Boulder Borealis Hotel & Spa

This is my senior showcase project and I chose to design a boutique hotel in Boulder Colorado that is centered around the Aurora borealis or northern lights. I chose this as my concept because I wanted my final project to reflect my values and reasons for becoming a designer. Using this concept allows me to be innovative, creative in color choice, detail oriented, utilize sustainable practices like biophilic design and make impact on the end user and world. For this project we are required to do find an exact listing of a building to get outer walls dimensions. I also needed to do extensive research on the location, clients, needs, international building codes, safety codes, etc. The challenging part of this project was finding a listing that meet our requirements, would give the blue prints and was in a good location. After many hours of searching I found a great listing however it violated numerous international building codes, fire safety codes and ADA requirements. Some examples were not all the hotel rooms had windows, the fire exit were not enclosed, no elevators, no areas of refuge, and numerous other safety concerns. I had to do a lot of reworking and decrease my number of rooms but I was able to conform a codes nightmare into a safe, functional, immersive, hotel with a cohesive concept, universal design and suitable practices. Lastly, along with the hotel and spa I designed a office and hotel lobby as well as a restaurant.