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PORTFOLIO

MELANIE CONLEY

ABOUTME

I’'m an Architectural Interior Designer and Project Manager based in Jacksonville, Florida. With nearly a decade experience and background that bridges commercial architecture, interior design, home staging, and professional organizing.

I believe every space has a soul-an energy and story waiting to be told. My approach starts with listening: understanding how a person lives, works, and moves through a space before a single line is drawn. I’m passionate about design that is both beautiful and purposeful, where form and function work together to improve everyday life for the people who inhabit it.

Whether working with individual clients or as part of a larger team, I bring the same commitment: technically precise, creatively driven design that tells a story and serves the people it’s built for.

PROJECTPORTFOLIO

INSTITUTIONAL PROJECT

Family Bible Church - Ponte Vedra, FL.

10,000SF New Construction

Scope: Full Architectural Design & Interior Finishes

PROJECTOVERVIEW

Family Bible Church needed a 10,000 SF facility in Ponte Vedra that would serve as both a sanctuary for worship and a vibrant community hub throughout the week. The design had to accommodate a sanctuary, educational wings, fellowship spaces, and administrative offices all within a warm, contemporary aesthetic rooted in natural materials.

As the lead designer, I provided full architectural design and interior finish services-from initial programming and space planning through construction documentation and MEP, structural coordination. The project required navigating complex building code requirements while delivering a design that felt both sacred and welcoming.

THE CHALLENGE

The client had one firm requirement: no fire sprinkler system. Under Florida Building Code, assembly occupancies above certain occupant load thresholds require sprinklers — so this single constraint shaped every major design decision.

DESIGNAPPROACH

The solution centered on strategic occupancy classification, keeping the sanctuary below the sprinkler threshold, combined with fire-rated separations extending continuously from floor to roof deck throughout the building. Every wall assembly, door rating, and penetration had to be meticulously detailed in the construction documents all while integrating seamlessly with the warm, exposed timber aesthetic the client envisioned.

FLOORPLANS

LOBBY

SANCTUARY

COMMERCIAL - HOSPITALITY

A Conceptual Hotel Lobby design Interior Design Competition Submission Entry

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Some design concepts begin with a brief. This one began with a question: what would it feel like to step inside a painting?

The answer became Water & Bloom a conceptual hotel lobby born from the artistic dialogue between two visionaries: Claude Monet and Georgia O'Keeffe. Where Monet observed nature from a distance soft, shimmering, dreamlike O'Keeffe moved in close, revealing the bold geometry hidden inside every petal. Together, they offered something rare: a full spectrum of how we experience the natural world. The lobby translates that spectrum into space. Monet's palette of blues, lavenders, and soft greens washes across surfaces, establishing an immediate sense of calm the kind that dissolves the tension of travel the moment a guest walks through the door. Then O'Keeffe's influence asserts itself: sculptural floral forms cascade from the ceiling in peach, cream, and sage, massive and commanding, demanding the eye slow down and look closer.

Custom millwork, layered transparencies, and curated lighting were designed to behave the way natural light does filtering, reflecting, shifting — so the space feels alive at every hour. Reflective floors mirror the ceiling sculpture, doubling the drama while deepening the sense of quiet.

The result is a lobby that doesn't just welcome guests. It transforms them.