My Experience

I have worked on all phases of the design process from the programming phase through Schematic Design, Design Development, and Construction Documents to Construction Administration.

 

 

 

During my six-month internship at Olson Kundig Architects, I worked on 14 different projects in a variety of capacities. I worked on a range of typologies, including apartment renovations, new residential construction, new urban commercial construction, resort master planning, interior design, and more.

For a large office remodel in New York City, I was part of a 6-person team who took the project from 100% DD to 100% CDs in 7 business days. I also produced renderings for three project teams as part of their design process. Using my background in publishing, I helped another design team at the last minute produce a comprehensive narrative and proposal for the City of Seattle.

Starting my architecture career at UTSOA, I have been taking advantage of its diverse opportunities. I volunteered my extensive publishing experience for the student-run, school-distributed, annual design review, ISSUE. At the end of the first year, I was chosen to helm the Editorial board for the following year. Our team fundraised over $17,000 for publication, ran a team of volunteers, designed and published the book, ran vendor relations for a print run of 1300, and distributed to students, faculty, staff, and international buyers.

I also traveled to Argentina during summer 2012 to work on a design-build project in a slum bordering Buenos Aires. My specific contribution was the design and painting of a 57ft x 9ft mural on the patio of the daycare center. As part of my trip to Argentina, I also worked on an independent theoretic study that culminated in self-publishing a book tracing the development of Western architectural theory and containing my own introspective study of architectural value.

I have also taken a range of studios, focusing on large-scale urban projects, research-based sustainable communities, small structural studies, and more.

This work gave me the opportunity to greatly flex my organization skills. Our small publishing legal-consulting agency was comprised of five people, located across nine time zones, doing a thorough legal review of assets for a major publishing house. I kept tens of thousands of documents sorted and organized while they were being reviewed and flagged by the other four legal consultants—all operating at different times and without leaving any extra explanations to guide me. My ultimate goal was to organize all assets and permissions in a system clear enough that, in five years, a new hire would be able to quickly and easily find exactly the information they were seeking.

 

I started as a Junior Designer, working primarily on marketing materials printed internationally in 17 languages. However, I quickly proved myself to be prolific, reliable, detail-oriented, and strategic. I helped design and publish 3 children’s books, and 2 extensive Reading Companions. In addition to designing, I also expanded my responsibilities to include copy-writing, editing, and project management.

In 2009, we expanded our enterprise into developing software for our readers to search and annotate our books. I led the project organization and was relied upon to keep track of all schedules, features, and details for the multi-year project. At the same time, we expanded our website presence as well. I created and maintained all editorial content and support for The Writings’ own sites, including an online community with 1000s of hits per day within the first month. I was also in charge of all facets of The Writings’ presence on the web—on internal and external sites.