One of my colossal projects last year was the coloration of
a large apartment complex,The Courtyard at South Station, situated in Tukwila, WA, just south of Seattle. It was a rather
sorry looking assemblage of structures looking more like drab army barracks
than a beautiful place for people to live.
This undertaking was huge. I met with the managers on a cool
dreary day last April to hash over the project, take a lot of pictures and
copious notes. At this field report, we discussed their vision of the place, as
well as the demographics of the current tenants. We took the adjacent properties
into consideration. They viewed my
exterior portfolio and selected some palettes that resonated with their ideal.
It was agreed upon that I would present three unique palettes with a rendering
of each facade Then one would be finally chosen. As I said, I took dozens and
dozens of pictures as I often do on architectural color consultations. They’re
invaluable as they reveal details that my eyes do not detect on site. Photos
present minutiae and the big picture, too.
Well, it’s easy enough to specify three unique color
palettes, but it’s another challenge to appoint each color on the buildings so
it makes visual sense. This apartment complex had multiple buildings with
several unique facades exhibiting singular architectural features… the color
had to be intelligently applied so it created something good to behold with
both balance and rhythm from multiple views and angles. After hours and hours
of rendering, trying this, trying that, tweaking this, tweaking that, I finally
arrived at the result.
When I drove over on a sunny September afternoon to view the
final outcome and saw the finished project in its entirety, I was ecstatic. It
was a showpiece. I had pulled it off! The Courtyard at South Station holds its
own now among all the other complexes on the street, beckoning a potential renter
and giving something nice for the current tenants to come home to.
I developed the colors for the monument sign as well.
Indeed, this was a big job. But don’t think your project
is too small for EB Color. Each and every color consultation presents its challenges and I
relish the opportunity to meet them head on, in Seattle and beyond.
ebrown@eb-color.com EB-Color.com 206-353-0454
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3 comments:
Wow, Elizabeth, this is impressive! The warmth of the red with the mitigating punctuation of the gray makes the buildings look so much more interesting and inviting. Way to go!
Thanks, Dana and Happy New Year!
I know yours will be colorful.
Another color colleague introduced me to this website with interesting histories of pigments that I thought you might find interesting, even though you use natural dyes. Here it is.
http://www.webexhibits.org/pigments/indiv/overview/emerald.html?goback=%2Egde_3666268_member_202400595
See ya!
Thanks Elizabeth. That site is really interesting. I enjoyed going through it.
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