Day 13: Busy, Busy, Busy
March 19, 2015
My last full day at LEVER was nothing short of eventful. I do not know what there was going to be a meeting about, but I quickly could sense the stress and rush of everyone in the office preparing for aforementioned meeting. Quickly I was assigned to take out the recycling, and then helped Georgia move some tables into a storage unit because a new table was arriving for the meeting room around 12:00. After moving the tables, I spent the morning caught up in the rush of the meeting madness and helped Sebastian prepare in any way necessary. There was a lot of work to do, and unfortunately I was not able to meet Andrew for his photo session due to the fact I just couldn't leave work in time. This is alright, however, because I think that I am going to be able to (possibly) work with him this summer if I could get up to Seattle. Tomorrow I am having a farewell lunch with my coworkers, and I will admit that I am going to miss them and their open nature. They have been more than helpful in guiding me in my path as an architect. For that I will forever owe them.
Day 12: Another Informal Interview, an Interview with a Photographer, and More
March 18, 2015
When I showed up at work I had to wait about 45 minutes for Sebastian to show up since he was the one instructing me on what to do that day. I didn't mind this delay, and spent the morning in the office flipping through magazines and looking at images in Architectural Record by Andrew Pogue (the photographer I'm set to meet today). When Sebastian got there, it still took some time to get organized and ready to work on what I was supposed to work on for the rest of the day. After he came in and out of the space I was working in several times, he then told me to go get some supplies from a bank with Georgia. I was glad to have this slight diversion, because this would mean that I would be able to work on this project more after lunch. After going to the bank with Georgia and carrying some foam boards awkwardly back to the office, I then went out to lunch with Sebastian to get his perspective on architecture/school/etc. I was very happy to have this experience, because it allowed me to form some new perspectives, and I feel it will help me shape my future career paths, etc. After lunch with Sebastian, I returned to the office and began organizing papers for more project boards that will be displayed at project meetings for Block 4 and Block 6. This work took some time, but I eventually got most of the papers dug out and organized to be pinned up in future days.
Day 10: Interviews and Insight
March 16, 2015
After going to the gym early in the morning, I headed to work, and had a busy morning organizing materials that could be used to demonstrate an atmosphere or make a design tangible. This was busy but interesting work, and I was glad to see how all of these elements fit together. After working on this project for the morning, I went out to lunch with my mentor Thomas and he offered me some really great advice and gave me a deep insight into his world and profession. I will share more of these facts when I have type them up neat and proper. In short, however, what he said made me start to really think about whether or not I want to be an architect, and I was glad to have this debate begin in my head. Hopefully by the end of this week I will have a more complete understanding of the happenings and work of an architect.
Day 9: A Much Needed End to a Long Week
March 13, 2015
The morning in the office was fairly productive. When we arrived we set up for the morning project meeting, and listening in on this meeting helped me keep track of what projects were where and how the team was approaching certain obstacles, etc. After this meeting, I sat in on a meeting for the 1010 NW Flanders project, and got to see how multiple variables (owners, contractors, engineers, construction) work together to resolve or create issues within the meeting environment. Throughout this meeting I was pretty tired, but I was able to hang in there enough to get what I needed out of this time. After this meeting, I worked in organizing the meeting room a while longer and then took a much needed lunch break. I went to a sandwich shop next to my office, and got a super good brisket sandwich. After lunch I worked on organizing the office space, but as the second half of the day went on, I found it hard to focus and I was growing tired. I know that I have not been getting enough sleep this week, but today it finally hit me. I left work early, and vowed to get as much sleep this weekend as possible.
Day 8: Paper, Project Plans, More Paper, Paper...
March 12, 2015
Today I was fairly stressed about what I was going to do after not having anything to work on yesterday, but today I guess some greater power was looking out for me. As soon as I arrived at LEVER this morning, my coworkers Sebastian and Doug set me upon cleaning up the meeting room and preparing it for painters to come later in the day. I was very happy, because although this work was labor intensive and I was on my feet most of the day, I actually had something to do for the whole day. You heard me right, I was busy from when I walked in the office until I walked out (with a small lunch break, of course). Today I think I saw more project plans than I ever hope to see for the rest of my life. Sometimes it felt like I was swimming in project plans as I tried to organize renderings, drawings, configurations, and other info into certain projects. This did show me, however, the process by which architects work, and I was thankful to see this process and how projects evolve over a timeline. Also, I will hopefully now not only be doing a talk/interview with my mentor, but I may be talking with Sebastian about being an architect and what that entails (in reality, not best case scenario). I am looking forward to both of these conversations.
Day 7: Respecting the Office Space
March 11, 2015
Work today was pretty interesting. I learned a lot about the professional environment, but I also learned a lot about what it means to work through problems with my mentor. Today, after I had eaten my chile relleno, I sat down to work on editing LEVER's website and doing some other small technical stuff. After this was done, however, I found myself very short on work to do. Because I didn't have much to do, and I had exhausted about every single job that most of the team could offer, I decided to use my time to check emails and learn some JavaScript code in the meantime. My mentor caught me doing this, and confronted me about how I should be spending my time doing things relevant to the company and that what I was doing was distracting. I knew that I was in no way in the right, and I agreed with him that I should be using my time constructively; but the only thing was that I had no idea of what to do. I tried explaining this to him, and he told me that I should take it up with the rest of the team and not him. Luckily, a coworker had some stuff I could do, and by chance we were also going to a construction meeting soon, so I didn't have to worry too much about what to do. This confrontation with my mentor taught me a lot about respecting the workspace and learning how to work with others effectively. Although I still might not know what to do tomorrow, or the next day, or the next day, or the next, I will definitely not spend any more time distracting myself and doing off task things. After all, I am their guest, and I should give them my full attention and participation, even if it's hard. So that's my spiel about that, and visiting the build site up by OHSU was amazing.
