Seven Bays Bouldering

OVERVIEW

The owners of one of Canada’s best climbing gyms, Allez Up, wanted to expand. During a visit to Halifax, they discovered some property on Gottingen Street that was bursting with potential for this kind of expansion. Thus, the idea of Seven Bays Bouldering was born. In response to the very social nature of the bouldering community the owners wanted to develop not only a gym, but also a cafe where their clients could socialize.

DESIGN

The client already had the broad strokes of the projects layout assigned, so the work we had to tackle were the more detailed oriented elements. This included the exact shape and execution of the broad strokes such as the front counter, the design of the furniture, and the precise nature of the storage units used in the hall.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Since the larger design concept had already been addressed, this projects primary challenge was one of management. There are a lot of moving pieces to align in order to deliver a project of this size and complexity and it was this balancing act which eventually became RSI’s core role in delivery.

Cocktail Tables – another furniture design that our team produced for the client. A seemingly simple “waterfall” style table with inlaid edges of cherry and maple.

The table top was actually some plywood sheets that were used during the assembly of the climbing wall itself. So the red lines you see here are actually the incidental tool marks of the various angles that needed to be cut to create the wall itself. We filled these lines with red tinted epoxy, and used those lines as the graphic element of the tables top.

The “lounge” area of the cafe. These banquettes are designed to be lower and allow for a slouchier and more relaxed pose. We were all surprised at how comfortable these were on account of them being made of otherwise uncomfortable plywood.

BEFORE

This was the bleak state of affairs when RSI came on board to help bring this project home.