IDS 420 Summer 2012 Journal Entries

Saturday
Jul282012

week 9: I don't want to leave!

This week was my last official week of my internship; however I will still be here for a few more weeks. Word on the street is that we’ve hired a new intern, Emmy Barnett! She starts next week and I’m excited to have someone else from UT here! I’ve been busy this week working on contractor boards for Alana’s project (the project I spent all last week making finish boards for). I have also started work on another finish board due right before I leave. Thursday I helped select vinyls and Cryptons for waiting room seating. It was a nice break from the contractor boards to just spread out in the library and lay out a bunch of samples. I also ordered a bunch of samples for various projects. Friday afternoon I got to go back to the job site at Brentwood Academy with Leslie; she wanted me to see the project almost finished before I leave. Its looking great and everyone is really happy with it. I may get to go back with her to punch it if that happens before I leave.

We had three reps come in and do lunch presentations and quite a few come in for quick updates. On Thursday a rep came to update us on the newest from Nana Wall, which we remember Lindsay using a few years back! It was really awesome. Check out their website to see some cool photos http://www.nanawall.com/ Many of the install shots are residential, but if you click the application tab at the top, you’ll find photos of the Nana Wall installed in educational, hospitality, and various other areas—much more applicable to what we would probably do.

Sam and Milo

This is Samantha Tallo, one of our interns from Cincinnati! She is from New York and has the cutest dog, Milo! This is a picture of him visiting the office Friday!

ESa’s Design Philosophy

ESa, as I’ve said before, is all about relationships with other people—clients, designers, the community, reps, anyone they come in contact with. That’s part of what makes this place such a great place to work, I’ve heard it said by many employees; so many of them came to work here and never left. ESa strives to solve client design problems in order to promote wellness.

ESa’s website says “The most beautiful architecture is designed with a deep understanding and respect for people” and I think that quote really sums up who ESa is, as well as my experience working with them. It has been an honor to be able to work with and learn from such a talented and supportive community of designers. I have felt constantly pushed to be not just a better designer, but a better person. I know that I am changed completely from my time interning at ESa, and that I am definitely interested in coming back. 

Friday
Jul272012

Week 8

The signup deadline for the Designing Action competition is tonight at midnight!  If you or anyone you know would like to sign up it is not too late.  We have over 100 contestants from 24 different countries and six different continents.  One team from Sweden has already submitted their project, and it is amazing what some people come up with.  This is an “ideas” competition, so I have a feeling we will be getting some outrageous projects.  This week was pretty much the same as the last couple, mostly working on graphics/materials.  On Tuesday they had me photograph a new farmer’s market that takes place once a week in downtown Nashville, which was neat but really hot outside.      

Presentations are an important part of NCDC.  At least one or two days a week there will be some sort of presentation either to a small group or a large one, and all of the staff members are very good at communicating graphically and verbally.  They give presentations at things like community meetings where NCDC presents ideas to the general public and get their feedback.  These are usually very controversial and some really outspoken people attend them.  What is interesting is that the areas of town with younger people are usually excited about the city changing for the better, but the people of “old Nashville” are usually the ones that are more hesitant.  The programs used here are mostly Photoshop/Illustrator/InDesign.  They use Photoshop to make before and after shots to use in their presentations, and they use Illustrator to make their boards.  NCDC has also published several book and counting, and they use InDesign for this.  People in the office are familiar with programs such as AutoCad, Sketchup, etc, but these are rarely used. 

The person of the week is Julia Landstreet, the Executive Director and my boss.  Julia’s role here is to oversee the administrative and development functions as well as cultivating relationships within the design, development, education, and civic communities.  So she is pretty important around here.  Like the other staff members, Julia is on numerous boards around town and plays an active role in the community.  She has two adorable dogs she occasionally brings in the office, and Julia has a very smart sense of humor.  

Tuesday
Jul242012

Week 7

Monday and Tuesday I spent getting ready for this meeting we had on Wednesday with Andy Akers, a local Theatrical Fabricator who builds sets for concerts, plays, etc.  My boss thought this would be a good person to meet with because he could potentially help us build the exhibit. What was frustrating was that I have spent so much time figuring out how to actually build this exhibit and how to stay within our budget, but none of that was really taken into consideration before the meeting.  I figured out that the most sustainable and cost efficient way to build this would be out of galvanized pipes with special fittings at the corners.  Each frame would cost less than $100 and is cheaper and much more durable than wood (again, this exhibit will be up for a month).  I based the size of the frames on standard sizes of pipes so that we would not have to go to the extra trouble of cutting and threading the pipes.  Anyone who can tie their shoelaces could put these frames together, and my guess is that we will need a lot of extra help.  The pipes could be recycled and easily stored before and after the exhibit so really no material would be wasted.  There was also an issue of stabilizing the frames so I solved that by staking two of the corners into the ground and sandbagging the third, which is on concrete.  There are a lot of factors in building this exhibit, and I had taken a good amount of time to think through them. 

