WEEK 1: THE FIRST STEP

My first day was Tuesday May 29 because Monday was a holiday. I was nervous and excited to start the internship. Rachel, my supervisor, has only been there for only 3 months and knows everything.

Tuesday Day 1: I began the day with a tour of their resource library. I was busy putting up materials and organizing the accessory room. Rachel and I organized the accessory room. We accomplish about half the room. The room consisted of wooden shelves and tables that are stack.

Wednesday Day 2: I learned many things today. I am trying to remember where each material goes and everyone’s name. We finished organizing the rest of the accessory room. I learned how to call vendors about checking prices and availability for fabrics and furniture. I also helped a designer find fabric for her client. I was a little bit out of my element and it was a little overwhelming.

Thursday Day 3: I called more vendors about checking prices and availability for fabrics and furniture. We also organized another accessories room that was filled with candle holder and vases.

Friday Day 4: On Friday Yessick’s Design Center is only open to 12:30. It was a short day, but busy. We called more vendors about checking the prices and availability. I also helped a designer look for specific color trim. I also wrote out vendor’s information.

This is Sherlene Kirk who is the Principle Designer. Her responsibilities are to design a space that is within the client’s price range. She was one of first interior designer that I meant. If you have a question you should ask her. I helped her find a window treatment and a furniture piece for her client on Wednesday. She lives an hour away from Yessicks, but wants to move closer to the location. She has been at Yessick for about 23 years.  On Yessick’s website Sherlene says “I love working with clients who have a small idea of what they want and give me the freedom to transform their space into something of which they have dreamed. I enjoy the opportunity to take a clean palette and turn it into a fabulously designed home.”

Yessick’s Design Center has interior designer and a furniture store. The firm turned a plantation style building into their office. The warehouse is located in a separate building behind the business. The firm has 9 interior designers, project manager, and warehouse manager. Marsha Yessick has owned Yessick’s Design Center for 28 years. Marla is the manager and keeps everything rolling in the firm.

Week 3: Where did you go?

This week flew by! With Monday being a holiday and Friday being my first half-day the week was over in a blink of an eye. There were a lot of deadlines to meet this week. Tuesday everyone was hard at work on their various projects. I worked on a floor pattern and kept working on the Revit sheet throughout the week. Wednesday we had an office meeting to look at what the rest of the week had in store for us. This week Rebecca was very helpful in pointing out key terms, to make sure I understood what each one meant (see list below). Thursday I finished the floor pattern…barely. I almost crashed the floor pattern drawing! I finally figured out, after 2 years, that a polyline is used so you can select an object to hatch (not to kept the hatch just inside). I was mortified! But I learned, so now I know for the future (if they even let me do another floor pattern). After that scare I stepped away from the computer for a bit and went to pull some cubicle curtains for a designer. Friday I helped pull some artwork for a project. Who knew picking art could be such a challenge!? I finished the week with a larger vocabulary and luckily not crashing any drawings, so that’s a positive. The week ahead looks busy, but I can’t wait to go back to work Monday! My goal for this week is to talk more. I hope everyone has a great week and is enjoying their internship as much as I am.

New vocabulary list I obtained this week!

Scope Creep- little changes in a project that add time and money

Frozen Floor Plan- meaning the floor plan isn’t changing again

Value Engineering- finding a cheaper way

FADS- Furniture, Art, Drapery, Signage

Inner Design Studio values “new opportunities to deliver timeless custom designs-on budget and on time” (taken from their website http://www.innerdesignstudio.com/). Alli (See picture below) said it like this, “If a client likes polka-dots, then we like polka-dots.” They do the best they can to make their client's happy.

On any given project the firm is working with the contractor, architect, and electrical engineer.  They work closely with the architect on the front end, while during the construction phase they work closer with the contractor.

All the designers are active members of IIDA. Alli recently stepped down from being the website chair.

All of the girls have to complete their 10 hours of CEUs (Continuing Education Units) every 2 years. Here is the IIDA website with all the requirements (http://www.iida.org/content.cfm/compliance). Since Rebecca is licensed in a number of states she has to have more CEU credits than the other designers.

All the designers are NCIDQ/FIDER certified. Monika is also LEED AP 2009.

The company has been involved in various community service events. They have helped build a number of Habitat houses. This past Christmas they adopted a family. They also recycled a bunch of their old materials by participating in the Nashville Zerolandfill.

For Inner Design Studio conflict is resolved by communication. For example who was specifying the cubicle curtain (the architect or the designer) has before been a problem. Just to be on the safe side the designer pulled a sample, and in the end the architect admitted it was their job. He said it just must have been an oversight on their part. This is an example why communication and written documentation are very important (by law a written document or specification overrules a drawing).

Professional Ethics are codes that need to be upheld in a professional practice to respect the public, clients, colleagues, other designers, the profession, and the employer. A few of the ethics they follow are: contracts with clients clearly state the scale and type of project, keep values of professional and personal behavior, seek to continually improve their specialized knowledge.

