Recently, Cannon Frank was approached to redesign the 16th floor of the Merchandise Mart, which houses some of the hospitality and outdoor furniture showrooms. Mart executives were getting negative feedback from the head of the Outdoor Furniture Council that the decor needed a little sprucing up, so we approached the design from a buyer’s point of view, which was “if I am going to buy outdoor furniture, why do I go to a floor that looks corporate or institutional?” We designed the 16th floor utilizing neutrals infused with brilliant color. We selected a commercial quality carpet and with the yardages we had, we redesigned the color placement creating three coordinating carpet colors to give us a 24′-0″ repeat rather than a standard 8′-0″ repeat and brought in a full spectrum of colors. This helps you still feel that “tropical breeze” even while shopping for outdoor furniture in winter. We also eliminated the dated interior walls by building out the walls to create space for future advertising technology and to allow for additional wiring to accommodate all the additional support for that technology.
We also rose to the challenge of creating a new type of lighting for the floor…since we could not disrupt the existing tenants by ripping out the ceilings and installing costly additional receptacles, we used the existing junction boxes and fabricated a 1″ x 1″ brushed aluminum channel, which houses LED lighting strips in an updated and modern pattern in lengths of approx 20′-0″ and provides 2700 kelvins of light to the floor and costs less than the previous consumption of energy of the original lighting. So brighter, less costly to run and consistent bright lighting, modern technologies and color made for a warm and enjoyable environment in which to shop for hospitality and outdoor furniture needs.