summary.

Week two at McCarty has been off to a quick start just like my first one! Monday I worked on renderings for the office renovations here at McCarty. This involved me going into the Revit Model, selecting views, and then rendering them from there into Photoshop. I had never done any sort of rendering in Revit before, so now that I have learned how to do it, I am really excited to try to render in Revit for my future studio projects. I sat in on a Design Committee meeting that was about the office renovations and it was really interesting to hear everyone’s opinions and suggestions on what the space should have/be. Tuesday, I changed and added finishes to the renders for the office renovations based on the comments that were said in the meeting. A rep from Interface came in and gave a brief design presentation. This presentation was mainly about carpet designs in phase two of the UC. It was really amazing to see how the in house designer for Interface could compose all of their different carpet tiles/carpet planks into really cool/different looking patterns. I had never seen anything like the designs he presented. After this meeting, I worked on more renderings of a plan view for a new build here in Knoxville. I worked on this all day, as there was a meeting with the client the following morning. Wednesday morning, I came in early and finished up the drawings so Barbara could have them for the client meeting. Interestingly enough, even under a crunch, I taught myself a couple of new things in Revit that I didn’t know before- which is always helpful! Thursday I did a lot of organizing and cleaning of the library spaces. I spent some time ordering materials and fabrics as well. Friday morning I put together an excel sheet for the saga we have gone through all week while determining fixture counts for a new build. I am glad to see that I can still do basic math! The rest of the day Friday, I updated renderings, and filled in another budget excel sheet.

focus.

At McCarty, the pre- design phase of the project is termed as more of a “marketing” phase where they are strictly competing to get the bid.

The schematic design phase starts after the contracts have been signed and distributed. Here, drawings like site plans, exterior elevations, and floor plans are casually presented to the client. Normally on smaller sheets, like 11x17s. Often times, it takes multiple meetings with the client to get to the “look” they want to achieve. After iterations have been finalized, the design firm will submit a budget to the contractor that will be presented and finalized as well. The budget needs to be submitted and approved so that the client is aware of what their money is being spent on specifically.

The design development phase begins the more serious portion of work where careful checking of codes and the publishing of general finish schedules is introduced.

The contract documents phase is where every detail is implemented and determined. All of the specs are to be completed and written out. About 1-2 weeks before the contract set is due, McCarty issues the set to someone in their office who has never seen/worked on the project before. By having a fresh eye look at the set and “proof” it before it goes out, this ensures that there won’t be issues down the road after the set has been published.

In construction administration most of the time someone from the firm is designated to fulfill this role. This person will go out periodically to the job site and check in that everything is going right on track. This person will also have several meetings with the client to discuss progress. Also in this phase, the Interior Designer will start to receive finish submittals from the contractor to verify that what the contractor is ordering is what the interior designer specified.

The installation phase, usually occurs 1-2 weeks before the move in date of the client. Furniture should always be the last thing to be installed, however, in the real world, there will still be paint touchups, small cosmetic details, etc. still occurring. The punch list happens around this same time period as well. The punch list will be comprised of errors within the building/furniture/etc. This walkthrough is typically done by everyone that is involved; architects, interior designers, furniture dealer, contractor, etc.

meet someone new.

Barbara Tallent is a partner and project manager here at MHM. Barbara spends ample time meeting with clients, discussing details with them, managing the projects from start to finish, and ensuring that the client is happy with the outcome at the end of the day. Barbara has been a great resource for me thus far and I am excited to see what else I can learn from her this summer.