Alli got flowers from her boyfriend! Aren’t they gorgeous?! (Sorry the picture is blurred. I got a little too excited and shook the camera.)

Brennan and IBrennan has only been with Inner Design Studio for a few months. Isn’t her name unique!? She is the receptionist/support staff. She is always smiling! Brennan answers the phone, schedules luncheons, keeps the materials library clean, and any other various tasks someone in the office my need her to do. You can always hear, “Inner Design Studio, this is Brennan” when she answers the phone. The FedEx and UPS men visit her daily with a load of material samples. She just sold her house and only has a few more days to find a new place!

Week 2: samples, samples, samples!

My second week at ESa has been wonderful! It flew by with Monday being a holiday. I spent pretty much the entire week working on sample ordering/organizing for 5 different healthcare projects. Five different designers each came to me (pretty last minute) needing samples immediately to use on finish or contractor boards. So I did A LOT of emailing back and forth with material reps to make sure the designers got all the samples they needed. All week I literally was receiving 20-30 packages a day full of samples! It got to be really confusing working on 5 different projects simultaneously, so I developed this organization system in our intern work space:

 samples crowding our intern station

Each of the five projects has its own box, clearly labeled with project name, job number, and designer. When the samples come in, they go in the appropriate box and get crossed off the color coded finish list corresponding to that project. Whew! And that pretty much describes my week! I've learned so much about juggling multiple projects at the same time, and about how important it is to be organized! It is also important to always take notes and write everything down! With so many things going on at the same time, and dealing with so many different people, you'll never be able to remember every little detail.

Amidst my sample ordering and organizing I did many little tasks throughout the week as designers approached me needing help with their projects. I got to select last minute paint colors for a hospital in Jellico, TN, and then have samples of the colors sent overnight to the client for immediate review, as the project is already in construction. I also helped a designer begin her finish boards for a hospital (the boards will not be able to be completed until all of her samples come in...).

While last week was spent getting to know the interns and the ways of the office, this week I have begun to develop relationships with many of the designers. This week alone I have gotten a chance to work with Angela, Misty,  Alana, Stephanie, Leslie Ann, Savannah, Abby, and Molly; each on a different project! It's a lot to keep up with but I am learning so much! 

The company organizes projects into the following phases:

programming
schematic design
design development
contract documentation
construction administration

The interior designers are involved in each stage of the project, some more so than others. Most of the projects that I have been assisting with thus far are in the contract documentation or contract administration phase. Once a project reaches the contract administration phase, ESa has an entire department that takes over organization of the project, the contract administration, or CA group. Some of these people aren't even designers, some have been owners of construction companies themselves and therefore know all about what needs to happen in this phase. Big projects even require that these CA people move out to the construction site for a year or so while the project is built. There is one employee in the CA group that is in charge of all of ESa's submittals. Items in the construction administration phase that the interior designers are in charge of are RFI's (request for information), site visits, punch lists, etc.

Information between different members of this process is communicated via email, telephone, in house meetings between architects and designers, and conference calls. Intranet and internal networks help ESa employees share and access drawings, documents, finishes, etc. The company is well established, very organized, and has a system for everything.

 my supervisor Leslie

This is my sweet supervisor Leslie! She started at ESa as an intern and has been with the company 10 years. She is in charge of the interning/co-op program and has helped to develop an orientation program for all interns. She told me that she was practically thrown in as a first time intern and years later wanted to make it easier for new interns by really creating a welcoming, learning atmosphere for students. Leslie is also in charge of organizing the weekly luncheons and meetings with reps!

Week 2

Week two was a short week because of Memorial Day!

Tuesday morning Rebecca, who I share a desk with, was finally back from her vacation. When we all got to work, we all grabbed our hard hats and did a walk through of the Cancer Institute. We then walked around and saw all of our projects going on around the hospital, making sure things were going as planned. When I got back to my desk I had a huge pile of samples I had ordered last week. I opened and organized those into their separate projects. For the rest of the day I worked on the Artwork for the Family Practice project.

Samples I pulled and orderedWednesday I worked on Elevations of the Artwork for Family Practice, went over fabric selections with Rebecca for the Cancer Institute, and worked on gathering some carpet selections for a private doctor’s office here on the UT Campus. The photo is of the piles of fabrics Rebecca and I were going through looking for fabrics for the Breast Center and the Main Entrance of the Cancer Institute.

Thursday was a busy day! When I got to work, Rebecca and I picked out some samples of carpet, paint, and baseboards for the Pathology department of the hospital. We then took those, along with samples of finishes that had been specified from Herman Miller up to the department for their approval. When we worked out the details with them, Rebecca had me do a finish schedule for the updates. After that, Heather, Back of the Cancer InstituteRebecca, and I worked some more on finding finishes for the Cancer Institute furniture. They took me to Long’s Drug Store for lunch and there I ran into Lindsay! It was fun to get to introduce people from work to another ID student. After lunch we met with a carpet rep then visited the Cancer Institute construction site. The picture to the right is of the back of the Cancer Institute. The building is going up fast! Next week they are going to start working on dry wall!