Day 6: Professional Architects Have No Mercy
March 10, 2015
Today at the firm I had my first pang of uncertainty, as I was given the task of transforming a layout plan to fit a given ratio. I had not even the slightest idea of how to accomplish this task, but after a couple different explanations I was able to fulfill my job and I felt proud to be able to take part in one of the many jobs within the firm. Although this particular action was insignificant, it was a chance for me to prove myself in a bigger job than I had been given before, and I was happy to be doing something useful. After completing this task, I organized new .jpeg files into presentation format and saved them into final PDF's. Once I had finished this task, I left the office early and walked to University of Oregon at Portland's campus to watch review presentations from graduate architecture students. At certain points in the presentation, I shared a couple of laughs with my coworker Georgia at how worked up the teachers/mentors got over the projects. This one guy talked for so long, it seemed like the student receiving the feedback was about to fall asleep. I guess there is no such thing as bad criticism. (But seriously, some of these critics were brutal and asked the students to practically restart a project they'd been working on for months). This session was really engaging for me, and reminded me somewhat of the POL format at AHS. Presenting, reflecting, absorbing feedback, etc. This process seemed very organic, which gave me hope about architecture school in general and was a positive experience for me. Although I don't know how I would have handled interactions with some of the professionals talking to the students. Who knows, maybe in the future I will find out exactly how I would've handled it.
Day 5: One Week In
March 09, 2015
At this point in my internship I've been fully immersed in the culture and lifestyle of Portland for an entire week. By now I can say that I've had a beautiful array of new experiences, and each day brings a refreshing and exciting adventure. Today my bus was delayed by an overturned trailer on the bridge, but I made it to LEVER only a few minutes later than usual. The day at the office started off strong, and I had a reasonable amount of work to do for the morning. As the day passed by, however, I found that my tasks were becoming more busy and I fell into the trap of boredom. I do not blame my mentor or any member of the association, for I am purely there as their guest and shadow. I recognized that they had a job to do, and I tried to be observant and helpful as much as possible. Towards the end of the day I was given more work to do this week, which is exciting. Some of the work will allow me to help LEVER with their web page, which excites the designer and web junkie in me. Hopefully some of this work wil be helpful to the firm and allow me to learn more about the projects and mission of LEVER.
Day 4: Fruit, Meetings, Paused Printers
March 06, 2015
TGIF. Today was a good day. In the morning we had a staff meeting where the most pressing projects were discussed and any other various issues were resolved. Along with this meeting, everyone ate a breakfast (still trying to figure out if this is a weekly ritual) which consisted of bread and jam, fruit, and orange juice. Not too bad of a way to spend the first a part of a work day if you ask me. Since the room that I was supposed to work in today was being used for a meeting, I came back to the main LEVER office and worked on printing some pieces for a project for Walt Disney studios. The problem with this task was that I soon found out that the office computer I was supposed to use was not connected properly to the printer in the office. Luckily, I was able to email the photos to another worker in the office, and through her I was able to print them successfully.
Day 3: Renton Winery
March 05, 2015
In my third day at LEVER, I finally began to get a feel for the workspace and surrounding environment. This morning I got to the office without using the GPS on my phone at all, which I have to admit I was pretty excited about. As soon as I got to the office, I went to work on creating a project board for a winery being put in in the outskirts of Portland. This project took most of my morning, and by the time I finished my computer had been taken over by IT to resolve some printer issues, so I took a arbitrary lunch break. Upon returning, I began putting together boards for a meeting that took place at 3:30, and put together other boards for a meeting that will take place tomorrow. This work allowed me to collaborate with other members of the LEVER team, and allowed me to exercise instruction execution as well as collaborating on ideas and organization. Tomorrow I hope to continue enhancing these skills.
Day 2: 1010 NW Flanders
March 04, 2015
Today I began work on a project that will involve displaying a set of LEVER's current architectural projects on foam boards. My first assignment was to make a board for the renovation of a store and building at 1010 NW Flanders. While it took me a while to get hold of the printer and jump through the hoops of unverified software on the iMac at my desk, I was able to tackle these obstacles and begin working on my board. Cataloging and arranging different elements of this project (or two projects, technically) was very relaxing yet engaging, and I was happy to put all of the elements together. This showed me the extent by which a project can converge, from drawings to rendering and everywhere in between. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to put the finishing touches on this board, and begin cataloging another with the same method. In addition, tomorrow I hope to learn to use the plotter as well, but I don't know if it is reserved for special printings. I will find out.
Day 1 at LEVER Architecture
March 03, 2015
After a flurry of cancellations and missed connections, I have arrived in Portland. Although 13 hours of flying and layovers took the best of my energy and mental health yesterday, today I awoke energized and ready to take on my internship. I have my uncle to thank for showing me the ropes of Portland, and after a quick stop for lunch I arrived at the firm with a full stomach. Upon entering the firm, I met Thomas, my mentor, as well as Sebastian, who introduced me to the rest of the LEVER staff and gave me a feel for the two office spaces. Almost immediately he began telling me about a project I could begin working on, which provided me with a new wave of energy and engagement. Although I spent most of the day flipping through magazines and familiarizing myself with LEVER's work, tomorrow I begin to delve deeper into the workings of LEVER and its projects, and I couldn't be more excited. Now all I have to do is make sure I take the right bus to get there in the morning...