Week 3: Parties, Pranks, and Presentations!

Main road rennovationMonday: We started out the week with our usual Cancer Institute walkthrough. The picture is of the view from the 4th floor of the Cancer Institute. The construction is where they are moving the main road of the hospital to allow for more parking. When we got back, we met with a carpet rep, I confirmed the order for the custom artwork I had been working on last week, and proceeded with the purchasing part. For the rest of the day I started another artwork project for a curved corridor in the main hospital. During our lunch break Rebecca, Heather, and I went on a little adventure to get supplies for a surprise party we had planned for the director of Facilities Planning. He had a birthday right before his vacation last week, and we decided to celebrate with a huge surprise party this week, now that he is back. (see pictures below).

Tuesday: I was able to sit in on a meeting with MedMaps, which is a company UT Med hired to create hospital maps, because wayfinding is a huge issue around the campus. I learned a lot about wayfinding inMid-prank face-- Alli this meeting. When I got back to my desk I had a huge pile of samples I have been ordering for material boards, and for furniture finishes for the lobby areas and exam rooms for the cancer institute. We also had lunch with the Mowhawk rep. We actually played a little prank on her before we went to lunch. She is good friends with Heather and Rebecca, and so we decided to pretend to specify a carpet that shouldn’t have been going in the hospital. The picture is of her realizing what we were trying to specify, and her reaction was pure confusion and disgust! After lunch Tuesday, I worked on finding maintenance instructions for a renovation on 12 East, and worked on Signage art for the Family Practice project we are working on.

Wednesday: This was the big day! The day of the surprise party! As soon as we got there we went to set up for the party. I then worked on finding pricing for fabrics and samples we had chosen for the Cancer Institute. Then it was PARTY TIME! Ted was so surprised! Here is a picture of Heather setting up for the Party!Heather setting up for the party! It looked great! We cooked out burgers and had an iPad cake made for him, which looked great and tasted even better! After the party it was hard to settle back in because of how much sugar we had! We did however narrow down fabric selections, choose a sheet vinyl for the bathrooms in the North Tower, and Rebecca and I spent a long time discussing the difference between a product rep, a product distributor, and their networking between each other and clients.

Thursday: First thing in the morning we had presented fabrics to the VP of the Cancer institute. It was fun getting to present something we had spent so much time on to someone who would actually be in the space daily. Since we don’t necessarily have clients for each project, often times the VP of the department will be the representative for the project, who is the person that we get the OK from to make final decisions about a project. After the meeting we had lunch with Katie, the DesignTex rep. After lunch we did another Cancer Me on the Cancer Institute construction site!Institute walkthrough and I was surprised to see that they had started painting on some of the floors! My first week they had just gotten up the wall beams and now they are beginning to paint! Things are happening fast at the Cancer Institute and I love being able to see the progression!  Here is a picture of me with my hardhat on during the walkthrough. For the rest of the day Rebecca and I went through an entire huge binder making a checklist to make sure that we had picked finishes for all the furniture that were COMs, and made a checklist of all the ones we had to pick from the specific manufacturer. COMs are Customer/Clients own material. This means that we order it from a company, and it is send to the furniture manufacturer to then put on their furniture, rather than just picking from their selections they carry on hand.

Friday: On Friday’s I usually work with Mary Beth, but I didn’t meet with her because I had a meeting with Radiation Oncology that morning to present our finishes for their department in the Cancer Institute. After that I met with a Korseal rep, then worked on finish selections for HermanMiller systems furniture for the administration offices in Cancer Institute. I only stayed until lunchtime though.

Legal Organization of UT Medical

Rebecca passed her NCIDQ!!!!!The company does prefer for its designers to be NCIDQ, but does not require it for Rebecca’s position because Heather is already NCIDQ certified. However, this week was an appropriate subject to discuss because Wednesday Rebecca got news that she had passed the NCIDQ! We were all so excited for her, and she was pretty excited herself. Here is a picture of her and her computer screen, showing she was officially NCIDQ certified!

The company does prefer that the Architects and Engineers on staff be licensed and able to stamp the appropriate drawings.

The company is very involved in lifelong learning. Since it is a learning hospital, its entire goal is to create better staff through lifelong learning. Specifically in Facilities Planning, the hospital feels its important for us to continue learning about Heathcare technologies and advancements, in the design profession and in the heathcare profession so that the designers can create spaces that can grow, perform, and withstand all that a hospital has to give.

As far as community outreach is involved, the hospital does a lot of hospital-wide events. They do the Alzheimer’s walk, Race for the Cure, United Way, etc. throughout the year.

An example of conflict that may happen in Facilities Planning is that we could be over budget on a project, causing us to either have to cut something out, or lower the cost of something else, such as artwork. Often if we are over budget, we will ask donors to donate money towards a specific piece of art we have picked out, and we will provide a nice engraved plaque next to the art thanking the donor for the art.

Other issues are typically that the idea that a client has is not to code or budget, and we typically can explain to them why we cannot meet their request, and more times than not, the client is rather understanding.

As far as legalities we need to follow, there is a huge list. Here is a link to the website showing our manual we have to follow as employees of the hospital. http://insite.utmck.edu/files/1540/compliance_program_manual-nov-2010-_2_.pdf

Ted with his iPad cake!This is Ted. He is the director of the Facilities Planning department. We through the surprise party for him this week! In the picture, he is playing with the iPad cookie that topped the cake, which looked like the Boxes that Apple products come in! When you first meet him he is pretty quiet, but if you let him warm up to you he can be quite the joke teller! At the surprise party I only heard how great of a person he is and how happy everyone was to make him feel special for his birthday!

Comments

[Mary Beth Robinson]

Quite an appropriate title for the week! The post is rich with details, and you are certainly getting into the rhythm of the internship. I am curious about the results of the presentation you gave and the next step in decisions to be made. How many options did you present? What was the outcome and will there be follow-up? I also wonder if there is a difference of making decisions under the influence of sugar? (just kidding) Thank you for adding all the images - these are quite helpful when describing the people, places and activities you are encountering. Send Rebecca my congratulations for passing the NCIDQ exam! To be able to sit for the exam, a designer has to work with a certified designer for a certain length of time. The apprenticeship system is a part of becoming a design professional. You had quite a valuable week of learning - excellent work!