Like I mentioned last week, I work from home on projects for Mary Beth’s research on Fridays.

RebeccaHere is a picture of Rebecca. I share a desk with her! She went to Interior Design school here at UT and was also an intern at UT Med when she was a student! She likes to garden, read, and go to the lake. She is fun to be around and has some really funny impressions!

This week I had the opportunity to ask Rebecca about Project Organization here at UT Med.

To break it down in the simplest way, we can categorize most of the projects here into two categories. Internal projects, which are usually smaller scale and require little to no outside contractors, engineers, or architects, and large scale projects which do require outside work.

Internal projects, or small scale projects, usually are organized in the following steps:

   -  Client requests a project to Facilities Planning

   -  Discuss the scope of the project

•    Floor plans
•    Drawings
•    Schemes

   -  Ballpark price according to scope of project

   -  Client approval of price/project

   -  Construction (if needed)

   -  Finalize finishes

  -  Order product

   -  Manage construction/installation/furniture

   -  Follow up/punch list

   -  Closure/ project completion

Large Scale Projects are usually organized in the following steps:

   -  Outside Firm does the following:

•   Schematic design
•    Meetings with the client/ UT Med Facilities Planning

   -  Program

   -  Space planning

   -  Design development

   -  Construction Documents

   -  Project submittal to get building permit

   -  Construction

   -  Project Administration

   -  Inspection/ Certificate of Occupancy

   -  Furniture Installation

   -  Punch List

   -  Client move-in

Typically the information is communicated through e-mail, weekly meetings, postings on the Network server, or through phonecalls.

Our time management and scheduling depends on the deadlines of the project. We always find out who needs to meet what deadline, whether it is due to a doctor moving in, etc. Based on the time we have for the project, we coordinate with the contractors and dealerships to see what product is available for the time we have allotted for the project.

Last week I mentioned there isn't really a great way to describe the organization of the UT Medical because it isn't a typical firm. Well I discussed this more with Heather and Rebecca, and we came up with a little more organized way to descirbe the organization of the Facilities Planning Department here at UT Med.

Week 2

The second week was great! First thing Monday I put together a furniture package that had different finish samples combined in a notebook. I also rendered a floor pattern in Photoshop and did another 3D rendering of the NICU. We also had our regular Monday office meeting. Tuesday I did another rendered floor plan, looked-up artwork to use in a project, and made an excel sheet of building codes per state. I also got my first phone call! I heard my phone ringing but I just stared at the red light until someone told me it was okay to answer. It was Lorraine (refer to week 1 photo) calling from her vacation. She was just making sure I didn’t have any questions about the furniture package she had left for me. It was so sweet for her to call while she was on vacation. The CMH Space Flooring rep (see picture below) also brought lunch to the office Tuesday. Wednesday I got to do another signage and verbiage plan as well as start a material board and pull some paint samples. Thursday two new designers showed up to the office (see picture below) while I spent all day in the materials library working on a presentation board. I was very hesitant about sticking anything down permanently! Scott, the Patcraft rep, also brought us lunch with a ton of chips and queso that we ate on the rest of the week! Friday I finally finished putting the presentation board together and started setting up the designers F100 sheet in Revit. I am still having a blast and can’t wait to see what this coming week has in store for me. I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend and has an awesome week.

Tiffany with CMH Space Flooring presenting her products to me. Even though one of her products is VCT she hates the chalky feeling they leave on her hands. She says she still can't get used to it! Photograph by Pam The new designers! Birdie (Left) and Ester (Right) are Rebecca's Shih Tzus that came to visit for the day.

Project Organization explained by Monika (in conjunction to her also trying to explain Revit to me)

At Inner Design Studio (IDS) they do not do any pre-design. First thing that happens is that the architect sends schematic design drawings to IDS. This means that the architect firm sends a base drawing to the designers. Then IDS submits interior finish drawings. There is a generic finish schedule (just the material and no color), a wall protection plan and a furniture layout. Next they meet with clients for the first time. If they don’t get to meet with the client then the materials are just selected from the standards. From this point they know finishes for the design documents and specific finishes on the finish plan, wall plan, and furniture plan. IDS also has a rendered floor pattern for clients to approve at this stage of the project. Construction documents are the next step. Two check sets are done. During the first check set a floor pattern is plugged in and any extra 3D renderings and casework are done. After the second check set they move to final documents. Then construction administration occurs. An RFI (Request for Information) is the written process for the contractor. IDS then coordinates installation of furniture, drapery, and artwork. Submittals are done of each product specified at the time. Then the designers double check and review submittals to make sure that everything submitted is what they meant (or it could be costly). Once all finishes are in a finish walkthrough of a facility occurs. Then after all the furniture is installed another walkthrough may occur to review everything one last time.

Update on Friday, June 15, 2012 at 12:43PM by Teal N

To follow-up on the predesgin phase: Yes, the architects usually do the predesign phase and Inner Design Studio looks over this phase, but they themselves do not initially perform this task.