Week 8: A Beautiful (Work) Life

This Week’s Activities:

Joy, Cathy, and I collaborating on LDG laundry roomThis week at Lauderdale Design Group was jam packed! It was by far the busiest week yet, and was also my favorite week so far. We had so much going on and I got the opportunity to meet so many great people. I also had a lot of fun this week and got to see some of my classmates who are also doing internships.

Monday involved a lot of prep work for the huge UT residence hall finishes meeting Lauderdale hosted Tuesday. I helped Dani and Jess do some plot and printing, as well as help pull some furniture selections. I also helped Joy write a paragraph long proposal about LDG’s education experience. I am so lucky to work with a company that has experience with such a wide range of design genres. I also did a little research on making materials boxes to keep finish selections in while the projects are on hold. 

Tuesday was all about the UT residence hall finishes meeting. I helped set everything up for the meeting, I also helped clean up and organize the office in preparation for visitors. I helped get together drinks for our guest and sat in on the meeting. When the caterer arrived I helped her get everything set up. I was in charge of taking the notes for the meeting. I got to see one of my classmates, Stephanie Woodle, who was there with her boss Tiffany. They came from facilities planning because this was a UT building. Once the meeting was over, lunch was served, and the meeting ended, I helped clean up. I then typed up all the notes Jess and I had written during the meeting. We also had a rep meeting later that afternoon with Jay Lanier from Interface carpets. Our area rug in the office is an interface product and they have some very innovative products. 

UT Music Building ShootWednesday I was on site at the UT Music Building shoot all day long. In the morning I helped unload all of the props and things brought for the shoot. I ran back to the office to get even more props once we decided we needed even more. We then did a lot of setting up for the shoots and styling of the shots. We were able to get a lot of the shots styled with the help of CBI, who provided out the Knoll furniture used throughout the building. For lunch we went over to the Art+Architecture Building for a rep meeting with Knoll Textiles. They brought us some yummy Zoe’s Kitchen and we reviewed their new products while eating. Then we headed back to Music to style and shoot more photos. We ended up getting 6 shots, and will probably need to have another full day in order to get everything we need. The building is so large that it takes much longer to get all the photos we need. Jess and I packed up all the props and took them back to Lauderdale to unpack and put away everything. It was a long day, but also a great one. Denise Retallack, our photographer is such a joy to work with and I always enjoy spending time working with her at the shoots. I look forward to seeing the pictures!

Edelman Leather Rug SampleThursday was a crazy day in the office. We had rep meetings all day long. Our first rep was with Edelman Leather. She had some amazing new products and it was so much fun to hear about how the leather is made and the process for making their products. She also told us about how to get purses/belts/wallets made from the leather samples that aren’t being manufactured anymore! Which we all would love to get. Their products are truly one of a kind and I am obsessed. We had a lunch meeting with Vicky Colman from Coalesse as well. She had some awesome products to show us and also helped Dani & Deborah with some furniture specs for a future project. It was a lot of fun to get to know Vicky and she has such a great line to represent. We also got to meet the rep for J+J Invision, a carpet manufacturer we didn’t currently have in the library. It was great to get some new products. I spent most my time with reps and in the materials library organizing. I also helped Deb pull some pin board panel fabrics.

Dani's Surprise Birthday CelebrationOn Friday morning Dani, Joy, and I headed over to the Westwood House on Kingston Pike. This will be the new headquarters for Knox Heritage. The house was absolutely amazing and the history was even more interesting. I got to see Monica Cota, one of my close friends and class mates who is a intern for Knox Heritage. I also got to see one of my professors, Sandy Martin. It was a great visit and nice meeting all the other designers collaborating and donating their time to renovate the house. LDG will be renovating all the corridors and bathrooms. I also spent some time pulling poms for a rug in the UT Music Building lobby and space planning for the mailroom. At the end of the day, we surprised Dani after a grueling meeting with a Birthday celebration. It was so much fun and I feel so lucky to work with LDG. They truly love and support each other. Something that I think sets them apart from the other firms in town. They are like family.  

