Hospitality Design - Four Rivers Smokehouse

Hello my lovelies. Here's another one of last semester's projects; hospitality design. The assignment was to design a restaurant for Four Rivers Smokehouse. The owner has plans to open a third location and the class got the opportunity to not only work with owner, so to speak, but also design a concept for the new Four Rivers location. Normally students aren't required to design the kitchen as this is considered speciality design. However, our instructor wanted us to tackle the kitchen and lined up a kitchen equipment company, REW, to give us some pointers.    

For my readers who do not know, Four Rivers is a BBQ joint in Orlando. The atmosphere is casual, food is good and service is pretty quick. The line to get into this place can be quite long, especially on the weekends. One particular request by the owner was that irrespective of the size of the restaurant, customers must get a sense of cozines. The challenge was to make 6000 sq. ft. appear small.

Instead of just placing tables and chairs throughout the dining ares, why not create a series of niches throughout the restaurant; small, medium and large ones. Each pocket of seats are separated by 4' walls that provide a sense of privacy yet maintain the openess. These walls also serve as noise control. 

Some interior perspective shots. I love the red wall mixed with the golden beige walls and dark wood floor. Contemporary yet casual. I think the lighting here makes that red wall look really light. In actuality it's a deep currant red. Red is a great color for restaurants. Not only is red an attention grabber but it also stirs the appettite. 

The outdoor seating area is a significant element that defines the Four Rivers' brand. Gotta have BBQ outside. And there it is folks, my concept for Four Rivers Smokehouse. 

A little R&R

Before this past semester got too heavy I managed to squeeze in a little time away from school even though my work traveled with me. Thanks to my husband being one of many top sales performers at his company, he and the other winners were honored with a trip to Laguna Nigel, CA for a five days stay at the Ritz Carlton. The employees had the choice of bringing their spouse. 

All mine...hehehe

View of the Ritz from the beach where the surfers did their thing at 6 AM every morning

Love these guys......

The water was nice but cold.....

My husband chillaxin'....

taking in the view

hanging with Nick Cage in crowded Hollywood on a hot sticky day....this was definitely one activity I wish I had skipped

The Ritz Carlton - service is great and interiors are nice. Especially loved the colored roses - there's a different color every week

nice view I thought to myself and kept going...after all I was on vacation

I'm really surprised these two let me get this close. I thought they were uber cute

this is what I enjoy the most....music and dancing.....

and hanging with husband and friends

All in all it was a great short break. 

My Toughest Semester is OVA......

This was one of the most challenging semesters to date. My plate was pretty full with three design classes. I have to admit that three design classes was pretty challenging and at times stifled creativity for each class. However, with late nights (i'm talking working to 4 AM a few nights) and round the clock working, I managed to pull it off. 

First up is my Sustainable Design class, which by far was my favorite. The task here was to design a sustainable building using shipping container modules or cargo containers in any country except the U.S. The kicker here was that the entire program had to address a social issue in the selected country. This is what made the project so much more meaningful. Rather than designing some random office or room, I was going to tackle some issue.  

BTW, the above structure was modeled and rendered in Revit Architecture. 

Of course, I chose to address one particular social issue in my home country of Jamaica. As beautiful as Jamaica is with its clear blue waters, spicey delicious foods, slammin' blue mountain coffee and some really cool people, there is one hiccup that really bothers me; its intolerance for the homosexual community. It's really bad to the point that these people can't live in peace. Because of who they are, they are met with mental, physical and verbal abuse. This is my chosen issue I decided to address and with great vigor and pleasure. 

This class I played the roles of architect, interior designer and garden designer. The building itself is in the shape of my first initial "M". The square pieces are the only pieces that would be constructed and served as the plumbing pieces. The O.H.L.A. (offer of hope love and acceptance) is a 9000 square foot gated resident housing for the homosexual community. The structure consists of individual bedrooms, shared kitchen and bathroom in each apartment, lounge area, security office, counselors, nurse's office, music studio, a balcony, and a group kitchen and market.  

The complex uses no HVAC system, Jalousie windows that offer opportunities for cross breeze and individual controllability, sky lights for daylighting, no dryer, water harvesting and gray water systems, low flow water equipments, solar panels and green roofs and walls for thermal insulation; And a host of other sustainable products.  

At the heart of this project is my funky-looking maze design, which is a vegetable garden; grow and eat locally. The design for the garden was inspired by the grid in the TRON video game; believe it or not. It adds a nice flavor to a building layout that is deemed simple and non complex. The garden is designed as a place for healing, community gathering and positive spirit. 

image credit

I also mentioned that there is a market on site. A market where fresh produce will be sold to members of the hetorosexual community. The market is one way of integrating both members so that better relationships can be developed. 

Some shadow studies: This is one of the best tools available in Revit. 

Exterior Shots

The programming is what makes this a great conceptual design. And to top it off, I found out I really love designing gardens, landscapes, etc. The outside must be as beautiful as the inside, right? 

Current Project

Yes, Yes......I know it's been a while; in fact, too long. But I promise I have good reasons for being away for so long. One of my current projects is sustainable design. The program behind the design is meaningful and interesting. I will tell you all about it soon. Here's a sneak peak of how my project is coming along.

I'll return soon :) promise

Cheers!!!!