Week 2: The Community and Nostalgia

Community Benefits

Knox Heritage benefits the community by saving our Historic Architectural History. One good example of their efforts is the restoration of the Bijou Theater. The theater was once in a state of destruction and disrepair; now it has been restored and is being used by our community. The Theater provides a venue for school groups, concerts, and theatrical productions. Recently I attended an Opera performance located at the Bijou Theater.

The Knox Heritage Salvage Room provides architectural pieces for purchase. These pieces are used by Architects, Designers, Homeowners, and preservationist to restore or decorate their buildings and homes. Last week a Homeowner (with a 100 year old home) came to the Salvage Room to find a screen door for his home. The Salvage Room offers the opportunity to find authentic pieces that would otherwise be impossible to find. Historical items are also available for purchase at Nostalgia. This location reaches consumers that may not otherwise think of shopping at Knox Heritage.

This week’s overview:

Nostalgia Room BeforeThis week I designed 3D renderings of Nostalgia Room. The primary goals of the new Nostalgia room improvements is to more easily display spindles, and other wooden pieces, and create a system for displaying old windows. We also wanted to design a room that will stand out and draw visitors into our space. Also, since First Friday was that week, we wanted to do a general cleaning and reorganization before the First Friday activities. My design renderings will be implemented after the First Friday this month. It will take some time to complete this process. The photograph on the left is the Nostalgia room before. I will post pictures of it again after the design is complete.

What we did to prepare the Nostalgia room for first Friday is clean items that were to be moved from the Salvage Room to Nostalgia. Also, Beth sent me to the hardware store to research the best way to hang items on a CMU wall. We decided to use the drill fitted with a concrete drill bit by Tapcon. The next step was to use driver to install the anchor into the wall. I learned that this method is to be used in the block only, not the mortar.

I also received further training to work in the Salvage Room daily operations and technical procedures. They use an email sign up list named Mail Chimp and I learned how to import email lists into Mail Chimp for execute marketing programs.

Introduction:

Christina (Taken By Coleen O'Leary)This week I would like to introduce the other Salvage Room Intern. Her name is Christina Lulich and she is a 3^rd year Architecture student at University of Tennessee. Christina is from Gatlinburg and she started working in the Salvage Room in February. Her experience has been very beneficial to me. She also works at Hobby Lobby. Christina has a few favorite aspects of this Internship. The first one is that she gets to use her truck to transport architectural items. This week we moved a farmhouse kitchen cabinet with built in sink, windows, grates, and a large barrel. The second thing she enjoys is that she is beginning to build furniture from historical items. She can purchase the items in the Salvage Room, learn about their history, and repurpose them. Christina enjoys the historic items because of the history and character.

Week 4: Keeping pace

Week Four.

My desk at ESaThis week Anna, Lauren, and I worked together on most of our job assignments. We did this because a lot of the designers had meetings with their clients and they were out for a couple of days so it was pretty low key. We ordered a lot of samples for contractor boards, we filed away all the samples that needed to be taken care of, and we made some more finish boards. My favorite things I did this week consisted of photo shopping a project for one of the designers; I’ve come to love Photoshop more as I’ve learned new tricks. (Like holding shift makes a STRAIGHT LINE!! Would’ve been so helpful to know that). I also ordered a bunch of samples for two of the designers that work on most of the hospitality projects and got to ordered new fabrics because some were discontinued. I loved getting to be apart of a project and help make decisions. 

Finish Boards for Mckenzie-Williamette Project

Does the company market their services? Is there a particular market or particular markets the company targets? 

For ESa there is a marketing director named Sandy who is in charge of marketing for the company. She markets the company in a lot of different ways such as: healthcare design magazine ads, write ups in the local newspapers, TV interviews, and different conferences. Sandy is also in charge of photo shoots for the company and working with the designers. However, a lot of the way ESa gets business is by word of mouth from other companies that have received their work and passed on the reference. Or if a company visits the space and wants something similar designed at their facility. Leslie also said that 80% of the design work is repeat clients.

The target market is mainly healthcare.  However, when ESa started out Earl Swensson was known for condominiums in the 60s and 70s. Earl caught the vision for what designing for Healthcare could be and was one of the very first firms to start working with Healthcare. A lot of the standards and codes for Nashville today with healthcare were first worked through with ESa. ESa also works with higher/lower education, cultural arts, and hospitality.

http://www.esarch.com/places/portfolio/ 

What type of strategic planning happens?

