DESIGN FEATURE
MARCH 2019 | B STUDIOS
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Designing for one space is hard enough, but imagine being tasked with designing multiple large housing units and doing so on a tight budget? For many of us, sirens may start to sound in our heads as our heartbeats begin to race quickly just thinking about the pressure.
Well, this is exactly the type of project tasked to B Studios when the firm was hired to bring a modern spin to outdated housing developments in the tri-state area. Knowing that TileBar could provide the best durable styles at a fair price, they reached out to us for help. Together, we solved the problem and the results were incredible. (Do we hold a bias? Oh no, of course not).
"Tilebar has been an exceptional resource since the day we started the company — meeting all of our project needs, large or small, affordable or high end."
OCEAN BAY
The first project that we helped B Studios with was for a affordable housing apartment complex in the Rockaways—Ocean Bay. Consisting of 24 buildings, the task at hand was to update the interior/exterior and make it more modern as well as welcoming. Seems easy enough, right?
Well, here was the challenge: They had to keep all the natural stone, and fixtures in place. None of these pieces could be renovated or changed. That left only the ability to play around with the aesthetics of the building. Not only that, the building sustained a lot of damages from Hurricane Sandy. So, the designers had to handle working with multiple areas of water damage that were attempted to be covered up by lights, or other embellishments.
B Studios knew they wanted to utilize a blue color scheme to bring in a coastal feel to the space and make it cheerful again.
That in mind, we decided on tiles specific to different areas within the buildings. Here’s a run-down on the choices and a view at how tile variety is key at bringing any space to life:
MICHELANGELO
Not as limited in terms of design, the second apartment complex B Studios was tasked to recreate was Michelangelo, a low-to-middle income housing situated in the Bronx. The total project was for 4 buildings.
The team knew they wanted to utilize a gray color scheme to bring in a modern atmosphere to the buildings and to help generate a feeling of lightness in contrast to the heavier aspects of the existing design.
Unlike Ocean Bay, the focus was on creating a more harmonizing atmosphere on the interior of the building only. Here’s what was done: