Lexie Armand Interior Design Portfolio
AKA Interiors
Design Firm from Re-purposed Barn Work Room Elevation
First Floor
Second Floor
Third Floor
Reception View
Office with Original Structure Highlighted
Site Plan
The Office for AKA Interiors started as a vineyard barn in California’s Wine Country. The land and barn were a gift from a family member in order to help fulfill the dream of starting an interior design firm. The barn is in good condition, but is not built to serve as an inhabited building, so the roof and structural frame are the only parts of the barn that will be kept as they are. Since so much work must be done to the building, it makes sense to expand as well, but the building can only be expanded 10’ in every direction before the cost of altering the site becomes a major factor. The design of the space is inspired by a playful whimsy and balancing contrast. This inspiration appears in the combination of modern, new elements, and reuse of old, rustic materials from the original building, as well as through the use of circles and curves balanced by rectangular forms. Pops of red against neutral wood tones, grays, blacks, and whites create an energizing environment.
Front Exterior
Waiting Area
Conference Room
Work Room
Sustainability is very important to the design of this office with the aim to use as much of the barn’s original materials as possible in order to prevent them from going to a landfill, as well as to avoid unnecessarily manufacturing new materials to be used. Additionally, most walls added to the building are also curtain walls, which flood the space with natural light to allow for reduced use of electric lighting. The first floor of this structure features all of the public space, including the reception and waiting areas, an accessible restroom, and the conference room. The entire first floor is ADA compliant in order to accommodate all clients and other visitors to the space. The second floor is primarily work space. Large work tables with storage underneath provide plenty of space to spread out project documents., material samples, and any other project components; they were created using wood from the original barn. This floor is completely open with the junior designers and the owner working in the same space to encourage interaction and collaboration. This floor also contains a small efficiency apartment which can be rented for additional income to help pay for building expenses. The third floor contains unfinished space for future expansion along with a break area and outdoor space. The outdoor space can be used for both work and relaxation. There is lounge style furniture along with a cafe table to provide flexible seating options. Having this outdoor space also allows the firm to really take advantage of the area’s mild and pleasant climate.
Reception Elevation
Back Exterior
NEXT Commercial Real Estate Firm Denver, CO Office Design Lobby & Waiting
The NEXT Real Estate Office Workplace, located in Denver, CO, is inspired by the Rush surrounding the new office. Just one block away from the office is Cherry Creek, and eight blocks away is the South Platte River; these two streams are filled with Rushing water, and these two bodies of water merge where the location where Denver’s Gold Rush began. Because there is a certain sense of urgency in the real estate market, there is often expected to be a Rush around the office as well. This Rush will appear in NEXT through a plan that leads occupants swiftly through the space, textures and colors inspired by the Gold Rush and the waterways where it began, and flecks of “gold” scattered through the space to keep employees engaged with the company. Rough, gritty textures reflect the harsh rapids; this is contrasted with soft, smooth textures of the calmer waters. This also serves as a constant reminder that when things get tough, you will always be able to ride through the Rush to reach smooth sailing.
Medium Conference
NEXT needs an office that can accommodate the company’s daily Rush. NEXT needs a space that flows smoothly to ensure that those who are in a Rush can move swiftly with ease, while those who need to be anchored in one place can get their work done without winding up in someone’s way. The office also needs to make sure that any Rush of clients does not disturb employees’ work. NEXT is looking for an office that is prepared for any Rush that the real estate industry brings their way.
Virtual Reality/ Client Zone
The Virtual Reality Room/Client Zone functions as a space for NEXT to show clients and potential clients what the company is doing. The space has three screens on the back wall that show news about what is happening within NEXT including projects, major changes such as new offices, and awards won by the company or its employees. Two larger screens show NEXT projects on loop when not being used for client virtual walk-throughs, which utilize both virtual reality headsets and the screens so that everyone in the room can see on the screen what is happening on the headset. The front wall of the room uses cloaking technology to hide any top-secret projects from anyone walking through the hallway that should not see the images. When clients are out, this room can also be used for employees to take a break and watch a movie or play video games to relax.
