My Intern Experience: Part 2

We’ve had an amazing group of interns this summer and it is hard to believe their time with us is almost over. Before they head back to school, we asked them to share a little about what they have been working on, what they have learned and where they find inspiration. Today we hear from Alejandra, Calvin and Gilbert

Alejandra Meza

What projects have you been working on this summer?
This summer I have been working on the University of Hartford team. I helped with the Construction Documents for the renovation as well as helping out with Construction Administration for both the new building and the renovation.  

What is one new, surprising or key thing you have learned?
Working on Construction Administration this summer I have been able to learn about the construction coordination procedures and the ways that a team operates years into the design process. Seeing the amount of resolution that Payette applies to projects is inspiring and shows the importance of detail. Listening in on team meetings with the contractors, owner and subcontractors has enabled me to see the construction process in actuality as well as the workflow between Architects and the other contributors to the construction process.

Where do you find inspiration for your work/design or what inspires you generally?
Problem solving as creativity is what inspires my design work, I can easily get lost in working through tough design details. When designing to a point of clear resolution all the design decisions that seemed complex and took hours to resolve feel simple. Working with dedicated people who are excited about the project and want to innovate also makes learning about classroom, labs, and university typologies stimulating.

Calvin Boyd

What projects have you been working on this summer?
I’ve been exclusively working on a Science and Engineering Building for Tulane University.

What is one new, surprising or key thing you have learned?
Lab design is very technical and complex. However, it’s nice to know that at Payette, design discussions are equally as important as technical ones.

Where do you find inspiration for your work/design or what inspires you generally?
Inspiration is everywhere. When your head is preoccupied with solving a design problem, it’s amazing how many buildings you see on your drive/walk home that inspire solutions.

Gilbert Rosenthal

What projects have you been working on this summer?
This summer I’ve mainly been working on two big projects – a Speckle plugin for PowerBI and a new Lab Planning Dashboard. The Speckle plugin serves as a bridge between designing a building and showing it to clients/teams, and allows architects to take models/floorplans directly from Rhino or Revit, and connect them interactively with other sources/displays of data in Power BI. The Lab Planning Dashboard is a way for architects to explore and plan out labs before they have to actually design them. You give it a name, whoever is working there, what types of space you want (office, lab benches, support area, etc.), and it automatically calculates the estimated size and generates a nice print-out summary of all the information.

What is one new, surprising or key thing you have learned?
One surprising thing I’ve learned is how many steps there are before a building gets made! I had 0 experience with architecture before Payette, and thought that a client just hires an architect, who in one phase designs a building and then splits the rooms up and then the building is built, in a short period of time. Little did I know that first you have to win clients, then go through often years-long design phases of every aspect of the building! It’s been really cool to see projects change and progress as I’ve been here, especially when some of that is because of my tools!

Where do you find inspiration for your work/design or what inspires you generally?
The reason I got into Computer Science is because I’m lazy. I like making things that make life (or work) easier for myself, and also for others! The projects I’m working on here have been designed to maximize the architect’s time while using them, in hopes of speeding up tedious parts of the design process. That’s been my MO ever since I started coding, and there’s always annoying tasks that either I or a co-worker need to do, so I always have ideas and a place to help!