After Anheuser-Busch bought the SeaWorld parks in 1989, one of their first objectives was to redesign the animal habitats. The intent was to walk away from blue swimming pools and create naturalistic environments. The first of these pools was to be the Dolphin Pool at SeaWorld Orlando. While working at PGAV architects as an exhibit designer, I played a key role in how this environment came to life.

The challenge was not only to change the physical environment but also the perception of "who was on display". 

The underwater viewing was designed to allow the dolphins to see into the underground cavern. This allowed the dolphins to see, watch, tease, and play with the guests. The cavern created a sanctuary for the guests as well as provided the dolphins with life enrichment.

As for the pool, we introduced a wave chamber allowing the dolphins to surf the waves as they crash on the beach! Our challenge however was to design the pool contours allowing the maximum space available for the dolphins underwater while creating a rolling beach that allows the waves to crash accurately. Plus we needed to keep the waves to dissipate before they hit the feeder wall and douse the guests.

After creating a 1"=1-0" scale working wave model we tested our theories about the first set of pool contours. After 13 revisions to the pool bottom, the beach and the barriers we finally found a perfect combination. 

From the wave model I sculpted a rock work model which was the aesthetic overlay to the contours. The Coral Reef carved in plaster, then fiberglassed over and sent to the park as a construction document.

Over the years I have been lucky enough to have designed and contributed to many of SeaWorld's animal habitats including: Killer Whales, Polar Bears, Beluga Whales, Walrus, Sea Lions, Stingrays, Eels and Turtles.

The images beyond the dolphin pool are other project storyboards that were used to get capital funding from Corporate.

The 40 million dollar challenge.

With ticket prices between Disney, Universal and SeaWorld being practically the same Anheuser Busch needed to diversify it’s product offerings in the parks in order to compete with the growing theme park landscape in Orlando. The focus was specifically targeting the 13-year-old boy. This provided the incentive to deliver the first ride in a SeaWorld park, Journey to Atlantis. As an Attraction Designer, at PGAV

The challenge typically was the budgets for Anheuser Busch projects never compared to the budgets of Disney or Universal. Yet my approach to any budgetary challenge is to see this as an incentive. This is a constant to how I approach work.

Part of the challenge of designing the exterior aesthetic was defining the look of Mythical architecture. Designing though sketches and models, I played a key role in defining the visual vocabulary of this iconic ride.

At first the concept was based on the idea of finding the ancient ruins of the Lost City of Atlantis. About the same time we presented our key visual for the iconic attraction, the Oklahoma City bombing occurred. Imagery of a half standing buildings flooded the media. It was after that meeting where we redefined the design direction to, “Beautiful, Uplifting and FUN!”

We worked with German Ride manufactures to create a custom ride system that allowed a boat to float, and then hook on to a track system allowing it to deliver rollercoaster maneuvers, becoming the first “Water Coaster”.

From there we defined the ride layout. On the ground floor the boats floated through sets with special effects. I had created a digital model of the boats leaving the station and floating through the first floor. This allowed us to see and ultimately program the ride based on site lines and the time to reset the effects.

The Atlantis model I created was used as a design tool, a presentation tool, a marketing tool, and finally a construction document.

While working on the 5 year project I was able to contribute to the ride system, the vehicle design, the special effects, the water effects, the ride programming and of course the thematic design. As a result,  attendance at the park skyrocketed.

Busch Entertainment Corporation was looking to develop a set of adventure based retail shops for both SeaWorld and Busch Gardens under a new brand called X-cursions. Taking design queues from the REI, X-cursions had to fit not only a land focused approach for the Busch Gardens Parks, but it also had to take on a aquatic theme for the Seaworld Parks. Part of the core experience was to integrate the human world with the animal world through education.

Thus the retail experience shared space with animal connections through integrated exhibits/merchandising as well as teaching touch points with trainers and live animals. This approach incorporated animal exhibits, such as leaf cutter ants, tarantulas and macaws, while including trainer sessions with crocodiles and sloths.

My role included development of multiple key animal/retail touch points, and developing the visual vocabulary for both the Busch Gardens Parks and the SeaWorld Parks by creating key iconic structures, water features and animal interactions.

With a tiger exhibit in need of renovation, I started to develop plans to integrate a high level activity zone, with family ride that would take the guest though the new tiger exhibit.  The plan looked at utilizing three heights of engagement, ground level, below ground and above ground. With the tigers contained by a mote below ground, we looked to include orangutans  overhead. The idea of a treehouse play structures allowed not only activities for the guests but also up close and personal views with the orangutans.

As for the up close tiger experience, this was happening on foot. A trail of huts that connect through the exhibit, allowing above ground an underwater views of the tigers. As part of the attraction development exercise, focus groups were questioned about their interest in considering a "swim with tigers" experience.

Thirty years after its construction the Anhueser-Busch Brewery was ready for a facelift as it was speaking to a new generation of guest. This guest was interested in the history of the brewery but was also looking for how it's history relates to them today. 

I was brought on to design the new entry element as well as design the interior which included, exhibits, two tasting rooms and a gift shop, (of course).

At the time, the corporate focus was to put their Budweiser brand back in the front of their beer portfolio. Therefore our design queues all relate back to Budweiser.

Other AB projects include designing Band of Buds on premise events, custom bike racks for Michelob Ultra, a custom steampunk bar for Shock-top, a ukulele made from the packaging for Land Shark, building functional a prop for Bud Light commercials, and Bud Light Kiosks.

Believe it or Not

Over the years I have been engaged in many Ripley's projects. Typically my involvement would range from master-planning expansions and concepting the iconic building facades to renovating existing exhibits. The Ripley's brand is diverse in its product offering when it comes to second tier vacation destinations. They offer their traditional Believe it or not museums, as well as Guinness World Records Museums, Wax Museums, Haunted Houses, Aquariums, Moving Theaters, Candy shops, Mirror Mazes and Miniature Golf. What does this add?  Are you saying you worked on all of these?  If so, it needs to say that.

The three major projects highlighted here are the traveling Dinosaurs Exhibit – When Giants Ruled, the Ripley’s Adventure Farm and the Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum exterior for Bahrain, India. 

My role on the Dinosaur Exhibit was to take the existing dinosaur sculptures and design an exhibit around this  resource, including defining the content of the exhibit, creating the graphics, and delivering design intent documents to fabricators. More?

With the Adventure Farm, my role focused more on master planning. I took a site survey of an existing plot of land next to the existing Ripley’s museum, and looked at the feasibility of creating a central ticket hub and a second attraction, including doing a attraction capacity study. I also focused my planning to combine the indoor and outdoor activities while visually enticing guests off the main street.

With the Believe it or Not Museum in Bahrain, I focused mainly on the concepting /story telling of the iconic Museum exterior. The goal was to create a Ripley’s icon which could be seen by the traffic on the highway and guide them to exit to the museum.

The Embassy of Moosylvania

I was hired on as an Owners Representative for the marketing firm Moosylvania when they began to plan their new facility. The owner had purchased a Baptist Church in Maplewood, MO and wanted to move the agency to the new space as soon as it was renovated.

I balanced the use of the sanctuary space by extending the choir loft, removed the baptismal above the alter, opened church administration offices to an open floor plan and reclaimed the basement by creating a lounge, complete with a commercial kitchen. The adjoining school building was redesigned to be a three-floor facility for focus groups and brainstorming.

Part of my role was to provide a vision as well as master plan of the facility based on the desired usage of each building. In addition, I needed to create space for as many workstations as possible for this growing marketing firm. I had to evaluate every space for efficiency, including repurposing the pipe organ room to become a conference room.

This was my first time working with a historic building and understanding the challenges with asbestos abatement. The biggest uncertainty was supporting the choir loft expansion. Unfortunately the historic building commission placed limits to where we could add structure to support, which meant we were unable to attach any supports to the sanctuary walls.  My solution was to penetrate through the sanctuary floor, though the basement and into the foundation with two steel I-beams.

I redesigned the school building to include two different focus group rooms, and four different sized brain storming rooms. Catering to the clients, the facility provided a remote access to view the in-session focus groups, as well as food service to both sound proof client rooms from the commercial kitchen with in the church basement.  With the addition of an elevator, the new focus group facility was well planned, accessible and organized.

The Peabody Opera House

Originally opened in 1934, closed in 1991, and renovated in 2010, the owners of the Peabody Opera House turned to me to create a grand statement at one of their entrances. With a $79 Million renovation underway and no money budgeted for the entrance,  the Opera House asked for a proposal to recreate the bear sculptures which flanked the main entrance, but reproducing them at 70% of the original size and fabricating them out of fiberglass.

I wrote up the proposal for the fiberglass bears, but my recommendation was a proposal to carve the bears out of a block of limestone. This limestone would be a block pulled from the same quarry that was used for the construction of the building exterior. We discussed the pros and cons of each approach, but I was able to provide that the best decision for the entry was to execute the bears in limestone.

I rented a facility large enough to move the six-ton stones easily, and I hired two local stone sculptors. After doing research on the original sculptures, we presented our final designs and the sculptors work samples.

Over the course of 3-4 months, the 3’ x 3’ x 6’ limestone blocks began to transform into a male and female black bears.

The sculptors started with gas-powered diamond saw blades, then moved to air-chisels, then to rasps, then to files and finally to sandpaper and exposed the hidden bear forms “hidden” with-in the limestone block. Watching these artists work in ONLY a subtractive process was amazing!

My role was to sell the capabilities, create the necessary documents, carry the insurance and support the artist’s needs from the beginning design stages through the installation.

It was a great client, a great project and a great process!

Simple Complexity. Unexpectedly Refined.

