Architecture – CA Work Experience Program

Day 8 – Last Day :(

Unfortunately my last post was deleted; however, I wanted to reiterate my thanks for Ms. Peele for having me and everyone over at LS3P for teaching me so much and letting me shadow them. This was a wonderful experience I will never forget so thank you. Here are the images from the last blog post, they are from the house I designed, and the links are 360 degree panoramas.

http://panorama.enscape3d.com/view/ao0otqa6

http://panorama.enscape3d.com/view/3pcthego/

http://panorama.enscape3d.com/view/svtsrlgn

http://panorama.enscape3d.com/view/putq2xlu

http://panorama.enscape3d.com/view/buxnkjpf

http://panorama.enscape3d.com/view/0glihbj3/

Day 8: Last Day

Wow! How was today already my last day?! It feels like just yesterday that I began DICE-ing in the real world! In the morning, I finished up my greenhouse mini-project, having created three variations in shape. The purpose of the greenhouse on the residential property was to serve as a more sculptural accent on the trail loop. Both the office/gym and the main house are very open with many windows, so the greenhouse was supposed to be visually intriguing since it is visible from both these locations on the property. I played around with various designs, but I think my favorite is the box with the various inverted glass panels. It is hard to tell from the images, but the innermost panels are actually mirrors to add a unique rhythm to the glass. The straight edges also align with the very crisp, straight geometry of the residential and office structures. This project was very hands-on, which allowed me to really gain some experience with using Google SketchUp and getting into the design-thinking mindset. Thanks to my week at LCA, I am more interested in architecture than I was before! I will be looking to continue my learning in this field and with the various software used in modeling. Thank you to Dr. Mac and Mrs. Welch for placing me at LCA this week, and thank you to the LCA team for hosting me!

-Cara

Day 7: Visit and Variations

It’s hard to believe that today was my second to last day at LCA! I have been having such an unforgettable and educational experience, having gained so much exposure to a potential area of college study and life-long profession. Shoutout to Ms. Eason for paying me a visit today; it was nice to see a familiar face in the office. I made some great progress on my greenhouse today. I completed the frame of my initial design, which made my next step of testing out glass paneling easier. By having a fundamental frame, I could copy and paste that same frame, only changing the glass for each variation. The traditional greenhouse has sectioned glass that usually follows a rectangular shape. I tested out several options regarding the sizes of the glass panels—big or small rectangles, horizontal, and vertical. There is no correct way to go about designing this greenhouse; it is important to test out the many different designs that can be created so the best one can be chosen. I am excited for my last day tomorrow but also a little nervous! The designers and I are having a group critique with the various projects we have all been working on. In the critique, I will be able to experience a true ‘design-thinking’ environment. Wish me luck!

Day 6: Proportions and (More) Problem Solving

During another busy day at Louis Cherry Architecture, I started off the day with shadowing a meeting between one of the architects at LCA, Mr. Cherry, and a mechanic regarding a huge custom residential project. Carrying on from yesterday, I again noticed the frequency and the importance of problem solving as the entirety of the meeting consisted of brainstorming where to run the ducts for the heating and cooling system. They also laid out various system options such as boilers and cooling towers and geothermal heating and cooling. In addition to that meeting, I continued my greenhouse project by further testing my Sketchup skills and creating a frame for the greenhouse. The biggest challenge in doing this was that the frame had to be to scale as my first model was not. To keep the shape of my model from yesterday, I essentially shrank the whole thing but had to do so in direct proportion between my first model and my scale model. Next, I will be testing out shapes of the greenhouse, as it is more of a sculptural statement rather than a traditional vault. I am also going to play around with various glass panel sizes and structural beam sizes. Below are images of my math (yikes!) and my greenhouse frame.

Day 6 – Site Day and Marketing

Pictures From Site in Holly Springs

Once again I came to LS3P and carried out a day completely unique from any other. I worked with Aaron whose role is to keep in contact with the contractors and construction companies to ensure the projects are carried out on schedule and according to plan. We started in the office, but then, I was fortunate enough to shadow him on site during a meeting and his walkthrough. The meeting ensures everyone stays on the same page throughout the project, and walking the site, Aaron checks different materials and the locations things are going in. These images are actually form the Holly Springs site that Aaron took to file as an update of the project. For the second half of the day, I shadowed people in marketing to learn their day-to-day. They are the people that go out and find jobs, put together presentations and qualifications, and then help with the pitch to try and land the job. This was really cool because here they are working in an architecture firm, but carrying out a completely different career. I’m getting so much hands on experience, and was invited to another meeting, this time with the marketing group preparing for their pitch to NC State to build new housing on campus. This was unique because LS3P is partnering up with another architectural firm to pitch this project, which occasionally happens for larger projects. Rather than being competitive, LS3P and this company are coming together to maximize their strengths. Can’t wait for tomorrow, but hard to believe it’s almost over already.

