how tom works | Tom Arthur

Last time you were in a retail store or restaurant, did you look up? Not up at the products on the shelves or digital menus but up at the ceiling. Lurking above you, in nearly every store and every office building is one of my favorite things to hate: drop ceilings.

And I’m not the only person who thinks they suck. Take a look at this post on ‘Why Architects Drink.’ The jury is out on if the two of us are crazy.

Here are just a few horrible installations that I’ve seen locally.

So why do drop ceilings suck?

1. individual tiles often go missing or become dislodged
2. dust is attracted to the tiles and is rarely cleaned off
3. the tiles or  separating metal discolors over time

And that is just the start. We need to fight the epidemic of ugly ceilings. Especially with so many other options available, there is no excuse.

The simplest solution is to eliminate the tiles altogether. In this type of situation the ceiling is often painted black so it doesn’t attract attention. You can see this in a plethora of stores, such as Corner Bakery. [I need to find a better photo!]

Uploaded by nouveaustar on Flickr [CC Licensed]

Even something like this, which is inside a building at Chapman University, would be acceptable to me.

While there will always be situations where the evil acoustical tile grid will be required/is the most cost effective (food service), there are just too many easy ways to make a more aesthetically pleasing ceiling.

You better switch away before this happens:

Uploaded by brocha on Flickr [CC licensed]