Who ESa is as a company is a business and community minded company. The higher up leadership such as David Miller and Earl Swensson are the visionaries of the company. However, ESa employees have all gone a specific way of being hired. They are looking for a specific person that is hard working and works well with all kinds of people. They said it from the beginning that they are looking for people with good work ethic because they can teach people skills and build on that but they need someone with the drive. So there are a lot of ways that ESa has a vision for different parts of the company. 

Abbey Stepanek

This week I want to introduce you to your friend and mine, Abbey Stepanek. While I begin I need to start with thanking Abbey for telling me before career day to go speak with ESa, and because of that I have an internship with this company. Abbey Stepanek is a recent UT grad and the newest member of the ESa interior design department now making 25 interior designers at ESa. Abbey’s current role is to work with designers Ken Bowman and Christie McCullough on the St. Anthony’s healthcare project. Abbey was an intern last year and as an intern her favorite thing was learning about finishes and meeting with all the reps. As Abbey begins she is excited about being apart of the Nashville Design Community and getting to work with big companies. 

Week 1: Design Immersion

This week I started as a interior design intern at Lauderdale Design Group. My first week went really well and I am excited to further get to know the team and learn from them. It is a small firm and I immediately felt like I was a part of the team and given tasks. Lauderdale Design Group does an array of different commercial design projects ranging from higher education, corporate, financial, healthcare, hospitality, and more. The design services LDG offers consist of conceptual design, programming, space planning, interior detailing, lighting design, as built documentation, and ff&e specifications.   

UT Music Building pre walk-through meeting.My first day was a very exciting and quite a learning experience. When I first got there the team had a office meeting discussing projects and progress. Dani, a former UTK grad and designer at LDG, gave me my first assignment. I used my indesign and graphic skills to create a thank-you card and envelopes based on the graphics Lauderdale Design Group has already established on their business cards. I also spent a great deal of time filing samples in their material library. This will be a on going task I will perform as samples need to be put back. I got the great opportunity to tag along with Dani and Joy (LDG owner) on a site visit to the UT Music Building Project and do a walk through with UT’s architect and interior design team. We went through all the offices that would house desks to make sure their location was outlined correctly.

UT Music Building walk-through.

 The following day I went through the working documents for the UT Music Building and documented how many layers of gyp were on the walls that desks were against to send to Knoll so that when they install, they know what screws to use. I continued filing materials in the library as well. Because their was a client presentation with 2 different options given for the Salon Project, I put away the materials not chosen. Then I worked on the Salon Project and ordered different laminate samples. I also pulled paint colors that match the multiple vinyl wall coverings for the same project as well as pulled precedent photos.

This week I also did some work in autocad space blocking lateral files for the UT Music Building Project’s basement library. These were sent to the architect. I was invited by the team to go to lunch with Nels, the Mannington product representative. When we got back I did some scanning and digital filing. I also spent some time online finding vibrant and fun wall coverings for the Salon Project and ordering those. 

The company consists of a team of three women. Joy Lauderdale, the owner and Principle of the firm, Deborah Presson, the Design director and my supervisor, and Dani Collins, Designer. Lauderdale Design Group also has a administrative assistant and general go to girl, Cathy, and a design intern. LDG is a sole proprietorship business entity. Please review the chart for a clearer understanding of the organizational structure within the company. 

Joy Lauderdale This week I am introducing Joy Lauderdale, the owner and Principle of Lauderdale Design Group. Joy has been in the field for 24 years and is well known in the South-east interior design community. Joy has a vibrant personality and a positive attitude that is infectious. She has been great to work with and I look forward to getting to know her further. She really cares about her team and clients, and the work LDG produces radiate that perspective. She makes everyone laugh and has the great ability to make people feel at ease. 

Week 1: Exploring History

I have chosen an internship for the Knox Heritage Salvage Coodrinator, Beth. I will give a more detailed introduction of Beth another week. I have been interested in historic presevation for many years therefore my internship will allow me to explore this branch of design.

Knox Heritage aims to "preserve structures and places with historic or cultural significance". Knox Heritage began in 1974 when a group of citizens wanted to protect the Bijou Theatre from demolition. Knox Heritage wants "to educate everyone about the benefits of historic preservation". 

