Project: ZUM Fitness

Interior Design: Rocky Rochon

Photography: Ben Benschnieder

Project Description: 6,500 sq. ft New Construction

Project Criteria: Provide facility for free weights, resistance equipment, cardiovascular equipment, spin bikes, yoga, exercise classes, physical therapy, reception area with lounge seating and check in desk, client conference rooms, offices, employee break room, restrooms, lockers, showers and steam rooms.  The client had a innovative approach to training utilizing many historical and current methods including, weights, ropes, sand pit resistance work, body balancing and stretching movements.  He wanted the built environment to reflect his philosophy of integrating the historical with the modern.  Since his training work is usually one on one, it was important that the trainers had visual contact with clients as they worked out.  

Design Concept: Juxtaposition of historical/modern, masculinity/femininity, incorporating balance, flexibility, movement, efficiency and above all, innovation.

Design Solution: The demand for efficiency was very challenging due to the amount of programmatic requirements relative to the actual square footage of the space.   This was accomplished by adding a second level mezzanine and placing the more private/quiet spaces at that floor.  The new architectural addition was handled in a very spare, modern, efficient aesthetic, while the existing historical structure, built at the turn of the century as a warehouse space, was keeping it’s original condition, including the original metallic silver trusses and ceilings throughout.  A very formal axial symmetry was imposed from the entry into the epicenter of the general workout area, where a drinking fountain and gathering room terminates the axis.  This is symbolically very important, since hydration is an dynamic requirement to exercise and should be the shortest travelled distance for everyone using the facility.  In designing all the areas of the facility, it was always important to look at solutions that were not only efficient, but also innovative.  This is perhaps most obvious in the design of the locker rooms, where instead of an open room with showers and lockers flanking the perimeter space, the showers, toilets and vanities were corralled into a single translucent structure and floated in the center of the room.  The negative, leftover space at the inbound side of the room became the private locker/dressing area, while the outbound/entry side of the space became the area for grooming and access to toilets. The space also incorporates masculine and feminine aspects by bringing in gilded mirrors and crystal chandeliers to contrast against the raw brick and steel in the spaces.  Also, the use of gilded metallic paints against sand finish paint, light colors against dark, all further reiterated this concept.

Project: Hilton Beach House

Architecture: Rocky Rochon, Hoedemaker & Pfiffer

Interior Design: Rocky Rochon

Contractor: Schuchart Dow

Landscape: Kenneth Philp Landscape Architects

Photography: Ben Benschnieder

Project Description: 9,000 sq. ft. New construction consisting of Main House, Guest House and ‘Barn’.

Programmatic Issues: Design a summer beach home to house a family of four, guests for large gatherings.   It was important that the scale of the structures not overpower the scale of neighborhood homes.  It was also important    that the home have a farm outlook, as well as the obvious beach outlook.

Design Concept: Historically romantic beach vernacular, casual, simple, warm and open.

Design Solution: The property was divided into three structures, the main home, Guest home and ‘barn’.  The Main home was broken down into three volumes, the Main Living Area, Master Suite and Children’s Suite and were linked by glass enclosed corridors to reduce the scale impact on the neighborhood.  The Guest House and ‘Barn’ are both stand alone structures defining the perimeter of inland site. Great care was taken to create structures that looked as though they had been there for a hundred years.  This was accomplished by using recycled materials, such as used timbers for the trusses in the Living area, recycled wood floors, wood paneling installed to have imperfection and many layers of paint, to exterior shakes that were treated with ferrous oxide to give them a pre-weathered appearance.   In addition to the finishes, we integrated antique furniture pieces with new cabinetry, but consistently gave each area a different character, as though though the home was built of decades.  Bathroom vanities all have a unique historical character.  even the Kitchen has three different types of cabinet fronts, countertops and hardware, specific to the function at those areas.  The ‘barn’ is actually storage for cars, water toys and storage, but was purposefully designed and constructed to look like a vintage barn from the island.  Furnishings were selected in a very eclectic approach as well.  Many items were found objects, including fabrics,  and were counterpointed by custom one of a kind  pieces that were designed to create comfort and ease.  Because the home needed to feel warm and comfortable for a family of four and then able to accommodate a group of 20 or more people, there was great care in providing small scale sanctuaries throughout the home, such as the den, libraries, and children’s suite living area, while also having enough volume in the gathering areas of the living room and kitchen to provide for the larger groups.

Project: Rolfe Seattle Residence

Architecture: Sullivan Conard Architects

Interior Design: Rocky Rochon

Photography: Ben Benschnieder

Project Description: Remodel of Entry, Living Room, Dining Room and Family Room

Programmatic Issues: MInimal architectural redesign, refurnish and refinish all above rooms. 

