freely to the top of the wall and hoist themselves over onto a narrow top-out ledge. Once on the ledge, they can opt either to climb down a safety ship’s ladder or fly freely down a twisting slide.
The reception area features a curved and layered backdrop not unlike a distant mountain range. The design provides careful areas for signage and pricing/membership information while simultaneously offering tantalizing glimpses into the climbing gym beyond.
A cafe/coffee bar area is planned at the front of the gym for parents or other non-climbers to stay visually connected to the bouldering walls while enjoying fresh coffee drinks and food items. The cafe also features a low platform stage and seating area designed to host live music performances as well as instructional safety min-classes.
A new mezzanine is inserted into the sprawling double-height space, effectively doubling the size of a ground-level multi-purpose room. A continuous low wall protects the mezzanine area while providing a carefully considered drink counter that allows visitors a comprehensive view of the whole climbing gym before them.
The gym also features a fitness area with training equipment, weights, and mats as well as a body-weight controlled, continuously rotating climbing treadwall.
Architect: Lo Design
Specialty Consultant Architect: Ryan Studio
Interior Design: Lo Design
Rock Wall Design: El Dorado Climbing
Crash Pad Design: Flashed
Branding: JWD Creative
Structural Engineering: A.Gilmore Services
MEP Engineer: VUEngineering
Fire Sprinkler: Falcon Fire and Sprinkler
A family with three teenagers—two girls and a boy—are desperately in need of more privacy. All three kids share one small bathroom that is accessed directly by two of the bedrooms and the third by a door to the hallway.
The clients originally thought the only solution was to build an expensive 3-story addition on the corner of the house with costly new foundation walls, removal of their relatively new deck, and undoubtedly tenuous aesthetics. But after an initial consultation and a little investigation, we discovered 350sf of unutilized space over their two car garage adjacent to the primary bedroom.
Full, cast-in-place foundation walls support the area which has a well-structured floor almost begging to be occupied. By carving out a careful access point just through their current primary closet, the solution unlocks incredible opportunity on their second floor.
So we move a few stud walls, rethink the areas with existing plumbing and suddenly we are able to provide each child with a full en suite bathroom! No more sharing (arguing?!)!
The careful moves open up a more generous laundry room, deletes some unnecessary wall jogs, and clarifies the entire space utilization all within the existing exterior walls of the house.
Oh, and the parents get a new dream bathroom, too, so…win-win-win!
We were approached by an industrious, entrepreneurial couple in Osawatomie Kansas to visualize their goal of creating an iconic destination wedding venue and retreat campus on the edge of the Flint Hills. The venue, named Valley Heights, is an ambitiously simple, industrial botanical structure including a reception hall, individual bride and groom suites, upper and lower bar and storage areas, as well as administrative offices on the second level. The simple U-shaped plan affords newlyweds a wide variety of spaces including a central courtyard that opens up to the northwest and acres of forest and trails.
The venue is sited at Mile Zero of the Flint Hills Trail, the seventh-longest rail-trail in America, and the longest trail in Kansas.
The Valley Heights Event Venue will be part of a coordinated campus plan that includes a new fully pervious driveway and main entry drop off loop, parking for 300+ cars, additional service/storage facilities, and a series of overnight cabins along the Flint Hills Trail.
This family home is designed for warmth, light, and life. The living spaces are located at the back of the house to maximize the connection to the fruitful backyard and patio. The kitchen, living room, and patio all include hearths to gather around. The home is buffeted in the abundant landscaping of the its green thumbed owner. Almost every space int he home has plenty of natural light which will nourish the many plants that live inside during the colder months. With the many ebbs and flows of a family’s needs throughout the hours, days, and weeks, and months, a family home has to be a workhorse, so while this home maximize the ethereal qualities of warmth and light, it is also designed specifically to function for the life of a family. Each family member has the sleeping, storage, and toilette space they need. There is a mud room to catch the detritus of daily life before entering the living space. The kitchen and dining room are built for enthusiastic cooks and entertainers. The kids have a loft to get away to and play fortnite, leaving the others in peace. This is a family who love to be together, but also recognize the need for space. This home will give them the space and spaces they need.
When building a new house in a suburban neighborhood, the next question is how to design something that will look at home in it’s context, but update the existing vernacular which was built in the 1960’s. You take the good and you leave the bad. We take warm earthy colors and materials, we leave a hodgepodge of window shapes and sizes. We take a low profile, we leave massive roof volumes. We take a smaller second floor, we leave a choppy plan. In balancing these qualities, we have designed a house that is distinctly of its time, but also distinctly of its place.
We designed this basement for a busy family who love their home but are bursting at the seams. They have a generous unfinished basement space that they want to make the most of. We laid out several zones within the larger space, a living area, a maker space for the kids, an office area for the parents, and an exercise room. The bedroom area and full bathroom make the basement an ideal guest suite. Large window openings cut into the foundation wall, mitigate that oppressive basement feeling and make the space much more inviting. A light, neutral, but bold palette allow more colorful furniture to pop in the space.
What do you do when you live on the best lot but you want more space? You…BLOW IT OUT! This addition is designed to accommodate a new pool, patio, and spa to this expansive backyard. The expanded living, dining and kitchen space spill out on to the patio and down to the pool. The spa is tucked away by the enlarged master suite for easy access from the bedroom. The master bath provides another space for calming ablutions with a generous shower and soaking tub. The addition announces it’s transition with exposed joists, a soaring roof overhanging the patio, and a modern cladding material of fiber cement channel lapped siding. This modest home is transformed into a generous paradise.