Day 5: Grease and The Greenhouse

Today was the beginning of a new adventure, marking the start of my week at Louis Cherry Architecture in downtown Raleigh. I was so excited to get out into the community and immerse myself in the life of an architect! Louis Cherry Architecture is run by Louis Cherry, along with 5 other architects/designers. My two highlights from the day were visiting a site and shadowing a meeting with a mechanical engineer and drafting a greenhouse for one of LCA’s (Louis Cherry Architecture’s) current projects. At the meeting, I was able to check out the site of a future restaurant, where I also experienced the importance of problem solving. In this scenario, the restaurant to be was a very small space, and in order for it to pass certain regulations, there must be a ‘grease trap’ to prevent kitchen and food grease from getting into the sewage systems. The challenge with this is the grease trap is roughly 4x2x2 feet, so with such limited space (yep, the space in the pictures is all they have!), where would this grease trap go? A lot of times, what takes the most time in an architecture project is the problem solving to make it a reality; design is not the only thing required for a successful project. When I was researching greenhouse precedents, I was mostly looking for how to bring a modern aspect into the structure, as greenhouses often learn towards the traditional side. The project that this greenhouse corresponded with, “The Pool House”, is an ongoing residential project with a very modern and clean feel. For the second half of the day, I practiced using SketchUp and began to draft a model of the greenhouse I designed. Below are photographs of the restaurant site (located on Person St. next to Crawford and Sons), my workspace, and my work-in-progress a.k.a. the greenhouse.

Day 5 – Revit and Virtual Tour of CA Extension

My House Floor Layout and Cary Academy Extension

Who knew Mondays could be fun? Apparently LS3P did! Today was really cool because I continued messing around in the Autodesk Revit software and followed tutorials to design my own house. The project is still in the works, so I attached the floor plans, and will post the three dimensional model when it’s more polished. The exterior of these floor plans come from the tutorial, but the interior walls and room placement were my own decisions because I was at a point where I became more with the software and wanted to make the house my own. Then, John came and got me and brought me into LS3P’s VR room. LS3P has an insanely nice virtual reality headset and computer to allow a customer full immersion in their building plans. I have used cheap virtual reality before, but have never used something so nice or done anything like this. John had uploaded the plans for the CA Extension, and before you knew it I was walking through Cary Academy’s STEM building. It was amazing that this technology is even possible, and being able to walk through the space virtually gave me a better understanding of what it will be like more so than looking at plans. I got to see the Maker Space, and the Science Labs, and the Greenhouse too. It was really cool and I’m excited for what’s in store!

Day 4 – Casual Friday

LS3P has a really cool work week where they work 9 hours a day Monday through Thursday, and then finish at noon on Fridays to jumpstart the weekend. They also have casual Fridays so I was able to where more comfortable attire. This shortened day was really cool because I got to use Autodesk Revit for the first time. This is the computer software where LS3P and most architecture firms do all their designing. The program allows you to make everything three dimensional, which is key to help the client visualize the plans. Experienced architects are able to look at two dimensional plans and still visualize what those mean as a three dimensional building, but most clients cannot do that. With Revit, a client can even virtually walk around the space and see it in its 3D form from any angle. I used tutorials to familiarize myself with the program, and then designed a stool. The designs that companies like LS3P make are so intricate that the little things like the stools are even designed in Revit.

Day 3 – On Site at SAS and Glass Wall Project for CA

SAS Site

For my third day with LS3P I met Kristi over on SAS campus for LS3P’s new SAS building project. This was a really neat experience as I got to sit in on a meeting about how the project was moving along, and then I actually got to go up into the building. This was especially cool, as my Dad, a SAS employee, is moving into this building when it is finished. I got to go see my Dad’s new building, and even the floor he is on, before he does. Kristi explained to me how they build up the structure of the building from bottom to top, and then when they reach the top, they finish the interior from top slowly back down to the bottom. This allowed for me to see the various stages of the process by moving from floor to floor. Dr. Ehrhardt came and tagged along for this tour, as he knows Kristi through the CA expansion project. When I got back to LS3P John put me to work. The research I had done from the day before now needed to be sketched out not only in brief 2D drawings on paper, but 3D sketches on the computer as well. Using the Sketch Up skills I acquired from 9th grade Art and Design with Ms. MacDonald, I created mock-ups of the vertical retracting glass wall for the space in the CA extension. This was really cool and I felt like a real architect. I was, of course, only doing very basic things, but I was contributing to the project and had a lot of fun with it. Tomorrow is an exciting day as well, Casual Friday!

Day 2 – Trip to CA??

Cary Academy Extension Project

Day two was full of some wonderful surprises. In the morning I got to shadow the day to day of a lead architect. This involved going over the design plans in Revit (the architecture drawing software), and calling meetings to see how the project was moving along. I then was very fortunate to be invited onto a job site, and not just any job site, but the Cary Academy Extension Project. LS3P is the company working on the project and today I got to be the first CA student allowed in the off limits construction zone. While at the site I witnessed the raising of the last beam ceremony, which involves the superstitious tradition of being raised with an evergreen tree to scare off evil from the project. This was a really cool event, and we were even provided barbecue to celebrate. From this point I was given an inside scoop on the design plans of the extension, and even got to partake in design discussion about the the space. For the rest of the afternoon back at LS3P I got my first assignment, to research for a product that could actually be used in the CA extension. This was really cool, and I might actually affect one of the choices about the new building! I can’t wait for tomorrow, where I will get to go on site at SAS and learn about a new project.