Designing for Kids - ROIDESIGN

Charter Schools Eye to Excellence

by Ryan | Sep 7, 2016 | Design News, Designing for Kids, Designing Public Areas, Interior Design

It is never too late to go back to school. r.o.i. Design has been working with Robert Doornbos at RMD Architects, creating interiors for some of the charter schools he has designed in the last year.

Our experience with Charter Schools teaches us that they appear to have highly passionate teams, with high academic goals for a focused community population. They care deeply about how their school environment looks and feels, and based on available budget, really want to make their spaces “A+”

Black River Charter School, Holland, MI

This is where we met RMD Architects. The board engaged us to work alongside him and the board, to assist in the selection and coordination of finishes. This is also a Montessori school which had a criteria that all the finishes be calm, orderly and like home. Our favorite detail in this project was the accenting of the carpet in the classrooms to aid in organizing space for “lining up”, or just calling out areas. There were three color schemes, one for kindergarten, one for lower elementary and one for upper elementary.

Macon Charter School, Macon, GA

Culturally, this school wanted to embrace a global diversity and to make sure the interior could appeal to wide variety of students and families. Our favorite details here was the use of colors that we described as global cuisine, colors that naturally resonated with people as rich and flavorful: Eggplant, Saffron, Palm and Tomato. Then we used those colors in classic patterns in flooring and walls. Those patterns could be traced back to civilization 2000 years ago and could be seen just as decoration, or teaching tools. Through the course of the design we were informed that James Brown went to school in Macon, GA so we wanted to make sure everyone would “feel good”!

This project was a design-build project lead by Triangle Inc. in Grand Rapids, MI.

Northeast Academy, Minneapolis, MN

This community was growing quickly and expanding its program. They were moving into a larger school that needed to be refreshed, remodeled and delivered in less than five months. They moved in August 20, 2016! Our efforts focused on carpet and paint. Northeast wanted all the corridors to be carpeted and because there was little opportunity for other areas of interest, we created three to four modular carpet patterns that we repeated in different color ways. We also created tile patterns for entries and cafeteria. They will be remodeling another floor in the coming year, and hopefully, we will be able to go back and execute some wall accents and graphics as well.

Shannon Orthodontics Aligns its Office to Practice’s Innovation

by Ryan | Aug 31, 2016 | Design News, Designing for Kids, Interior Design, Workplace Design

Shannon Orthodontics prides itself on its use of the latest research and technology and delivers an extremely friendly service. They want their customers to “achieve the smile they have always dreamed of”.

Shannon’s business practice far out-shown the interior of their offices. They wanted to deliver a complete experience, so Tom Shannon and wife Kate researched other offices in the area and found our work at JCL Periodontics. Tom and Kate liked the character and personality we brought to that space and after initial meetings decided to engage us in the redesign of their Grandville office.

Their newly designed offices were officially complete in July 2015 and the transformation is very satisfying to the Shannon team and to r.o.i. Design. Thank you to Rockford Trades for managing the remodel while they stayed open. It looks great!

Highlights of the design include:

Flexible lobby seating creating greater capacity through use of backless benches.
New decorative and in-ceiling LED lighting for a crisper look and far more efficient energy use.
All new finishes, including modular plank carpet laid in herringbone pattern, all freshly painted walls, and new cabinetry and countertops. The reception desk was reclad in place.
New wall art and signage.

Shortly after the project was complete, the Shannon’s made a short video of the interior as an advertisement that they ran during the Summer Olympics this summer. You can see that video on their Facebook page.

Now their Grandville offices reflect their business. Everything is straight and bright!

We start on their Plainwell location this year.

Black River Elementary: The Miracle on Columbia Avenue

by Mary | Oct 7, 2015 | Design News, Designing for Kids, Designing Public Areas, Interior Design

Barb Ellis at a chilly ground breaking ceremony.

What does a school board president do when they want to make sure their school is the best design it can be? Call r.o.i. Design!

Barb Ellis did just that.

Black River Elementary School is part of the Black River Public Schools, a public charter school. Until last April, their elementary school was meeting in portable classrooms on their campus. They moved the students to a temporary location and broke ground for their new school. Four months later, the students came back to their new beautiful school.

Special Education Offices and Classrooms

Barb and Black River were in the capable hands of Robert Doornbos, (RMD Architects), and Bob McFarlane, (Lakewood Construction), but the list of decisions to make and the broad spectrum of opinions threatened to slow the process down. We joined the team late in 2014 and ran alongside their process to aid in the imagining of the exterior and the interior design of the classrooms and auxiliary spaces.

Teachers Break Room

We met with teachers early in the process and shared some ideas for iconic furnishings that would make their Montessori classrooms even more of an experience for their students.

Color schemes and the organization of color within the school was a collaborative process and the result has received “all A’s”.

Grades 1 -2 Classrooms : Blue Accents with Dark Wood Casegoods

Grades 3-4: Green Accents and Light Casegoods

Barb and Mike Ellis have been friends and customers of r.o.i. Design for a long time and we appreciate them giving us this opportunity. (Spin Dance in Holland, MI and Grand Rapids, MI).

For more about Black River Schools and the building of the elementary school:

Black River Public Schools

Holland Sentinel Article about Black River Elementary

Designing for Kids: A Pediatric Dental Office in Traverse City

by Mary | Oct 1, 2014 | Design News, Designing for Kids, Designing Public Areas

Drs. Jamie VanWingen and Matt Mandeville of Northern Michigan Pediatric Dentistry typically will see up to 20 patients per hour and most of them are under the age of five.

The lobby playhouse and boat, “USS Tooth Ferry”

They’ve been planning for growth, and to meet their changing needs, engaged Rockford Construction to work with them to remodel a building on 8th Street in Traverse City, MI. Bob Cornwell of Cornwell Architects was asked to work with them to create a space plan. Last spring we were contacted by Josh Reynolds of Rockford Construction to inquire if we had experience with designing for kids and if we would give him a bid for the interiors of this project. We showed them our work with children’s museums, day care centers, schools and theme parks and they invited us “to play”.

Mary and Mary Jane from r.o.i. Design worked with Drs. Jamie and Matt to come up with an interior that reflected their outgoing nature and love of adventure and travel.

The Lobby will have hanging felt boats, radiating beams, and a boat house.

Part of the design criteria given to us was to design interesting flooring patterns and interesting ceilings. The doctors also wanted to get away from the literal kid-mural type of interiors and instead work with blocks of color and graphics so the space would appeal to both kids and families.It was also important to ensure staff wasn’t exhausted by working in a space that was so visually busy.

The new office is designed around three areas; Water, Land and Sky. The interior finishes reflect those themes in a colorful way. The completion date is scheduled for November 2014. For more about what we did on this job see our blog story “There is a Boathouse in the Warehouse”.