Week 2 - Geneva Frank

Week’s Summary:

This week at Boulder Associates went by super fast. I was included in a lot of exciting things. On Monday, I was asked to sit in on a four-hour client meeting. The project, "Lakeview Health: Drug and Alcohol Rehab," is in Jacksonville, Florida. Susan, the main client, met with DiAnn, the principal Interior Designer, and Trish, another designer, as well as three architects. The objective of the meeting was to clarify some plan issues and then focus on determining the finish selections for the men’s dining room, and the entirety of the women’s facility. This was a good client meeting to sit in on because it featured an unusually interesting, creative theme. Our client Susan likes a lot of bright colors and wanted to create somewhat of a bohemian feel within the women’s building. DiAnn asked me to complete a rendering of the men’s dining room space for a visual reference that the design team could take along on the following Tuesday when they meet with more people in Florida regarding the project. I also have started completing redlines on another project for another designer, Lydia. On Thursday, I was asked to attend the Interior Designers' weekly meeting to plan out how much time they are spending on each project. It was very interesting to me because each designer has to gage how long the work might take depending on the project. In my opinion, at school we don’t usually plan that far ahead. On Friday, I helped get rid of some of the fabric samples, and one of my next tasks is to start calling reps in order for them to make sure the samples are up to date, and then reinstate some if necessary. Boulder Associates hosts an event called Second Friday, similar to Knoxville’s version of First Friday, and therefore, at the end of the week we went to the Boulder Public Library to hear artists Caroline Douglas and Frank Sampson speak about their work. 

Week’s Focus

Boulder Associates has its own checklists to follow regarding each stage in the design process. The lists are very detailed and provide a step-by-step process. There is one for architects, and a separate one for interior designers, but they are similar. Since quite a few of the architects and designers have been at the office for many years, this process is engrained in their minds. They are divided into four main phases: schematic design, design development, construction documents, and construction administration. Construction documents are started in the schematic design phase and then just develop as the design becomes more detailed. Tatyana, one of the designers, is highly skilled at creating vision boards that inspire the start of the design process, and are a way of showing the client the direction in which the design is going. The architects and designers are usually on teams depending on the scope of the design on which they are working. They usually sit in the same area so it is easy for them to communicate on the project. For groups, they have a “Five-minute stand-up” where all of the members on the team get together and discuss what they have done so far on the project, and on which aspect they might need help, or what has to be changed. This makes everyone accountable for their work. We also have WWP, which stands for Weekly Work Plan. It is where we plan out our week’s work and say what we need to complete by a certain date. There are large calendars printed and displayed in the conference rooms so that each project has its own timeline and is tracked. While sitting at my desk, I’ve noticed that a lot of people ask for help, and appear to know who is most knowledgeable about specific areas so they approach the staff members from whom they can expect the best answer(s). 

Getting to Know Someone New:

I’m picking one of the artists from the Second Friday event that the office hosted. Caroline Douglas, who creates pottery, says that creating art saved her life. She suffered a traumatic brain injury when the cherry picker she was in while hanging streamers at her daughter’s school collapsed, causing her to fall, and smashing the back and front of her face. She said she had to relearn how to walk and talk. During her gradual recovery, she started to have dreams nightly where there would be animals that would come speak to her. She started creating these animals and spirits into art, and channeling the essence of her dreams into pottery. She was very inspiring and her experience shows that determination, hard work, and passion can distinguish you, as well as save you. As we were leaving the show and speaking engagement, she challenged each of us architects and designers to go create some sort of art, whether it be a painting, or molding a piece of clay.