This Week’s Focus:

UTRH Finishes PresentationThis week I am focusing on learning about Lauderdale Design Group’s presentation techniques and computer applications. LDG uses indesign, photoshop, and powerpoint to make their client presentations. They always have a hard copy of their work to show clients as well as to mark up with notes during meetings. They bring samples of all their materials to meetings as well. When giving a presentation they use the computer to pull up a digital copy of their work alongside their physical materials. On large projects, they sometimes choose to hire someone to create 3D renderings and movies that showcase their ideas and designs. They set up all their materials on a table and vocally present their projects to clients on a regular basis. 

In general, LDG always presents their ideas and design in a clear, organized manner. They are prepared for meetings and use the aid their selected materials, floor plans, and furniture selections to guide their presentations. 

This Week’s Introduction:

Cassidy Barnett, CBIThis week I am introducing Cassidy Barnett. Cassidy is origionally from Gatlinburg, TN. She always knew she was going to attend college at UTK because her parents went there, and it was always a tradition she wanted to carry on. She majored in interior design because she always had a passion for interiors and decorating, and knew that she wanted to make a career of it! Since graduating from UTK, Cassidy has become a Project Manager for an aligned Knoll dealer called CBI (Contract Business Interiors). She found out about the job opportunity through a college friend who introduced her to Mr. Vance of CBI. Cassidy loves working for CBI. Every day is different. It is a fast-paced environment and she loves the CBI culture. Cassidy is grateful to have been given the opportunity to work for such a great company right out of school. She plans to stay with CBI and look for potential opportunities to grow within the company. 

Cassidy enjoys regularly volunteering at Ignition Church. She also does finger paintings when she has the time. See her website here. Some of her work is currently on display/for sale at the Plum Gallery in Bearden. 

Week 8: HABS

Light at NostalgiaHistoric American Building Survey

The historic American Building Survey is commonly abbreviated HABS. It is a documentation collection of historic buildings. It started during times of depression to give people jobs. The jobs given were along the lines of surveying buildings. HABS has around 556,000 architectural drawings. The documentation for the buildings typically includes a photograph of each elevation, and data pages that tell information about the building. Sometimes it includes architectural drawings, but not always. The Ramsey House, The William Blount Mansion, and the Tennessee School for the Deaf are some of the buildings from Knoxville that are in the HABS collection.

The process is to record each elevation through photographs and research the information for the data pages. This information includes the architect, the date it was built, who owned it, and other historical information. If the drawings are available they are also included in the documentation.

Tongue and Groove Board This Week

This week I hung a tiffany style lamp from the L&N Station in the Nostalgia booth for Knox Salvage. We received a donation of tongue and groove boards. I separated the complete pieces from the broken pieces and measured the linear square feet of the complete pieces. I learned how to remove hardware from an antique door, and addressed letters to donors. I attended a Summer Supper meeting at Professor Davis’s house in Sequoia Hills. I also went to a meeting of the Events Committee. We discussed an upcoming Auction to raise money for Knox Heritage.

Casey at Knox HeritageNew Person

This week I am introducing Casey Fitzgerald. Her title at Knox Heritage is Administrative Assistant. She goes to University of Tennessee in Knoxville. She is Sandy Martin’s daughter. Last semester I had Sandy Martin for my Interior Design Business class. Sandy is on the Knox Heritage Board, and that is how Casey found out about the position. Casey and I share a passion for horses. We both enjoy jumping and like to watch the Rolex Horse Show. We also both went to high school in Knoxville.

