The Cherokee Nation was founded from seven separate tribal clans before the 1800's. When the Nation hired TriArch to renovate the Hard Rock casino lobby, we proposed that the design solution pay homage to the original clans, and use it as an opportunity to educate the general public that visits the resort. 7 randomly angled lines are distributed down the large corridor in the lobby. They all intersect randomly and eventually are intersected by an organically-shaped free-form element that represents the path the nation took upon their removal (The Trail of Tears). The intersections represent the pain and grief every clan felt as the removal procession devastated the tribes.

The journey is shown abstractly through the geometry on the floor and ceilings, but the space also celebrates the end of the path and the victory of the nation as it stands today.

Other architectural considerations were that the ceilings were low and the columns were thick and heavy. TriArch used reflective material on the ceilings to give the illusion of more height while we minimized the column veneer while using LED vertical lights to make the columns slimmer and appear taller.

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