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A Reception Feature Wall Can Make All the Difference

 

Ever since my post on lobby art awhile back, I’ve been paying closer attention to the work that I encounter in lobbies and thinking about what makes them successful or not. Maybe I’m a little biased, but I’ve been noticing that I consistently feel most inspired in spaces with a well-designed reception feature wall.

What is a reception feature wall, you might wonder? Dreamwalls (by Gardner Glass Products) recently posted a great “feature” about feature walls on their blog. They define a feature wall as “a wall installation in a commercial (or increasingly, residential) interior that draws the eye and engages the inhabitant of the space.” A reception feature wall is simply a feature wall located in a building’s reception area. I find reception feature walls exciting because they frequently create an immersive environment, welcoming me into a new world and conveying the host’s personality immediately upon entry.

Dreamwalls kindly included my custom glass work for the Graves 601 Hotel in Minneapolis as an example of a feature wall in their post. This piece, which features backlit sawtooth kilnformed glass panels, is installed in the hotel’s ballroom, not the lobby; but it’s very much the kind of work I love to create for reception areas.

 

 

As Dreamwalls points out, feature walls (and thus reception feature walls) come in many varieties; water features, fiber or sculpture installations, and wood panels tend to be some of the forms you’ll see most. Yet I’ve been happy to see feature walls made of glass becoming increasingly popular. I’ve been creating glass feature walls for more than a decade; in my humble opinion, there’s just something so breathtaking about entering a space and being greeted by a portal of vibrant color and light, intricate texture, and timeless beauty.

 

 

Click here for more examples of my glass reception feature walls.