Space Planning Process Work
Large Conference Room
WorkCafe
Medium Conference
Back Employee Entry/ Connect Zone
Virtual Reality Room/ Client Zone
Wellness
Wellness Small Wellness Conference
Private Office
Private Office
Medium Conference Open Office Private Office
Private Office
Lobby & Waiting Patio #2
Front Employee Entry/ Connect Zone
Final Floor Plan
Open Office
Patio #1
The WorkCafe is surrounded by carefully considered features. The non-structural portions of the wall between the WorkCafe and outdoor patio are made up entirely of glass, allowing natural light to flood through the room and into surrounding spaces. Windows into the conference room fill the space above the cafe’s cabinets, and allow natural light to reach the conference room. This not only saves energy, but helps to improve the wellbeing of employees who must stay in the conference room for long periods of time. The wall defining the WorkCafe from hallway space also allows the natural light to filter into other spaces including
WorkCafe
the Virtual Reality Room. This light is filtered through a waterfall wall, which serves not only as a calming reminder of nature, but also creates white noise and a sound barrier to make the WorkCafe more private from the hallway space. Additionally, vining plants grow up on either side of each waterfall in order to bring more nature into the space, and help to purify the air. The wall across from this contains a super graphic reminding the employees of their importance to the company. A gold pan like those from the Gold Rush is the background of the graphic, and the phrase “You are the gold” is written across the wall.
WorkCafe Elevation
Open Office
Open Office Elevation
Natural daylighting and views to the outdoors are very important in office design. Employees with views to outside are up to 25% more productive than those without outdoor views, and are able to process information from calls 10% faster. Additionally, those workers exposed to natural daylighting are 18% more productive, and have their work rates increased by 23%.
Open Office
Open Office
Front Entry/ Connect Zone
Celebrating communities is very important in office design, and is of particular importance to the NEXT client. Engaging employees with the office community helps to keep them engaged in their work. By keeping the employees connected with their coworkers as well as the community of the city in which they work, NEXT can help to make sure that their employees feel at home in the workplace. This also helps employees feel that they are each important to the team, and are contributing to something larger than themselves. The Connect Zones at the front and rear employee entries promote this engagement by showcasing employees who are involved in the community, volunteering opportunities, and local events to help celebrate employees and the Denver community. Although community engagement is very important to making people happy in the workplace, so is personalization and physical comfort. By offering a variety of seating types including lounge furniture, residential-feeling tables and chairs, and more traditional office work stations, employees are able to work how and where they work best each day. Employees can personalize their spaces by choosing to
upload their personal photos on the electronic frames placed at many workstations, and select their folder of images on the frame at the workplace they choose to use on any given day. Employees are also encouraged to bring small “flecks of gold,� which are small items that show an important part of who they are, such as figurines, small statues, or art pieces, to help show off office culture and individual employee personalities. References to nature offer numerous health and wellbeing benefits to occupants of a space. Many types of plants are able to remove toxins from the air, and all plants add extra oxygen to their environment. Plants combined with natural materials like wood, clay, or water features can create a natural-feeling environment that has calming and healing effects. Even natural colors can help to improve wellbeing. Yellow is recommended to improve creativity, green reduces stress, and blue helps promote focus, all of which are beneficial in the design of workplaces. For these reasons, green plants are incorporated frequently throughout the workplace, and blues, yellows, and natural materials are used throughout the space.
Millennial Marketers
Meeting Room and Technology Center Relationship
Micro Apartments & Community Center
The Community Center of the Millennial
Marketers Micro Apartments aims to fulfill all of the day-to-day needs of its residents that cannot be met by their individual units, which are only 300 square feet and contain only the basic components of an apartment and home office. To fill these needs, there is a large kitchen, plenty of common lounge space, a technology center where residents can use computers and plotters, and meeting rooms with audio-visual equipment.
The community center of this Chicago, Illinois apartment complex is inspired by connection, which the space aims to provide to all who enter. Whether residents are hosting a dinner party, meeting with clients, or simply working in the lounge or technology center, they are sure to connect with many of their neighbors as well as visitors to the apartment community. These connections are visually represented by grids of hexagons found throughout the space.
