New Renderings!
It’s been a little while since we revisited our digital design model for Stitch, so we decided to fire up SketchUp and incorporate some field revisions that have been made over the past few months of construction.
We generally like to avoid photorealism in our renderings - it can be incredibly convincing when done well, but is also very stiff and misleading when done poorly. And honestly a small firm like Via Chicago just doesn’t have the time or resources to commit to something that intense when we’d rather be building in the real world. But in the case of Stitch, we knew that it would help people understand what we were doing if we tried to show the exterior transformation as faithfully as possible by inserting our limited new elements directly into a photograph of the original triangle building. New windows, a pop of color, a new stairwell hidden around the back corner - limiting our “new” work lets the quirky character of the existing building carry thru to the future.
We tend to lean on a hybrid approach in most of our images - all made in-house by our small team of designers - and we utilize a mix of digital modeling, hand-sketching, photo-collages, and quick bursts of color to liven things up and break the spell. We want a rendering to feel like an idea more than a result. It should be something that lets the viewer experience the project “in progress” where there are still multiple possibilities for how this might turn out, because that’s the truth. We continue to work closely with our clients and contractors until the project is complete, which means constantly revising and overruling our own design decisions as we follow a twisting path toward the finish line. No project is every truly complete - so why would our renderings suggest that’s the case?
Looking north, from the corner of Ogden & Race
An existing window guides our design
The entry door is shifted to the north, and away from the street