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.