Hallway Lounge
Community Center Main Lounge
Kitchen
Lighting Design was a
major focus in this project, which followed the guidelines for the Eaton Lighting Student Design Competition. All specified lighting and lighting controls are either Eaton Lighting products or custom fixtures with Eaton Lighting bases. Lighting was selected to improve work spaces, and make them more usable during both day and night by adding stronger ambient lighting as well as additional task lighting.
Work Lounge Lighting Diagram
Floor Plan
RCP Lighting Legend
RCP
Office Function
The Micro Apartments of the Millennial Marketers
complex help residents to maximize the uses of their space. Designed to function as not only a studio apartment for living and entertaining, but also as an office for millennials starting their own marketing companies, these 300 sq. ft. apartments have a sleek, modern look, and are packed with flexible furniture and storage. A bookshelf is tucked above the dropped portion of the ceiling; sofas and work surfaces pull and fold out of casework along the walls, and a Murphy bed can be pulled down, landing to be supported by the shelves that are mounted on the bed’s base during the daytime. Chairs used in the office can also be flipped and locked together to create a small coffee table when entertaining. Most surfaces within the apartment have magnetic, dry erase finishes in order to maximize the space during the work day. Employees can make notes on any nearby surfaces to remember for later, or doodle on the walls during breaks to relieve stress.
Bedroom Function
Social Space Function
Millennials tend to be entrepreneurial, and like to live minimalist lifestyles. This was why I chose to focus the millennial micro apartments on the needs of entrepreneurial marketers. Though the space is small, it packs a big multi-purpose punch. Any space that is not used to hide the apartment’s furniture is used as personal storage. The artificial lighting within the apartment is intended to be used sparingly, because the windows span the height and length of one wall in this space. This natural lighting provides comforting views of the outdoors and warm light across the achromatic finishes that could otherwise feel cold. Recessed can lighting combined with modern pendant light fixtures create multiple options for light levels when daylighting is low.
Bedroom Elevation
Office Elevation
Social Space Elevation
Orenda (oren-da) n.: a mystical force present in all people that empowers them to affect the world or to affect changes in their own lives. The natural but mystical force of “orenda” is reflected in this CIL facility not
Center for Independent Living Multi-Purpose Room
only in its design, but in the clients who use the space. These people plan to leave the space fully able to express their “orenda.” This mystical force is visualized in the aurora borealis, a beautiful, natural, and mystical phenomenon. “Orenda” appears in the design of this CIL by inspiring elements that are empowering, inspiring, natural, and mystical, creating the ideal space for clients to express the force within themselves.
The Orenda Educational Center is a CIL (Center for Independent Living) located near an under-served neighborhood in Milwaukee, WI. The facility aims to prepare clients to live and work independently by teaching them life skills as well as skills to help them secure a job. Mechanics are in high demand in the Milwaukee area, and according to research by Temple Grandin, Ph.D. many people with autism are able to thrive in mechanical work. Because of this the center includes a small shop where clients can gain the fundamental shop skills needed before seeking further training in mechanics and industrial arts. This is in addition to the required work training spaces for secretarial work, computer-based jobs, and jobs as a cook or chef.
Interactive Sensory Wall
The Sensory Integration Room allows Orenda’s clients to escape stressful situations or recuperate after a breakdown in a room where all stimuli can be easily controlled. The brightness and harshness of the lighting can be controlled with window treatments and dimmer switches on all illuminated devices, speakers can increase white noise to reduce other auditory distractions, or can play comforting musing, and surfaces have varying textures to allow each person to find an area that brings them comfort. An interactive bubble wall located on the outside of the room provides a way for the clients to calm down without using the sensory room so that it can be a rewarding space after a good day rather than after a breakdown.
Sensory Integration Room
Floor Plan
Flexible Use Room
Courtyard
Sensory Integration Mock Apartment Work Training Room
R.R.
Flexible Use Room
R.R.
