Week Six . . . Wrapping Up

It's hard to think I've already spent my six weeks working at Architerra!

In my last week, while things were business as usual for me, the rest of the office was working extra hard trying to get together 100 percent of the Brooks Science Building's Construction Documents so the drawings could be compiled and sent off to various companies, like engineering ones. This required finishing drawings using a computer program called CADD (Computer Aided Design and Drafting), making sure the drawing's numbers and titles matched up with the table of contents, PDFing them, and sending them off so copies could be made and sent to the recipients.

Meanwhile, I did many other tasks. Submittals had started coming in with more volume, so I logged these in and sent them out through the UPS Store. I changed some previously created document covers so that they could be used for the Brooks Project Manual and Construction Documents that everyone was working on. I also made around 10 or 11 transmittals for the recipients of these drawings. I also made another quick stop to Staples for more file folders and made some design folders for the Stonyfield Farm project's file cabinet.

Many places and schools like Brooks often contact Architerra for inquiries about designing their own buildings, so Architerra will send them a spiral-bound booklet showing their experience in past and current projects. For this reason, Ellen asked me to print out 12 copies of pages (already created) describing their projects. I went through the network folders on the computer and found each of the pages Ellen pointed out to me in an old booklet. These included Brooks, the Cambridge School, UNH, and many others that I didn't even know they had worked on, like the University of North Carolina. This was cool because I got to see all of Architerra's projects, and ones that Ellen, Dan, Daniel, and Andy had done before Architerra was even a firm. Each page had pictures or drawings of the buildings plus written descriptions. Since it takes a while to print 12 copies, I read through each one of the pages and learned a lot about them all.

Before I left on my last day, Friday, all of Architerra had some celebratory chips and drinks for making their 100 percent CD deadline and also for my time spent working with them. I want to thank everybody there for having me this summer. I will never forget my amazing experience working at their architecture firm!!

Week Five . . . Making Progress

Five weeks down, one to go. Having finished coloring the Brooks floor plans, I did a few smaller projects. Dan, another principle at the firm, had taken a few pictures of our Johnson Science Building during his visit to Brooks the Thursday before. I took three images (the left, middle, and right parts of the building) and used all my photoshop knowledge I gained during my internship to paste them together into one picture of Johnson. I did this so Dan could add notes in the margines of the picture, saying what on the building needed to be fixed or removed.

I also helped paint some foam blocks, which represented rooms in Architerra's Planned Parenthood project in Worcester. Like the Brooks floor plans, different colors represented different types of rooms. These were presented the following day to the consultants and owners of Planned Parenthood.

On Thursday, I accompanied Dan to Brooks for a construction meeting. We walked around the site, which was completely excavated at that point. The land was flattened and, to me, pretty much unrecognizable. The view from our science classrooms will be so different this coming school year, since whatever was there is now gone. But it will also be fun to see the construction of the new science building in progress. The spot where the solar cupola will be was marked as it represents one of the most important reference points for the building. Among other things, the atrium fans out from there. The marker was labeled 'G/4' according to the grid system of the plans for the building.

Also, the garage under the big oak tree was opened the week before I visited Brooks. It was basically empty, crushing hopes of finding anything interesting in there. Now all that's left of it is one wall.

Week Four . . . Trees and Video

Week four was a week of finishing and touching up. Submittals that we had sent out to the engineers were returned to us. I logged these out, stamped them with the architect's stamp which acknowledges the architect's approval of the submittal, and sent them back out to the contractor.

Along with that, I finished the landscaping and roof plan. When the roof was finished, I spent my time working on the details of the landscape. I gave the rocks and trees shadows and colored the road that goes around the building site. I also gave the trees a less "graphic" appearance by putting a layer of linework of branches and leaves under the green color of the trees.

Two afternoons at lunch last week, the office watched short videos that I found very interesting. One was a lecture by architect and designer William McDonough. He talked about his philosophy of "cradle to cradle" design, which connects ecology and economics. He also showed designs of some of his work, including the world's largest green roof in Michigan and an entire sustainable city he's designing in China, all solar-powered, in which farmlands will be placed on the city's rooftops.

