The Law Office

 

I was an Architecture major at Oklahoma State University for a couple of years.  During that time, I completed a number of projects before deciding to switch states, universities and majors - for a variety of reasons.   I held on to those projects and stored them in the back of my closet for four decades and nine moves.

While cleaning out my closet this past weekend, I came across them.  The years have yellowed the boards, peeled a few of the stick-on letters off, and added a few stains.  But they still look pretty decent.

This project was a law office.  I don't remember the specific assignment, but I would imagine they specified a plot of land and the numbers of lawyers.  Based on that, I came up with this design.

Note these were done by hand - presentation boards, ink, t-square and a table.   No computer was used - the first Apple Macintosh didn't hit the market until four years later.

The decades that have passed allow me to see this design through different eyes.

The ground floor lacks any sort of storage area, there is no guest bathroom, and there don't appear to be windows in the conference room.  These are all things I would change if I updated this design.

Upstairs contained two senior partner offices, four junior partner offices, a storage room, library, lounge and rest rooms.  

The lounge lacks a countertop, sink, or fridge.  And I'm pretty sure those lawyers would have wanted floor-to-ceiling windows in their offices, not high mounted slivers of light.

While I still like this design, it is too form over function for me now.  I'm not sure how I'd do it differently today, but one thing I know is that it would be different.