The focus this week has been on the pre bid meeting for one of our projects. My eyes have been opened to a pre-bid finally! I have been helping to prepare and edit final design documentation. After the meeting Susan and I spent time reviewing the notes that we took and getting organized again before jumping back into the project. We meet with our reps and get information for finishes that we will be using for the project. We are working on the carpet specification. It is difficult because we a re working with existing systems furniture in the space, so we are looking for a carpet that satisfies the needs of all of their different spaces. It is amazing how huge a difference carpet can make.
This week I met Drew Daniel, who is about 25 years old and manages 33 different reps in many different states in the east and west coast. He travels a lot, and he is working for Jasper Furniture.
The second half of the week are focused on the healthcare project. We are renovating an emergency department and designing floor patterns. We are utilizing wayfinding into the floor pattern as well as considering hygienic and practical ways to design the floor. The great thing about this project is that we know the client very well and have a great relationship with them. They are great clients! We have fun and very interactive meetings with them.
To top my week off, I helped work on the Faulkenberry Tree House project. We spent time setting up scaffolding this afternoon so that we can start building the treehouse -It is going to be wonderful! Of course, it rained on us around 3:30 so we had to stop working (as it turns out, being underneath a giant tree on a large metal structure during a lightning storm is really not ideal). It was a great week here, and I am looking forward to next week's progress.
For our presentation techniques, we definitely extensively use our plotter and our printers. We make finish selection boards and utilize our 3d modeling softwares to show our ideas to clients. The formats and content change immensely from client to client. With one ofour long-time clients, we have much flexibility with them and our meetings are somewhat casual. With another large and influential company, we have produced large slideshow presentations with diagrams, schematic design, and final proposals.
We use a variety of different softwares. Microsoft Office and Adobe suite of course, CAD, Bentley Microstation, Sketchup and Form Z, and we are hoping to acquire Revit soon.
Here's a photo of Gregor working on the Faulkenberry Tree House project:
;)