The gut renovation of Joe’s Salon + Spa, was an aesthetically transformative insertion into an everyday setting within a sleepy New England town. Although not originally a part of the program, we took the initiative to work with our client to extend the design of the interior beauty environment out on to the streetscape. The storefront, now entirely opened up with large panels of glass, reveals a series of layered spaces within the ground level hair salon and an orange glow emanating from the interior of the spa on the upper level.
A significant humanistic repetitive element that defines this transformation is the design of multiple anthropomorphic functional elements situated within the historic shell of the original building. Their animated appearance gives life to an otherwise spare environment and creates a rhythm as one moves through the building.
The new design of this salon + spa, a product of a dramatic aesthetic change in the character of its building, is a distinctive autograph that has magnetically drawn patrons from surrounding Connecticut towns. Joe’s is now known throughout the region as a destination, a modern reinterpretation of an urban community center, where people meet, socialize and revitalize their urban green.