TORK design was the collaboration between Rob Grimm, a professional photographer and myself. It started with our passion for reclaiming and repurposing objects and turning them into functional art. Much of our early work was based on custom one of a kind pieces, however our end goal was to create a product line of LEED certified office furniture.

Tork Design was born out of a desire to construct furniture that could efficiently handle the power and data demands of commercial design studios.  We specialized in solving the challenges of inefficient work processes and addressing ever changing technology by building clean lined furniture to last generations.

Our early designs solved cord management problems in a non-traditional way with a wire-free work surface. We incorporated low voltage connection points into the desk surface allowing for a physical connection, which provided power to lamps or laptops.

The clients of Tork Design were as diverse as its founders. Ranging from creative firms to sports marketing agents to financial advisors, our design team thrived upon understanding a client’s needs in order to create effective solutions. Our goal was to create functional pieces that keep people organized and productive in the modern day office.

At the centerpiece of our designs lies our commitment to be environmentally smart. The materials used to create our pieces were be rapid renewable, recycled or recyclable. As a result, all of our furniture is constructed from glass, steel and bamboo plywood. The pair of these three materials gives our furniture clean lines that are both modern and classic. Since creating generational furniture is paramount to our company, both the design and materials chosen must be able to go the distance.  

BlueGreen Corporation

Bluegreen was looking to refresh the interior finishes on their lobby in Aruba. Multiple concepts were envisioned before landing on the final look.

Mac Factory

This retail concept was based on the idea of creating a multi-use facility which included a computer retail outlet, Computer accessories, fashion retail, recording studios, coffee shop and performance stage.

The Refillery

The Refinery is a specialty store that focuses on being environmentally friendly by providing refills for household, beauty, and other miscellaneous bottled products.

Subway

The direction from Subway was to develop a space with a high level of finish which was reinforcing their “fresh” marketing campaign. New stores were designed to compete directly with Panera Bread stores.

Dewars - First Round

With longer wait times at airports after 911 HMS Host and Bacardi looked to expand their product offering after crossing security checkpoints. We teamed up with Golf-Digest and fused brands into one experience. 

Diageo Environmental Branding

Objectives:

Create a Destination within a Destination

Create a sense of arrival to new location

Allow guests a chance to capture our brand essence by placing and serving them in an exclusive experience

Add value to Busch Stadium’s already diverse architecture by designing a unique space that adds new life to existing locations

Working with multiple marketing agency I designed and fabricated many custom icons.

This Bacardi Limon event was designed around "fantasy future" and traveled to 25 cities in 3 months. I designed two iconic robots to be placed outside the venue to draw people into the event, a satellite bar which only served specialty drinks with Limon. In this case I did the design work and created the documentation that went out to bid.

Working with a second marketing agency I designed and built the Cabana bar to showcase their product within nightclubs. the center piece was the product being held and internally illuminated by two hands.

The Black Eyed Peas tour and B-live I worked with a third marketing agency where I designed, develop and in many cases built elements which were used on tour for afterparties. 

Windsor Crossing Church was looking to expand their main site as well as open two satellite locations. I was brought on board by the owner as a design consultant. My role was to work with the architects and the owners to design and fabricate key elements within the three locations. Over the course of 6 years I contributed to creating their visual vocabulary, and allowing that language to be communicated through all three campuses, giving the guests a sense of continuity and feeling of "home". 

Traveling Exhibit                                         

Disney’s Hannah Montana’s Wig’d-Out Tour

The idea: Drive consumers back to the mall, specifically the Disney stores before Myley's merchandise contract expires when she turns 18.

I was hired to develope concepts that showcased Hannah Montana’s wig before it was retired to the Smithsonian Museum.  Concepts allowed kids to get up close to view the wig, props from the Hannah Montana show and costumes.  The exhibit was not only an amazing experience from 12 year old girl's perspective, but it was designed to be easily set up and taken down in malls across the United States. 

The first concept utilized a 8'x8' acrylic safe to display the wig and other props. The second concept utilized a "back-stage" storyline to get guests through the attraction. The final concept utilized a dressing room experience where the guests could sit down at Miley's vanity and as they sit in her chair and look into the mirror, they begin to see Miley's real wig appear on their head.

 Although the tour never got off the ground, due to Miley's defiant behavior making news, this was one of my favorite projects, (maybe it's because I have two young girls who where huge fans at the time)

Juke -O- Rator

I took my parents 1954 GE refrigerator and converted in into a CD jukebox

Juke -A- Toni

I built a second custom CD jukebox out of an old electrical transformer for Zipatoni

Gaspump Soda Fountain

I took an old Wayne swing-arm gas pump and turned it into a functioning Soda fountain.

Electric THING 1.0

After the original gas engine froze up, i converted my 1974 VW Thing to electric with lead acid batteries

Electric THING 2.0

This summer I upgraded the batteries to Lithium and added a BMS

Electric RATROD 3.0

This past winter I began to modify the body as it transitions into an Electric RatRod!