But like the good intern I am, I did a couple more renderings of my design and made a construction document of the frames (Jeff would have been proud) to take to the meeting.  On Wednesday we met with Andy at an outdoor ice cream place in 100-degree weather to talk about the exhibit.  We were there for about two hours talking about different construction methods…wood, scaffolding, PVC…and then in the last five minutes we decide that my original idea is the best.  Oh to be an intern. 

Wednesday night was fun seeing Erin B, Erin M, Teal, and Abbey!!  It was really entertaining to hear about everyone’s internships.  Thursday I took a personal day because I had to drive to Knoxville to sign a lease on my apartment for next year and it had to be done that day.  Friday I spent the day catching up on some things around the office, and mailed out book orders of their new book Moving Tennessee Forward.     

Again, I am not really able to answer the weekly question because we are not an architecture or design firm.  NCDC deals with the big picture of the city and provides standards for architecture, landscape architecture, and community development.  Even if they were to think of a really neat project, they would not be the ones to actually build it.  Most major cities have a place like NCDC that looks at the holistic design of their city and pushes designers in the right direction.  They are not so much concerned with individual buildings, but rather how these individual buildings work together, and they want to keep a good balance of the built environment and green spaces.  Their "clients" are usually governmental agencies such as planning and transportation.  

My people of the week just left!  I will try to post a picture of them next week.  Mustafa and Kyle are two high school students that are in our office this summer.  NCDC is in the process of starting a high school course that students can take on Urban Design, and these two are testing out the curriculum.  They are also entering the Designing Action competition this summer.      

Monday
Jul232012

week 8: finish boards

This week I spent every day helping Alana with renderings, choosing finishes, ordering samples, laying out 4 finish boards, and getting them all assembled. It was a busy week but it was nice to be able to focus all of my attention to one project and follow it through to the end. Now all that is left to do is ship the boards out to the client! This week the Nashville ID girls got together for dinner at Erin’s and it was good to see everyone and talk about work and what everyone is doing!

On Thursday I went with some girls from the office to Post NeoCon, a vender show of sorts with the local reps showing their latest and greatest products that were featured at NeoCon in Chicago a few weeks ago. Ran into some familiar faces from UT while I was there!

UT students and grads at Post NeoCon

Presentation Techniques and Computer Applications

ESa uses many visuals in presentations to clients including plans and elevations, many times rendered to show finishes; perspectives and animated walkthroughs; and finish boards as well as loose finishes. Early on, sketches, black and white drawings and loose finishes are more common. As the project advances drawings become more detailed, and often rendered. ESa uses many programs to create these visual presentations. They use a lot of Revit, yet some older projects may still be in Microstation. The Adobe programs, Sketchup, Word, Excel, and Bluebeam are also commonly used. Our visual artists that assist in rendering 3D perspectives have a whole other kit of parts that they use.

 

 

Isaac HolemanThis is Isaac, a designer at ESa who has been with the company since he graduated from Mississippi State ten years ago. Aside from his design work, Isaac works with Leslie to keep the materials library updated and organized.

Sunday
Jul222012

Week 6

This past week, I had many interesting conversations on Sustainability. At HOK, we have sustainable design professionals. Recently, the sustainability specialists designed a sustainability plan for the city of St. Louis. They also do consulting for many other firms. HOK was just voted for a 3rd time as a leader in sustainability. The interns had the opportunity to sit down with HOK Sustainability Leader, Tim Gaidis. Tim shared with us that 90% of the employees in our office have become leader certified. I will be taking my test in 2 weeks, and I am excited to become a LEED Green Associate. We had really awesome conversations about what sustainability meant to each of us, and what it means to HOK as global arch. firm.

This is a video of Tim. My person of the week. Tim teaches a class on sustainability at local universities. He is very knowledgable on the topic. He enjoys hang gliding because of the perspective you gain on the world.

Also, this week, we made a site visit to Missouri Baptist Hospital. HOK is redoing the campus which includes a new building, parking, entry, landscaping, and a green roof. Very cool stuff.

Missouri Baptist

Resources: Our HOK Database online is very affective for storing information about vendors and product information. Also, in our e-mail, we have a directory of all reps for our products. We rely heavily on our reps to keep us up to date. Reps are welcome to come in at any time during the work day and update the library or put out new samples on 1 of our 3 product tables. Typically, they have to call ahead though to reserve the product tables. Our librarian and newest designer, Kirsten, manages the library and all rep presentations. We have a lunch presentation every Tuesday, and 2 smaller morning presentations on Friday. Most companies, especially fabric, have great websites showing all product offerings.