Multi-Purpose Room
Mechanical Shop Demo Kitchen
R.R. Reception
Director’s Office Trainers’ Office
This team project was highly focused on using research about autism and other developmental disorders to guide our design decisions. Some general design issues for people with autism were spaces being unpredictable, over-stimulation from highcontrast lighting and colors, bold patterns, and flooring that is too hard. Because of these findings, a few elements were incorporated throughout the CIL. All doors have a sidelight or windows into the room to help ease the transition from one room to the next; walls are all solid pastel colors or low contrast textures, storage is hidden or has doors to reduce visual distractions, resilient flooring and carpet tiles are used throughout, and ambient lighting is strong to reduce contrast. The Flexible Use Room is used for a variety of activities from exercise instruction to crafts, and opens up to a mechanical shop. Because many shop activities could be loud, a folding acoustic partition is used to absorb shop noises, and acoustical ceiling tiles are used throughout the rooms to reduce auditory distractions.
Hotel & Spa La Selina Hotel & Spa is a historic building near the beaches of San Jose, Costa Rica. Unfortunately, the interior of the hotel has fallen into disrepair, and the spa has become outdated. The owners have recently been awarded a grant in order to renovate both the hotel and spa, and the hotel owners have recently been approached by investors who are looking to expand the hotel by adding a few stories, and converting the first floor into a restaurant and bar rather than the suites that were there before. Because this is a historic building, the expansion may not be possible, so the owners have asked for a floor plan that could be applied to the existing second floor as well as any floors that are added above the existing two stories. Additionally, they have asked for an idea for a new spa plan. They intend to hire specialty contractors to assist with more in-depth kitchen and spa planning at a later date, but would like to see an idea of how the new sauna and
steam room will affect the size and quantity of other rooms within the spa, and have requested a rendering of one of the spa spaces to get an idea for how the spa will relate to the hotel and restaurant. Concept The inspiration for the design of this hotel and spa is the tropical surroundings of the hotel, including lush flora and fauna, beautiful mountainsides, and majestic volcanoes. The concept for the design is a day lily. Though day lilies are not necessarily tropical plants, they have a very tropical look, and can grow and thrive in a variety of environments. These flowers are the concept for the space because they open up to be vibrant and lively during the sunny daytime, like the hotel should be, but close during the night, when the hotel and spa will be more serene and calming.
Dining Room
Second Floor
First Floor R.R.
Kitchen
Spa King Room
King Suite
Queen Room
Bar Seating
Queen Room
Breakfast Bar
Lobby
Dressing Rooms Double Massage Room Relaxation Room Reception
Dining Area
R.R.
Private Party Room
Single Massage Rooms
Sauna Steam Room
Queen Room King Room
King Room
Queen Room
Queen Room
R.R. Storage
Facials & Waxing
Reception & Lobby
Bar Seating
Dining Room
Costa Rica Tourism and Culture The restaurant and bar at La Selina will appeal not only to spa visitors and hotel guests, but also to tourists visiting the area beaches and ecotourism attractions. The number of tourists visiting Costa Rica has been increasing steadily since 2009 and had more than quadrupled from 1988 to 2015, so the demand for accommodations has increased as well. Because the climate in this country is so mild, there is a relatively steady number of people visiting the area yearround. The temperature typically ranges from 58 to 83 degrees Fahrenheit through the whole year, so it is never too hot or too cold for tropical tourism. Unfortunately, the country does have a rainy season in the fall, so this is the one time of year when tourism drops. Costa Rica is highly influenced by Spanish culture as well as the natural environment by which it is surrounded. The area is vibrant and full of life. The phrase “pura vida” is used by Costa Ricans as both a greeting and a salutation. “Pura vida” means “pure life,” which truly reflects how the people of Costa Rica live their daily lives surrounded by nature and thriving life. Restaurant & Bar The restaurant and bar at La Selina serve food and drinks throughout the day. The restaurant cooks breakfast for the hotel’s breakfast bars every day, and opens for lunch and dinner every day. Friday through Sunday, the restaurant serves a weekend brunch to hotel guests and any other customers who wish to join. Seating on the bar side of the building is open at all times of day. This allows restaurant seating to be extended during busy hours. There is a small amount of seating at the bar so that customers can sit down for a drink while waiting for a table, or can stop in for drinks if they do not want to have a full dinner. The bar and restaurant areas feature a few common elements. Two types of pendant lights hang in the space, a more pointed design over two-person tables, and a more round design over larger tables. Additionally, the natural colors and materials found throughout the entire design carry over to these areas, and a custom-designed chair is used throughout. Reclaimed wood is also used for the restaurant feature walls, and is framed by wide strips of copper. Plants grow up the walls and around copper La Selina lilies in the bar, while sconces designed to look like dried bamboo stocks growing up the wall create an attractive bar-back. Some bottles and glasses are also stored on window shelves to add interest and storage.
