Glenbrook South Cafeteria by Ryan1847
At Glenbrook South High School we have nearly 3000 students with only three lunch periods. This meens that at one time there is an enourmous amount of food and space needed to satisfy the student body.
ryan1847's work for the Collect Information step:
The cafateria at our school has several sections. The sections include a freshman (east lunch room) cafateria and the main (west lunch room) cafateria, with a buffet and kitchen connecting the two in the middle.
Issues- The buffet gets very crowded and long lunch lines take up the first 15 minutes of the 50 minute lunch period. The rooms are plain with little aesthetic appeal, expecially in the freshman section, which recieves no natural sunlight. The seating is old and worn out, with most of the seats on the tables bent slightly.
*I went and talked to the team that designed the current cafateria which was renovated in mid 2000 and they related that the kitchen was too cramped. When designing the new kitchen area, they wish that they would have included more space for cooking the amount of food required for students.*
Video- We start in the coutyard outside of the cafateria and enter into the west lunch room, walk all the way through, enter the buffet, then exit into the east lunch room.
Sketch of Floorplan- The floor space of the cafateria in this sketch was drawn to include the entire interior section of all the lunchroom space. The lower half is existing indoor space, while the upper half is existing outdoor space.
---PICTURES---
I understand my sketches and renderings are not to scale with the website. In the meen time while I try and fix this, I have included links to the photos.
Floorplan of Cafateria w/dimentions
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp88/Ryan1847/Floorplan.jpg
Floorplan with Seating/Trashcans
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp88/Ryan1847/Seating.jpg
ryan1847's work for the Brainstorm Ideas step:
Early First Floor Sketch of new Cafateria with second floor
Early 3d Render from AutoCad of 2 Floor Cafateria
Possible solutions that I have brainstormed about include adding a second floor on top of the existing one. Adding a second floor will double the square footage of our existing floorspace. We could place the buffet and cooking areas on the first floor, along with a lounge near the old window areas to give students somewhere to hang out during the lunch period. The second floor could be dedicated to seating for all students, rather than isolating the freshman.
I currently have one design that fits in the dimensions of our existing school but adds a second floor. The first floor where the two cafeterias used to be is turned into one, larger buffet with more cooking space, as well as a small lounge area to allow students an additional place to relax during lunch, rather than the crowded existing lounge across from the lunch room. The second floor will be all seating, with a great view of Glenview, due to its elevated position. There will be stairs similar to the ones found in the “pits†of GBS, as well as an elevator for maintenance, cleaning, and the handicapped.
---PICTURES---
I understand my sketches and renderings are not to scale with the website. In the meen time while I try and fix this, I have included links to the photos.
Early First Floor Sketch of new Cafateria with second floor
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp88/Ryan1847/FirstSketchofnewFloorpl...
Early 3d Render from AutoCad of 2 Floor Cafateria
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp88/Ryan1847/Cafateria3d.jpg
Late 3d Render from AutoCad of 2 Floor Cafateria
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp88/Ryan1847/Cafateria3d2.jpg
Rendering with Real Lighting as of November 10th, 2010, at 11:41 am.
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp88/Ryan1847/Cafateria3d3.jpg
Render with Aesthetics added
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp88/Ryan1847/Cafateria3d4.jpg
ryan1847's work for the Develop Solutions step:
I developed a system where students enter from the East and West, and may enter, through archways, to recieve food from stations that will hold different types of snacks, drinks, cooked meals, and salads, among other things. Outside of the archways on the North Side, cashiers will be placed. Students can enter a lounge next to the stairs, go through it to exit outside into a covered arched outdoor atrium and outdoor eating/seating, or go upstairs into the main lunch room. When upstairs they have the option of going outside on the uncovered deck space that I provided. Next to the stairs i'm thinking of adding an elevator yet I am still looking up the dimentions required.
I also need to finish placing a few doors and fix it up a little but I thought I would put up a 3d version so you can play around and see what my idea is.
High view
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp88/Ryan1847/Cafateria3d8.jpg
Floorplan
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp88/Ryan1847/Cafateria3d7.jpg
Northwest view with lighting from sunlight
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp88/Ryan1847/Cafateria3d6.jpg
Comments
Good afternoon Ryan,
Hope you had a wonderful start to the school year. Welcome to the TAH2 design project. I will be the Architect partnered specifically to your project to offer advice, direction and help with any inquiries you might have. Its always exciting for me to start a new project and all of the prospects it brings. Hope you are as motivated as I am to get started and see this project through.
Looking forward to your postings and development of the Cafeteria.
Take Care,
KERL
Collect Information:
Thanks for the video Ryan.
It helps a great deal to see the space and make the connection to your explanations and observations. I certainly seems that the space can accommodate lots of students all at once.
As you conduct your survey in collecting information, find out more about the existing space for some statistical data. How do students enter the space at the various lunch time points inside the cafeteria. Count seating capacity inside each lunchroom and of what type. Document the lighting in the space and identify natural light sources and their heights. Are there even borrowed light in certain areas. Access to each space varies from the East/west lunchrooms to the buffet. Where are the garbage cans located and are they at the right spot for the high traffic when lots of students are there.