Design Concept: Eclectic, bohemian, artistic, practical, comfortable and casual

Design Solution: Added full height bookcases to Living Room and Family Room to create books as a focus to these rooms. Also, the addition of new paneling above Living Room fireplace to increase impact to the elevation. Created an art gallery wall  at the Living Room,  of clients eclectic collection of artwork.  Combining existing furniture pieces with new custom upholstered pieces and antique and vintage pieces.  Use of a wide variety of fabrics, furniture pieces, art objects, accessories and textures, to create a sense of a layered, collected room, that doesn’t look designed, but rather collected over time.

Project: Callaghan Seattle Residence

Architecture:

Interior Design: Rocky Rochon

Contractor:

Photography: Ben Benschnieder

Project Description: 6000 sq. ft complete remodel of existing home and 500 Sq. ft. addition.

Project Criteria: The client wanted a home reminiscent of a traditional urban townhome you might find in London or Paris, but with a modern twist.  It was important that the home be functional for a family with teenage children.  A Family Room addition off of the Kitchen and a second story Master Suite were required, as well as development of the unfinished third floor and basement.  An important design requirement was that the living spaces would be able to stand on their own visual merit, without requiring composed, structured furniture arrangements to make the rooms look complete.

Design Concept: Traditional, modern, flexible, eclectic and elegant.

Design Solution: We took cues from the traditional existing architecture and built on them in a consistent fashion.  We salvaged existing staircase, railings, paneling and beams,  at the Entry,  and carried the same vernacular into the the Living Room, Dining, a Family Rooms. We replaced craftsman-like over scaled windows with french doors and larger paned walls of windows.  We introduced abstracted, sleek design elements, that contrasted with the traditional elements of the home, such as contemporary upper kitchen cabinets against lower traditional base cabinets,  salvaged marble antique fireplace against a minimal contemporary fireplace in an adjacent room, constantly playing the ‘modern’ against the ‘traditional’.

Project: Rolfe Beach Cabin

Architecture: Sullivan Conard Architects

Interior Design: Rocky Rochon

Photography: Ben Benschnieder

Project Description: Complete renovation of existing 1920’s 1200 sq. ft. beach cabin, including demolition of entire home, with only stone fireplace and exterior walls and blue tiled bathroom remaining.

Programmatic Issues: Create enlarged, open public areas, create two separate bedroom Suites, open public areas to maximize water views and access to private area with new hot tub.  Update all electrical and plumbing. 

Design Concept: Vintage 1920’s beach, eclectic, artistic, cozy, innovative

Design Solution: Demolish existing interior walls and enlarge living room/dining area into an adjacent seating area with french doors to expand view and create access to the private new hot tub.  Design full height bookcases and re-panel all walls in recycled weathered wood, Design new coffered ceilings with tongue and groove wood panels and add new wood paneling to match the scale of the recycled paneling and paint, recycle kitchen cabinets and juxtapose with new cabinets design in a vintage/traditional manor.  Furniture, art and accessories are a mix of new, vintage, antique, to create the effect of a timeless, collected, artistic, cozy cabin.

Project: Glaser Seattle Residence

Architecture: Rocky Rochon

Interior Design: Rocky Rochon

Contractor:

Photography: Ben Benschnieder

Project Description: 4,500 sq. ft. complete remodel of penthouse apartment

Project Criteria: Design an urban space for a professional couple with no children,  having immediate adjacency from Master Suite to Kitchen and exterior spaces, while maintaining privacy to the public areas of the home.  The program also required a Media Room, Guest Suite, and Home Office.  The clients needed a large Living Room for occasional company events, as well as for personal entertaining.

Design Concept: Urban, minimal, innovative and progressive, to reflect the owner’s high tech businesses culture. 

Design Solution: A spare and minimal environment, was designed, with very little color, furniture, artwork and accessories.  Spatially, the Master Suite was located adjacent to the Kitchen and next to the large terrace and pool.  A translucent headboard was custom designed to screen visibility from the Living Area and also allow the western sunsets  to glow through it at dusk.  Since the Living Areas were designed as ‘greenhouse’ structures, open to the urban environment, we looked to the urban rooftops for inspiration.  We constructed a stair and upper balconies of steel and open steel grates reminiscent of fire escapes and painted the walls in a dark midnight black sand textured paint to reduce all glare and focus on the exterior views.  The use of sleek, modern finishes, such as sand blasted and brushed stainless steel, raw steel, aluminum, metallic high tech paints and plexiglass, spare minimal detailing, custom stainless steel tubs and stainless toilets, minimal custom furnishings and wire suspended shelving, all enhance the concept of innovation, modernism and a nod to the urban landscape that the home lives in.

Project: Hilton Seattle Residence

Architecture:

Interior Design: Rocky Rochon

Contractor:

Photography: Ben Benschnieder

Project  Description: 2500 sq. ft. Remodel

Project Issues: Redesign of an existing home which was designed in a Tuscan architectural style and reinforcing the authenticity of that style and creating a complete Kitchen remodel, exterior courtyard and roof deck remodel.