Bar Seating
Breakfast Bar Elevation
Logo The La Selina logo was inspired by the natural surroundings of the hotel. The text of the logo is very flowy and calming like the winds and streams that flow through the landscape, and the flower is the flower that served as the concept of the space: the day lily.
Hotel & Spa Each guest room floor of the renovated La Selina Hotel has a combination of room types with one king bed or two queen beds each, as well as one small suite with a king bed and pull-out sofa. The former interior was entirely suites, and included guest rooms on the first floor, which now contains the restaurant and bar. In order to keep the same number of rooms, most of the suites had to be reduced in size to become regular guest rooms. However, there will still be one suite per floor of guest rooms to accommodate any patrons who wish to have a full suite. In addition to the restaurant downstairs being available to all guests, each guest room floor includes a small breakfast bar for guests who want to grab a quick breakfast like cereal and coffee. This bar will include cereal dispensers, bowls of fruit, and pastries made in the restaurant alongside coffee makers that brew individual cups of coffee. The spa portion of the hotel is now updated to include more relaxing elements like waterfalls and gas fireplaces, along with a new, more tropical appearance that coordinates with the hotel and restaurant’s new look. The colors throughout the spa are muted to give a relaxed feel, but still maintain the tropical green and orange to give the space life and hints of nature. Additionally, a variety of natural materials including stone tiles, green marble, and wood shelving are used throughout the spa to bring more natural connections.
Queen Room
Relaxation Room
FREEZE Restaurant & Bar
Basement
First Floor
Second Floor
Restaurant First Floor Dining Room
Outdoor Courtyard
FREEZE is a restaurant and bar that brings a bit of much needed chill to hot and sunny Savannah, Georgia. The geometric shapes and forms combined with cool colors are reminiscent of glaciers. This project required creating a building based on the plans for a Victorian style storefront building, making it more contemporary, and then mirroring the plan to create either a larger building or a second building with a courtyard in between structures. The structure was then to be populated with a business on the first floor with the option to use the basement as well, and the second floor was to become apartment space.
Restaurant Building Section
I chose to make my business a restaurant and bar with two separate one-bedroom apartments in each building. The first floor of the restaurant building has the kitchen, with counter-height seating that allows customers to watch the preparation of their food, as well as regular dining room seating. The basement of this building contains additional dining seating as well as a private room that can be used for parties, meetings, and other events. Some basic audio visual equipment is available to be set up for meetings, and additional tables can be brought in if necessary to set up food, activities, etc.
When the weather is nice, patrons are also welcome to utilize the outdoor courtyard space in between the restaurant and bar buildings. This space is primarily intended for the restaurant and tenants of the apartments. The central staircase acts as a second way out of the apartments in an emergency, as well as provides a reference to the interior’s geometric look through the form of the staircase. This staircase also frames a small flower bed which helps to disguise the view of the courtyard from the street, but allows any breeze to pass through, and provides a path out of the space at the end of a meal.
Dining Room
Seating in the main dining room includes both the counter seating around the kitchen and traditional table and chair seating for tables of 2-6 people. The custom table finishes, along with other finishes throughout the restaurant, were selected to create a sleek, modern look with a cool, but comfortable feel. Combinations of glossy and reflective finishes contrasted against rough, unfinished materials is reminiscent of the contrasting texture of glacial ice, which is slick, but still has rough textured areas. Materials like glossy blue metal on the barstools provide this contrast against the roughly textured concrete feature wall between the counters. Dropped acoustical ceiling tile clouds help to absorb sound that reflects off of the hard materials throughout the space. They also add visual interest through their variation in size and the height at which they are hung. The lighting suspended from these clouds creates interesting shapes on the ceiling and walls, and combined with the clouds, make dynamic shapes on upper portions of the wall. This technique is also used throughout the bar space to create an energizing and dynamic appearance.