There are other features about the cafeteria that you might notice gathering other information.
You can create a few plan diagrams that address some of the concerns and observations. Add as many notes as possible to those diagrams. Looking forward to more information from you. Keep up the investigative work.
Ryan,
How are things moving along with the project and my comments above. Looking forward to hearing from you and see more postings.
Your video under "Collect Info" is interesting and helpful - thanks for taking the time to film and upload it! But...it's really small. I think it may be a problem with the way you saved and formatted it. Please go back and make sure the ratio of the video is 16:9. The max width and max height of the player is 580px by 326px. After you check that, can you trying removing it and reloading a new version? Let's see what happens...
...
Also, it would be very helpful if you could upload a few photos of your existing cafeteria, in addition to the video. It seems that the video player does not appear in Firefox (only Internet Explorer) so some people can't see it. This is a bug in the system we are working on. Sorry. Thanks again for working on this.
...
Finally, we need to hear from you! Please respond to the comments from your online mentor architect - because he's doing all the talking!
.
Check Up
.
Hello,
I have been working on many sketches for this project. I have the floorplan of the current cafeteria, as well as another one showing the seating amounts and locations.
I noticed that seating moves down in long rows, which gets crowded with students trying to move up and down between the tables. The main cafeteria has many times the space without the seating to go with it proportionally to the freshman area. There are also very few things for students to do during lunch, so many students prefer to go out to lunch instead (a loss of revenue for the school). An existing lounge across from the lunch room is unused due to its low upkeep.
.
Issues:
.
Current issues for our schools cafeteria thus include-
Crowded Buffet
Freshman Area No Sunlight
Small Cooking Space
Worn Out Seating
Over-crowding in Freshman Cafeteria
Over-crowding in area around buffet in Main Cafeteria
Nothing to do
.
Solutions?
.
Possible solutions that I have brainstormed about include adding a second floor on top of the existing one. Adding a second floor will double the square footage of our existing floorspace. We could place the buffet and cooking areas on the first floor, along with a lounge near the old window areas to give students somewhere to hang out during the lunch period. The second floor could be dedicated to seating for all students, rather than isolating the freshman.
.
I will be uploading my sketches ASAP and I look forward to hearing your comments!
HAPPY POST HALLOWEEN RYAN.
Brainstorm/Analyze:
Good to see the two images posted in this section but the hand sketch is very small and cannot understand its content. A bit larger and clearer would be nice.
You mentioned the loss of revenue for the school with students leaving, that is a great design criteria to keep in mind cause it can be a powerful constraint.
From your listing of issues, they are primarily dealing with lack of space because its crowded or underutilized. In asking the question, should more space be available versus better arrangement of functions is important. Your idea of adding a second floor but consider that splitting functions might also cause the same problem of students not wanting to be secluded.
Some more thoughts: Think of places where students enjoy being, like the movie theatre, amusement park, their room, the mall, or even a club. Then think of what makes those spaces some where that they enjoy so much. Is it the lighting, furniture, atmosphere, people, materials, colors, etc.... Then jot down all of those ideas and start to reorganize your new cafeteria space. Remember that now you are thinking of those ideas using architecture to solve them. For instance, the Mall is a great example that has lots of people using an open space for eating, relaxing and socializing. THose are the types of spaces that use architecture to solve major issues. Might have to take a field trip or research on the Internet for some images.
Looking forward to those sketches.
Very good idea. BUt i think that you should make your drawings more clear that way it is easier to understand. Maybe you should try using autocad. When i made my site analysis it was very clear and i think that if you are good with the program then it will be a lot easier to make future drawings.
When you have a chance, include the floor plans of the cafeteria along with some 3D images of the interior. The axonometric that you have posted helps with the overall progress of the design which is also helpful. Some of the program modifications you have mentioned about student access and the vertical stair circulation prompts me to ask that you work on that area in more detail. To think of the stairs as a major element to help sold some of visual problems of the existing cafeteria is a plus. The stairs can also be a catalyst for the vocabulary that could be used for the entire project on the interior.
I couldn't help but notice all of the arched windows in your model. Can you explain why that motif. As you think about that and provide a response, consider that fenestrations on the exterior wall does not have to be single story all of the time. Look at combining double height rooms as well as windows.
The archways are in tune with the design of the schools spirit. Home of the "Titans" our school has lots of columns and roman design, so I decided to keep with the schools nationality and express it probably the most used room in the school.
---
Thinking of the staircase, the one that I placed in the 3d cad model is a copy of the stairs that are used throughout our school, with a wide central stair going up and breaking into two parrellel stairs going the opposite direction. The "Pits" of Glenbrook South High are these two atriums where the main staircases are located. The stairs, as I admit, are a dull expirience.
---
Since students will need to carry trays up the stairs, I am thinking of what would be the easiest way to move them up and down with the smallest chance of difficulty. I have been thinking of making it electronic, having escalators rather than an actual stair system.
---
And yes, I noticed there is a mistake in the 3d model. The archways on the first floor connect to the wall, while the second floor, underneath the deck space, there is an opening. That was a copying error.
---
Also, if you notice I have included all and more pictures that were'nt working as links while I try and resize them.