Week 8: That time the ceiling caved in

I know you are waiting in anticipation for me to tell you what my title means, you'll just have to wait til the end.This week the pace of things were pretty normal, compared to last week when we had to through together boards at the last minute. I finished up the specs binders for Sewanee Inn, one of the designers Jenny had me come back on Monday and scan all the pages we had put together into the computer because they wanted a digital copy as well as physical copy, so I worked on that. Then I pulled together samples for Leslie for her St. Mary's project and then later in the week she had me Photoshop some floor plans. Leslie is really good at what she does, so it was great to see where these materials I was ordering were going and just see cohesively how all the project works together, so I enjoyed that. And Anna helped me Photoshop because she is a pro, it takes her like half the time to finish a project, genius Anna at it again! Besides that a lot of this week was spent putting together boards for different projects, which I have become a pro at working the x-acto knife again. And different designers create boards in different ways so we learned how to lay them out in InDesign and print them off which was nice and makes everything really neatly laidout. We also learned how to dry mount which I didn't know was an option so that was great too! I think the highlights of the week were one of two things. First, Christie called on Tuesday and was having a problem, apparently someone sent her boards to the wrong location in Colorado, some how I was volunteered for damage control of the situation and frantically called Fedex employees to figure out what was happening. Let's just say my heart was racing because Christie needed them to transfer the boards to the correct city that day because they were presenting at 7:40 on Wednesday morning. Thankfully all was successfully taken care of, but it was unnerving that I was taking to a Fedex representative that was in a room with 100 other Fedex employees who answer the phones and look at the their computer screens to track where packages are. Lesson learned for the interns, get your friends to double check the address you put and make sure it's correct. Then Thursday night we went to Post NeoCon! I didn't know this happened and was thrilled to get to meet vendors and see the new products. That was really fun and we got lots of free stuff! Not to mention I ran into some UT grads that are working in Nashville. What a fun way to celebrate design!

This is our materials list. The designers pull it from Revit and once it's ordered and they are sending it we highlight it. It's how we keep track of all our samples.

This week we discussed how ESa present to the client their design ideas. There are multiple ways ESa goes about doing this such as: books, contracts, models, renderings (interior and exterior), 3D renderings from Revit, hand renderings (interior and exterior), finish boards, digital boards, PowerPoint and loose finishes. Depending on what phase of design the job is in will determine which way ESa presents to the client. In schematics it is usually hand renderings or 3D revit renderings,sometimes models if it is a big job and obviously power point presentations in the initial design. Then these are left there. If the company is dealing with a non-profit  they have renderings prepared and leave them to help raise money for the project, they also do this with models as well. In CD's (construct document), they take loose finishes and rendered floor plans and leave them there if the client needs to look over them or if they need a reference. In DD's contractor binders are given to them for reference now and later. As well as edited renderings along with finish boards. The client gets to keep all of these and store them incase they need to refer to them or re-order materials. ESa uses Revit, Photoshop, SketchUp, and InDesign when creating these different visuals for the client. They also have a rendering department that specifically works on hand renderings and computer aided renderings. So that's a little look at how ESa deals with that presenting to the client.

This week I want to introduce to you Haley. Haley was hired last year and interned previously with ESa before that. Haley graduated from Mississippi State University in 2011. Haley is very outgoing and very involved with ESa as well as extra curricular activities around Nashville. She is apart of Young Professionals of Nashville and is also apart of ESa's kickball team. Haley works next to Emmy and is paired off with designer Molly Alspaugh, she works mostly with health care design. Haley is one of the nicest people I have ever met and always willing to help if you need to get something done. I'm pretty sure she knows everyone that works at ESa and she gets everything done on time. She is one of those people that is apart of a million things and contributes to everything and you just wonder how she does it all. We interns also have loved Haley because she was an intern and knows how to do everything. Not to mention she let us help her with the design of a physical therapy building recently, which was very exciting.

Now to the part everyone has been anxiously awaiting. I know you probably think that by saying that time the ceiling caved in you thought I was talking about the mass amounts of work we had to do this week, but I was not. Actually, the ceiling sprung a leak. So Thursday we were sitting at our desk and then it was raining really bad outside and we heard something that sounded like water dripping. And she enough in the hall outside our cubicle we see water dripping. The architects were in a frenzy running around getting different trash cans to put under it and then we noticed that a large group was gathering by a cubicle. Sure enough another spot was leaking, but this time it was bad. This nice man named Rocky was out of town and it was his desk that it was leaking at. Now, this was probably the worst possible place this could happen because Rocky has mass amounts of Vol collectors items. So they cleared his computer off his desk and started moving stuff. While we are all standing there watching the ceiling tile caving and waiting for it to bust. Well before it busted maintaince came in and stuck a hole in the tile and let it drain into the trash can. They had to do that with two other tiles, it was a crazy day and it was also humorous because then all the architects were trying to figure out what was going wrong and how to fix it. Very exciting! 

And of course have to finish off the week with a funny little photo from our comedic relief Lauren. 

Lauren modeling our newest shipment of bubble wrap.