Basement Dining Room
Bar Ideation
The design of the bar building includes a more casual main floor with the dance floor located in the basement. The space has a luxurious but casual atmosphere with high end furniture and elegant chandeliers placed throughout, but also has playful, glacierinspired pieces such as the seating around the tables and the custom designed bar. These elements combine to create an atmosphere where all customers can feel comfortable.
Bar Lounge
First Floor Bar
Furniture Design Solid Walnut Table
The goal for this project was to create a piece of furniture from a single piece of wood, which we selected from a lumber yard on the first day of class. We then sketched 100 ideas for our pieces, selected our favorites, and sketched various iterations of the design before creating a computer model, and constructing a plywood prototype using our desired joinery methods. I then layed out my pieces, cut and sanded the pieces, and assembled the table before applying three coats of a polyurethane finish.
Bent Wood Lounge Chair The model I made was at 1/4 scale, and the actual lounge pieces were designed to be 1/2” thick, so only two strips of wood would be needed for each piece to be the necessary 1/8” thick.
This lounge chair was a quick project that intended to teach us various wood bending techniques. I chose to make mine by laminating bent wood. To do this, I created a jig for the pieces of my desired design, cut 1/16” thick strips of ash wood, then put a thick layer of carnauba wax along the sides of the jig before putting the strips of ash into the jig with glue sandwiched between them. I then sanded away the excess glue and assembled the lounge, drilled the holes for the red rope, and pulled the rope through, knotting the ends.
Photography
When I came to Purdue, a major in interior design was not the obvious choice for me. I grew up on a farm, and in school I excelled in math and science, but none of those subjects ever really brought me joy. What brought me joy was rearranging my room, finding odd objects and integrating them into my home, and imagining over-the-top possibilities for improving my bedroom. So after a year of being undecided, I took a risk and chose interior design, quickly finding that it is something I love. I love combining creativity with logic to create spaces that are both beautiful and functional, and I love being able to see my work come to life and how it affects people. I am excited to join the professional design world full time, and to see where this profession leads me.
Education
Work Experience
Campus Involvement
Purdue University West Lafayette, IN Bachelor of Arts in Interior Design Minor in Horticulture Certificate of Entrepreneurship & Innovation Graduation Date: May 2019 GPA: 3.91/4.0
The Gettys Group: Chicago, IL Interior Design Intern May-Aug. 2018
ASID/IIDA Purdue Chapter Treasurer, Secretary Sept. 2016-May 2019
Collaborated with various project teams to create and communicate designs for a variety of hotel projects and a high profile multi-family residence project
Pollert Design Associates: Columbus, IN Interior Design Intern May-Aug. 2017
Assisted with designing residential and small commercial projects including various kitchen and bath remodels, and updates to the design of the mayor’s office and carpeting throughout the famous Columbus City Hall
Maintained communication with members and the community, and helped to coordinate meeting and event details alongside other club officers
The Purdue Review Photography & Design Editor Sept. 2014-Sept. 2018
Reviewed and edited photos and magazine layouts for a small campus news publication
Harper Valley Farms: Westport, IN Marketing Supervisor Oct. 2007-May 2018
Purdue Pet-a-Puppy Club Secretary Sept. 2014-May 2019
Contact
Professional Associations
Skills
812-614-6546 lexiearmand@gmail.com lexiearmand.wixsite.com/portfolio
American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) International Interior Design Association (IIDA) Network of Executive Women in Hospitality (NEWH) Interior Design Coalition of Indiana (IDCI)
Revit SketchUp Photoshop InDesign Illustrator Enscape
Managed farmers’ market operations in Downtown Columbus, assisted with field work, and started my own lines of perennial flowers, succulent plants, and healthy popsicles
Communicated with club members and the community to inform them of club events and to coordinate volunteers
AutoCAD BlueBeam Space Planning Finish Selection Furniture Design Accessible Design
Universal Design Photography Customer Service Leadership Teamwork