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Sixteen Miami University sophomores in the interior design program traveled on March 28 to Mitchell's Salon and Day Spa in Northgate in the hopes of developing and designing their own innovative spa.
Denette Callahan, instructor of architecture and interior design, said the students in her class had the assignment of developing and designing their own spa.
Callahan chose Mitchell's for the students to tour because of her previous relationship with the salon. She is a customer there and took students two years ago to do a project.
The students are designing with the interiors of two currently vacant spaces in Cincinnati in mind. Callahan has supplied the students with the floor plans of these spaces.
"The first is a portion above Palomino's restaurant right by Fountain Square," Callahan said. "The second option would be the Hyde Park firehouse."
When assigning the project, Callahan asked her students to think outside of the traditional ideas of a spa.
"They are also asked to challenge the current definition of a spa," she said.
During the tour, students saw the basic necessities of a spa interior.
"The tour was basically to show us the space and each room that our spa needed," sophomore Lauren Hucek said.
Students noted the space between hair styling stations and the size of the waiting room. "A lot of our students had never been to a spa before," Callahan said. "It was helpful for them to even have access to the private rooms and the employee break rooms."
Once there, the students received a tour from the salon manager, Kay Valentine.
"It was helpful to see the back of house spaces as opposed to just the front and how both of those related to each other," Hucek said.
Valentine said that prior to the tour some students visited Mitchell's on their own.
"A few students had scheduled services before because they had never had a salon service," Valentine said.
Mitchell's gave away services in a raffle to another student as well.
"One person won a 'tune-up' package-it's a mini-massage, a mini-facial and a manicure," Valentine said.
After the tour, the students asked a panel of experts for suggestions or questions about their spa ideas.
Several students shared their spa ideas with the Mitchell's employees.
"One student was working on a salon/spa idea for cancer patients going through chemotherapy," Valentine said.
She described another student who was tailoring her spa to "tween" girls.
The students will give presentations to their peers and jurors who will evaluate their work at the end of April.
Valentine and salon managing director Tammy Girdler will serve as jurors. Valentine said she will be evaluating the students on several criteria.
"(The criteria are) inspiration-what truly inspired them to go this route-creativity, how well they researched the project, how much information they are giving us when they presented it and did they have fun," Valentine said.
The students will be presenting their work in Alumni Hall April 28 to a panel of jurors, including several Miami faculty members and Mitchell's employees. Architecture and interior design students are welcome as well.
