Jessie Alibozek

ARC 231: Interiors of Connecticut College

April 7, 2015
Cummings Stairwell
In an art building, everything should be art including the staircases. This was the reason
for which I chose the main staircase in Cummings due to its tucked away nature and lack of any
dcor. The stairwell near the main gallery space and is in the style of the building itself,
Brutalism of the 1960s. This building doubles as an art gallery and a place of learning, so I
wanted to give the stairwell this dual purpose as well, as circulation that interacts with the
observer and continues to hold their attention as they transition from the first floor gallery to the
second. I also wanted to keep with the sparseness of the stairwell, so that observers are not
tripping or spending too much time there staring at student work. In thinking this, I immediately
thought of texture because it is modern and captivating. After lining up the floor plans, I realized
that there is one wall that extends from the ground floor to the top floor, and I immediately
thought that a wood wall would work well. In choosing this, I thought wood would add warmth,
especially when paired with three light gray walls. After talking with Arianna, who was adding
gray walls and wood flooring to the gallery space, I decided to mirror her decisions and place
darker gray floor tiles along the stairs. This gray keeps the small space open and clean. I wanted
to add color, so I decided to add it unconventionally. The undersides of the stairs had this
interesting geometric design that I wanted to highlight with color as the viewer ascends. Here, I
added a light blue-gray for visual contrast to the gray and light brown wood.
One of the things I have noticed about this stairwell and the layout of Cummings in
general, is that it is hard to get around and hard to find the stairs. One way I thought I could fix
this is by opening up the stairwell so that it is clearly visible. On the first and second floors, I

expanded the doorway and got rid of the doors. On the third floor, I got rid of the wall
completely, which created a small landing and overlook of the stairs. I thought about the noise of
the stairwell before doing this, especially with foot traffic during a gallery opening, but then
realized much of the noise came from the doors opening and closing, voices, and the echo of the
stairwell itself. By opening the stairwell up, the echo and the noise from the doors disappear,
leaving only noise from voices, which I imagine will decrease with respect during gallery
openings. After deciding this, I decided to make the stairwell lighter by replacing the current
stairs with floating stairs that extend from the walls and by adding a glass railing. After looking
at the roof of Cummings, I realized that I have room to also add a skylight, which will add much
needed natural light to the space and cut down on lighting cost during the day.
After seeing the new librarys new plaster panel, I knew I wanted to add that to the stairs.
I thought it was too much to add both the wood and the plaster panel, so in the end, the wood
was discontinued. With the plaster panel, I thought originally of using a wave design to
emphasize the movement of the space, but then settled on the crush design from Interlocking
Rock. This design imitates the roofing of Cummings and also looks like crinkled paper, which
reminds me of an artist trying to come up with new ideas. With this, I added light wood floors
and light gray walls. After talking to Arianna and realizing that our spaces were interconnected, I
decided that using the same flooring as her would aid in transition and connect the two spaces.
We decided on gray wood tile, which changed my paneling color to a light blue-gray. I changed
the other walls from a darker gray to a lighter gray on the walls facing the landings. The wall
with the doorways was changed to an even lighter gray to highlight the ART 208 students EGD
design of the simplified arrows. Additionally, the light gray emphasizes the airy openness I
wanted tot portray. For lighting, I did not want to take away from the textured wall or the ART

208 students design, so I added contemporary white light wall sconces on the wall of the
doorways. There are only three of them because I imagine the large skylight letting in most of
the light during the daytime.