Shelby Jordan

Designing experiential spaces

Portfolio

The Orpheum Hotel & Siren Song Restaurant

Spring 2025, UT Austin, MID Core Studio II

A intimate sensory adventure design for couples looking to rehydrate their romantic connection, this project is inspired by Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water as well as the interesting visual effects created by light interacting with water. An intentional abundance of reflective and translucent materials and overhead lighting systems creates a unique, subaqueous sensory experience in which guests feel almost submerged in water and observe light penetrating from from above, reflecting and diffusing through the space, and beginning to dissipate as it travels deeper into the environment and closer to the floor. Smaller, more intimate spaces within the restaurant and hotel rooms create moments of privacy for couples to deepen their connection. Inspired by the cinematic techniques of del Toro’s film, this project is spatially characterized by organic curves for smooth circulation within each space and smooth transitions from one space to the next. A highlight of the guest experience, Siren Song’s aphrodisiac-based seafood menu further engages the senses of couples lured into this subaqueous environment.

“Woven” Sarabande Foundation dinner

The Standard Hotel’s Decimo restaurant, London, UK

At Souvenir Scenic Studios, I worked as project manager and lead artist for this canopy project. Using strips of surplus fabric, yarn, and fringe, we created 21 woven panels with varied textures (including crocheted strands) to suspend over the dining tables in Decimo. The panels ranged from 3x3 meters to 3x5 meters. These panels were later repurposed for a window display in Selfridges (not pictured) in January 2025.

Community Lounge Space Model & Drawings

Fall 2024, UT Austin, MID Core Studio I

I designed this volume to be a community lounge space situated in the Mebane Gallery in Goldsmith Hall on the UT Austin campus. This project explored the abstract relationship between the body and space. Beginning with a solid volume, I used a subtractive modeling method to create the interior spaces and openings. This community space is characterized by its multifunctional surfaces and sharp, geological forms. Students could even climb up the sides of the volume and perch in the excavated void on the top.

Scenery constructed for the Alley Theatre, Houston, TX

Helped build and paint Walls, doors, windows, stairs, floor, and moulding for “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd” (Klara Zieglerova) and “American Mariachi” (Tanya Orellana).

Still Brewing Art exhibition at the San Antonio Museum of Art, TX

The Timeline and Adaptive Reuse sections from this exhibit detail the Museum’s history since the campus’ original use as the historic Lone Star Brewery facility. My research produced architectural plans, images, and information on historic events related to the brewing and design history of the campus, all of which helped inform the Timeline and Adaptive Reuse sections of the exhibit. I also gathered stickers from current breweries in the San Antonio area for the sticker board—part of a section in the exhibit that highlights the modern-day brewing scene in the city.

Glazed Sculpture

Inspired by the intertwining network of subway tunnels converging at Grand Central Terminal in NYC, the sculpture’s linking parts can be disassembled and rearranged into countless patterns. The modular sculpture has the potential to be constantly manipulated and reconfigured into a new form.

The Sensory Study Space at Trinity University, San Antonio, TX

Trinity University’s Student Accessibility Services selected me to design the new Sensory Study Space which will open soon in Coates Library on campus. I based my design on research into lighting, texture, color, sound, and accessible and adaptable furniture to accommodate students with a variety of disabilities.

Texture Study

White charcoal on black paper (20” x 25.5”) with original source image.

Scale 3-D Model, Plan, and Conceptual Mood Board for “A Raisin in the Sun”

Light Study

Charcoal on white paper (18“ x 23”) with original source images.

Urban Density Housing Project

Architectural plans for two similar projects that maximize residential space in a highly dense urban environment by using the vertical space above city streets.

Texture & Structure Study

Porcelain sculptural works, unglazed.

Light & Texture Study

Drawing of torn paper and tape, graphite on paper, 24” x 36”

Tea for Four

Ceramic teapot with four spouts and a nesting lid that restricts poured contents through one spout at a time. To select the spout you would like to use, rotate the lid to align its singular hole with the desired spout.