Beyond the Classroom

During my summer internship at PAYETTE, I wanted to learn what I could not be taught inside the classroom, as well as take what I had learned in the last three years of architecture school and apply it to professional practice.

During my internship, I worked with the National Coast Guard Museum project team on the 75% and 100% Construction Document phases. The museum project is broken up into three parts a pedestrian bridge, the museum itself and a bulkhead; all interconnected physically but with the additional complexity of multiple land and property owners as well as the planning necessary for building within the 500-year flood zone. This Museum project is the most complex site and program I have been able to work on and gave me the opportunity to work on complex construction details; building on the more basic assembly types I had learned in school. My team took genuine care to make sure I developed the Revit skills needed to allow me to be helpful to the team. I also was able to participate in consultant meetings and I truly feel like I was a part of the team.

The genuine care PAYETTE has for the personal growth of their employees was further exhibited during the my time working on an interview for a potential new project. This experience showed me how the design process evolves in a competition setting as well as the way a team of architects collaborate on an early design. On this team, I crafted 24 walnut and Acrylic models for the first Interview and then worked on a larger team to create the models for the second competition interview. Over these five weeks I learned how to 3D Print and my craft improved exponentially. This team showed me the importance of craft even in the simplest models and how that truly represents the detail put into the execution of a building.

My time spent at PAYETTE has made me more excited to graduate and start my professional career and now have a deeper understanding of the complexity of the architectural profession.