new york design review

framing design

kitchen plan

last weekend in new york city at dick and daisy's loft on 6th avenue we had a design review. i presented the current design of the kitchen and answered questions. we talked quite a bit about volunteers and work weekends, which daisy will be coordinating. we also discussed some grants that we'll be applying for and worked on the wording of the applications.

pictured here are the plan and a 3-dimensional framing model (incomplete--some braces are missing) that i presented. after working with the previous rectangular design i began to think that the kitchen area was too wide and that too much area was given over to circulation. there were two hallways so that people could get to the bathroom and enter the kitchen from the side. narrowing the kitchen eliminates the need for hallways making more efficient use of the space. the counter space for the kitchen remains the same, at about 55 lineal feet, which should provide ample work and storage. in the narrower design the counter is longer providing a service line that can handle both dish return and serving, which the prior design didn't address. entry to the kitchen is through a break in the counter that has a drop leaf door that can be closed when the kitchen queens don't want people coming in and out. an efficiency kitchen separate from the main kitchen houses our existing domesitc stove and a small sink for making tea, sandwiches, etc. the main kitchen will have a commercial 6 or 8 burner stove with two ovens. the dining area will be the same size as the original plans, 24x24 feet.

i presented the idea of first completing the kitchen and then moving on to the dining area. without knowing how much labor we're going to have over the summer i think it's prudent to have a range of construction options, the minimum achievable by just a few volunteers over the summer and the maximum being the entire building with lots of volunteer help. since none of us has taken on a project quite like this we need to allow ourselves flexibility and time to learn as well as build. there is optimism that lots of faeries will appear over the summer the help out and if that happens we will accomplish a lot!