RE: LSJ living room and screening room
If possible the 30 and 31 of aug at island. Gary
Sent from my iPhone
Hi Gary,
- I am following up on our conversation about converting the existing living room into the screening room, and adding a new living room towards the east. I some concerns about this that we need to review together:
• The current layout of the main residence areas has the Living Room, the main "public space", centrally located, on access with the main stairs, and adjacent the kitchen and guest cottages. I think this makes a lot of sense. It is the prime gathering space, and should be centrally located.
• I understand the concerns about the Living Room being "dark". I think this could be resolved, by incorporating similar features that would be use in a new the living room. For example, adding some large windows, similar to the expanded Kitchen, could brighten up the room, and make it more usable.
• The Living Room, re-worked upper terrace and pool area all flow together, making sense of this space. I do not think locating the Screening Room in that prime gathering space overlooking the pool makes as much sense.
• The Screening Room itself functions separately from the rest of the residence areas. It will be probably be used less frequently, and could stand alone from the other spaces, without impacting the use of the other spaces.
• The existing Living Room would require significant demolition to be converted into a professional screening room, and it would substantially smaller than what we previously discussed.
[ ] o We would need to add acoustical walls within the building. I think this will reduce the overall usable space to about 21' wide x 32' long.
[ ] o We need about 9' for the projection booth and 4' for the speaker chase. That would leave the screening room itself about 21' wide x 18' deep.
[ ] o The screen would end up being about 18' wide x 10' tall. Within the current building height, it would be too close to the floor and ceiling.
[ ] o We would need to raise the booth about 4'-5', to get the projector to the correct elevation, above the heads of the viewers. It looks like we do not have sufficient headroom for that.
[ ] o We may be able to create one step on the floor, to create a stadium seating effect, but we do not have enough headroom to do more than that,
- o To keep within the existing building envelope, we would need to excavate down below grade to create sufficient headroom clearances.
These concerns lead to the idea that we renovate the existing Living Room, adding windows to make it feel brighter and more pleasant, and we consider adding a smaller screening room, more similar in scale to the existing Living Room, east of the Living Room. We can make it smaller to fit more with the rest of the buildings scale, yet accommodate professional screening room features.
Gary, we talked about the fact that we have now exhausted the current redesign allowance, and you requested a new Work Authorization to continue the conceptual design work. However, I propose we do the following first:
We are preparing some diagrams that graphically show the concerns we have with the Living Room conversion to screening room.
We will prepare some diagrams that show this new layout, similar to the latest design, but with a smaller, more in-scale but still professional Screening Room.
Once that we review this together, we can either:
a. Move forward with a new design proposal for the overall project, or
b. Split the pool area and screening room apart contractually, allowing us to proceed with pool area development towards a permit, and pursue the alternate screening room concepts separately. (This would speed up your main construction schedule.)
As to a meeting on the Island on 8/30, I do not think that leaves us enough time to develop this new concept, and prepare the 3D images for review. Once we discuss this more, and figure out the right path, we can establish a schedule for deliverable and meetings. I think it would be closer to 9/15/10.
I look forward to your comments! Doug, please weigh in on your thoughts!
Thanks!
Warwick
Warwick
After spending the week on island Jeffrey believes his idea is sound.he will make the existing livingroom as good as a theater room it can be and go with new 30x50 living room to the east.please sketch out the concept for his review.
Thanks
Gary
Gary,
It was good to speak with you this morning. Attached please find the our proposal for additional conceptual design services, Work Authorization 2, for the Living Room and Screening Room at LSJ.
As we discussed, we completed the design services authorized in Work Authorization 1, with the conceptual design package we issued at the end of July. (I will forward the invoice for that work as soon as it is prepared.)
Based on our conversation this morning, we understand the new design criteria to be the following:
• Existing Living Room:
- o [ ] Convert to "residential style" screening room.
- o Will include fixed screen (as opposed to current pull-down screen).
- o Will not include separate projection booth. NOTE, due to this, we may not be able to accommodate professional-style projection equipment (due to size/noise/ventilation requirements). THIS MAY IMPACT THE ABILITY TO RECEIVE FIRST-RUN MOVIES DIRECT FROM STUDIOS OR FILM-MAKERS "BELAIR CIRCUIT" COURTESY COPIES OF NEW MOVIES).
• Proposed New Living Room:
- o Approx. 30' x 50', with floor level similar to main residence/garden level.
- o Covered access from Main Residence; uncovered access from Garden.
o No wrap-around terraces.
o Similar aesthetic look as existing structures (roof, exterior finishes).
[ ] o Provide windows on north and east for view and day-lighting.
[ ] o No defined internal program (open area, bathroom, pantry, dining area, etc...)
Please let me know if you have any corrections or additional comments. Please sign and return the attached proposal, and remit the retainer and the balance due on the upcoming invoice. We are ready to start as soon as these items are addressed!
Thanks,
Warwick
Warwick Wicksman, AIA
Principal
███████████
Gensler
2500 Broadway
Suite 300
Santa Monica, California 90404
USA
Warwick
Will do.
Thanks,
Warwick
Gary,
What is the status on Work Authorization 2 and the invoices? We are eagerly awaiting
authorization to proceed with the new concept...
Thanks!
Warwick
Gary, checking in again. Any word yet?
Warwick
Just checking in...
Warwick
Warwick Wicksman, AIA
Principal
Gary,
I am concerned that we have not heard back from you for a couple of weeks now, on the status of the redesign for LSJ. We are eager to work with you and Mr. Epstein on the new concept, but need the new Work Authorization signed, and the current invoices paid. As I wrote before, in addition to the balance on the last re-design effort, and the retainer for the new one, there will be an invoice (in process now) for the reimbursable travel expenses from the trip to the Island in July.
FYI, since we have not been authorized to proceed yet, I have had to release the team to other projects, to keep them busy. It may take me some time to gather them back once we are authorized proceed again.
Attached for reference, please find the current invoices and the re-design proposal. Please let me know if there are any questions or issues we need to address. We really want to do what we can to get this project moving ahead!
Thanks,
Warwick
Warwick Wicksman, AIA
Principal
Gensler
2500 Broadway
Suite 300
Santa Monica, California 90404
USA
Gary, I just got a message from Lesley that you are all still dealing with the aftermath of the hurricane. I thought/hoped Earl was going to bypass the Island - it looked that way on the maps I saw. I hope it wasn't too bad.
Give me a call when you are ready, and we can discuss moving forward.
Please note I will be on vacation all next week, from 9/6 through 9/10, but checking email periodically.
Thanks,
Warwick
Warwick Wicksman, AIA
Principal
Gensler
2500 Broadway
Suite 300
Santa Monica, California 90404
USA