Alexander InnThe main focus of my internship this past week was The Alexander Inn estate sale. The Alexander Inn is a historic building built in 1943 in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.The reason all of the interior items are being salvaged is because Family Pride Corporation is restoring the Alexander Inn. My supervisor Beth was in charge of an estate sale at the Inn. The first sale was was on Saturday May 25. On the previous Friday we prepared for the sale. We organized and cleaned items and moved them to the front lobby. We had to wear masks when we were in the back of the Inn due to a risk of asbestos and mold exposure. The money raised from the sale is for the East Tennessee Preservation alliance. 

The sale went so well that we hosted another one the next weekend. The estate sale has many volunteers that I had the opportunity to meet. Some were from the Oak Ridge Preservation Alliance and others were passionate citizens interested in the Inn.

Sara Hill (Alexander Inn Volunteer)

The most enthusiastic volunteer came on the first Saturday just as a customer. Her name is Sara Hill. She arrived at the sale two hours before the sale started because she was so excited! She adopted the role of crowd control since many people arrived before the sale began. Sara was at the Inn throughout the entire sale on the first Saturday. She enjoyed the sale so much that she decided to become a volunteer for the second sale. Sara had learned about the Alexander Inn estate sale from the newspaper. Her husband is an Oak Ridge native and she has lived there for eleven years. Sara has a passion for anything historic, especially the Alexander Inn. Sara works in Knoxville at the Trust Company.

Other than the Alexander Inn, I learned how to work in the Knox Heritage Salvage Room. The goal of the Salvage Room is to provide the community with historic architectural items. Beth also showed me the Knox Heritage room in the Nostalgia store. I met with Jeff from Nostalgia to discuss a wall removal relating to the Knox Heritage room. This information is important for me because I am redesigning the Knox Heritage Nostalgia room this upcoming week.

(Knox Heritage history and quotes from www.knoxheritage.org)

Week 3: Into the Swing of Things

This was a short week because of Memorial Day and boy did it fly by.

This week I worked on contract boards, finish boards, furniture specs, and a million other tiny things in between. I think one of my favorite things is when the different reps come in and teach us about their product and what the behind the scenes of making it looks like. A designer also came in and talked about her art and the many different ways you can use art in a healthcare setting. That presentation was so interesting because the designers ask tons of different questions about what is up to code and meets fire code, they are so detailed its so crazy, I love it. I love watching their knack for finding a product that can keep a patient as safe as possible. I also love presentation because sometimes the rep will say this can outlast tears and scratches. And as soon as they it and someone gets the sample in their hand they will try to destroy that sample to make sure it is up to par with what they are representing.

And sometimes people send you really long samples of rubber base and you have to model it. (Lauren our comedic relief!)

 This week I talked to Leslie about legal recognition, professional interaction and professional design. First we talked about the legal aspects of design. At ESa you must have a license and be registered in the state of TN. Values of the company are very important to this company. You also must take the NCIDQ when the time comes. Most everyone is involved with IIDA, many are LEED accredited and others are working closely with EDAC. They are also apart of life long learning and promote that with the CEUs that they attend. Not only does ESa have high values for their designers but is incredibly involved within their community. They do pro-bono work frequently with surrounding companies, they have a $5 Friday wear jeans and contribute to a local charity, work closely with the American Heart Association (David Miller is on the board) and during Christmas work with Ginger town to raise support (last year they raised over $2,000 this money went to children’s hospital, senior living facility, etc.) They also have a mentoring program called ACE that helps unprivileged students in schools be mentored by designers/architects to learn the basics of engineering, construction and make them aware of good design. We also talked about conflict within the job and what that looks like. Leslie said she has found most of her conflict to be with the clients and them wanting products to be a certain thing and meet their needs. Sometimes Leslie has to stand her ground and show them that it needs to meet code more than wanting their way or showing them new products that do the same thing as the old ones they are attached too. The only other conflict has been like a scheduling conflict when the client thought they were having a phone interview and going over the final review and the designers were unaware it was suppose to be their final presentation. 

This week I want to introduce you to my supervisor, Leslie. Leslie is from Auburn University and has been working with ESa for a number of years. Like I’ve said before Leslie is very involved with the pro-bono projects, which she enjoys the most by receiving the affirmation from her clients when the design is finished. Leslie is also very involved in the many different programs of ESa and is the coordinator of many as well (ginger town). I’m very grateful Leslie has taken on the job of supervisor and takes the time to answer so many of my small questions, she has a lot of knowledge of this firm and is always willing to help us out.