The other video was a lecture by architect Joshua Prince-Ramus who gave virtual tours of three recent projects: the Seattle Central Library, Museum Plaza in Louisville, and Dallas' Charles Wyly Theater. He showed how the design of the library came to be because of all of the limitations in place by the rest of the city (like where the highway was placed and where view in the city shouldn't be obstructed). In his preview of the Dallas Theater, he showed how the walls, stage, seats, and most everything else could be altered to fit the needs of what was being shown or displayed there.

Week Three . . . Moving on to New Projects

I can't believe it's already been three weeks since my internship started. I got a lot of work done the last week. On Tuesday, I went back to the Cambridge School. Construction there is coming to an end and the building looks really beautiful. The main stairway is finished as well as the concrete floors. They planted the green roof and the landscaping is also coming together. There was another construction meeting like the first time I went two weeks ago. Things like how to fix a crack in the flooring were discussed. The builders are going to put three chalkboards on the outside walls of the building so classes can be held outside sometimes.

Back in the office, I finished the roof plan. Last week I said I would use a special technique to color the green roof. Instead, I took a picture of a real green roof, pasted it into the roof plan, and cut it to the right shape. I also came close to finishing the landscaping. I colored the different levels of grass, the ground-cover plants, the shrubs, pavement, and trees. I chose the colors according to what plants will actually be planted at Brooks. I also colored the rocks using a gradient tool that gives them a 3-D look by making them look shaded. I'll finish that this week by adding shadows to the trees. On top of that I logged in many more submittals.

Preparations for the Brooks building's construction have started. Sadly, they had to cut down two trees, but the big Oak is still there. Here are some of the floor plans I colored:

Week Two . . . Coloring Floor Plans

I had another good week at Architerra. For much of the time, I finished coloring the lower and upper floor plans. I then started on the roof plan, which is a lot harder because, when doing the shadowing, you need to take into consideration the peaks of the roof and that it's not just flat. Next week, I'll probably work on coloring the green roof, which will be very intricate. With photoshop, I'll be able to use a technique so it looks like there are a bunch of flowers on it.

In addition to coloring the floor plans, submittals for the Brooks Science Building and Architerra's project at UNH began coming in. Submittals are things like samples or shop drawings that are sent to the architect for approval. My job is to log these in, stating what date they came to the office, when they will be sent out to the engineer to review, and the description of what the actual submittal is of. After logging them in, I create a letter of transmittal that has the description of what was submitted. The submittals are sent to the architect with many copies, so I keep one for Architerra, stamp the rest with the date recieved, and send them off to the engineers.

On Thursday, a man came with samples of the seats that will be in the new lecture hall. I got to try all of them out and say which I liked best. On Friday, the four contractors that are bidding for the Brooks project came to look at drawings of the building and ask any questions they had about it. Ellen, another principle at the firm, printed out huge copies of the upper and lower floor plans I colored and hung them on the wall.

Week One . . . Getting Started

So, my first week at Architerra went great. Aside from the first day, which included three trips to Staples, a total of about an hour of walking (I bought the wrong size of folders, forgot the receipt to exchange them on the second trip, etc.), everything went smoothly. And I only missed my train home once.

On my second day, I visited one of Architerra's projects at the Cambridge School of Weston where they are building an arts and science building.

I walked around the site with Andy, an architect at the firm, while he took pictures and met with the project managers who overlook the construction of the building. The builders were finishing the stairs, polishing the concrete floor, and figuring out how to hang the classrooms' projectors, among other things. The landscaping was also under way. While construction is nearing its end, I still got to wear a hard hat, which was exciting.

I also learned how to use photoshop so that I could spend the rest of the week using it to color floor plans of the first and second floors of our science building. As a first-time user of photoshop, I can say it wasn't too complicated. Each type of space in the building has a specified color - either blue, purple, yellow, or brown. After finishing these colors, I had to use a darker purple to create a shadowing effect on the plans. It was tricky at first, but it got easier once I got the hang of it. I'll be finishing those two floor plans next week and then probably get started coloring a plan of the roof.