Design Concept: Historically Tuscan, warm, romantic, open, functional and  comfortable.

Design Solution: Building upon the ‘good’ parts of the previous remodel, we redesigned components of the home that were either improperly scaled, or lacked the ‘richness’ of a typical Tuscan environment. For instance, the  interior entry corridor ‘arbor’ was raised by 30” by adding concrete plinths to the columns and creating an appropriate scale to the room.  All of the walls throughout the home were skim-coated in tinted Italian stucco and wood trims raked with two tones of glazes to give them patina.  The Kitchen was completely demolished and rebuilt, turning two smaller rooms into one larger Kitchen.  Again, all elevations were designed to evoke a Tuscan style and all surfaces treated with textures and colors found in that style filled travertine golden counters were used at the perimeter of the room, including the custom built sink of the same material.  Hand wrapped leather handles on pantry doors and leather lined drawers in the Kitchen, to handpainted Italian tiles in the courtyard fountain, to canopies of olive trees on the roof deck, all add to the romantic Tuscan quality of the environment.

Project: Svenson Residence

Interior Design: Rocky Rochon

Contractor: Willie Conklin

Photography: Ben Benschnieder

Project Description: 9,500 sq. ft. Remodel

Programmatic Issues: Remodel a large farm home that had been through many renovations throughout the years and impose a logical flow and function for a family of  working professional parents and four active boys. The existing entry to the home was off of the main front porch Into the Living Room.  To get to the Kitchen, at the opposite end of the home, you had to travel through the Living Room, the Dining Room, a Pantry and eventually land in the Kitchen, a 1500 sq. ft.,  so large that it was impossible to function within it, Kitchen.  To get to the upper levels you took a stair that landed into the Living Room.

Design Concept: English men’s club meets Seattle farm home. Comfortable, practical, romantic, and intelligent.

Design Solution: Remodel the room next to the Living Room, off of the main porch, turning it into a formal Entry, drop the existing stair into that room, keeping the existing stair into the Living Room, connect the new corridor to an existing back hall and extending that hall by means of an exterior addition that connected the new Entry through the home to the Kitchen, without going through any rooms and also adding a Mudroom at the Kitchen end of the new corridor system. Retaining and building off of the original natural wood work and carrying it into the new Entry and creating new wood wall paneling, in that room, to match.  Use of earthy, rich colors with a range of textures from sand to metallic.  Designing a new large family Library off of the entry as a home office and place for the boys to study alongside their dad in the evenings.  The Kitchen was turned into a Kitchen/Family Room, so that the family could gather in the evenings and hang out.  Interactive communication was a paramount concern for the parents. Lengthy conversation was around the decision of whether to place the stove or the sink at the Kitchen island, where the children’s stools would be.  Would mom and dad be talking more to the kids while cooking or cleaning dishes?Furniture choices were made in a very eclectic way, using found pieces, antiques, and designing new contemporary pieces, such as the concrete coffee table in the living room, to the steel top table in the dining room.  All choices were made to support a masculine, men’s club, aesthetic, evocative of the original home itself, at the same time being mindful to bring in a few feminine aspects every once and awhile.

Project: Kretschmer Residence

Architecture: Rocky Rochon

Interior Design: Rocky Rochon

Contractor:

Photography: Ben Benschnieder

Project Description: 3,500 sq. ft. Remodel

Project Criteria: A remodel of the Kitchen, and addition of an adjacent Family Room open the floor plan up to create a more logical flow, both on the main level and between lower and upper floors.  Remodel of basement as a party, play area, as well as a Pilates workout area.

Design Concept: Classic modernism (both current and mid-century), energetic, creative and open, within a 1930’s bungalow aesthetic.

Design Solution: We opened the main level up by creating a corridor that looped the main floor and connected all of the adjacent rooms, including opening the main stair up to the second level.  The renovation of the Kitchen design was focused on fusing design elements from the 50’s, such as clear finished birch cabinets and stainless steel, with current modern elements, such as concrete floors and modern acrylic overhead shelving, concrete skim coated floors and industrial floor mats, at the same time maintaining the traditional architectural shell of the bungalow. Even the choice of paint colors were selected to enhance the design.  Very muted shades of gray-green and gray-blue were used to recall the 30’s, electric synthetic brights were used to pop accent objects and to pay homage to the 50’s, while metallic brights were used to represent our current modern aesthetics.  The Basement remodel presented the challenge of creating more space in a very low ceiling and foot print.  The ceiling was demolished and was replaced with floating painted panels to create the illusion of space beyond.  The perimeter of the area was lined with hidden storage behind stained wood doors, where laundry, wine storage and general storage is concealed.  Again, finishes and paint colors were selected to maintain the design concept at the upper levels.