8:35 am I get ready to review with one of our interns some key drawings and images for our website.We are selecting and organizing important information about our work to be added to our newly designed website.We want to show our clients, consultants, colleagues (and general public) how we work, what we think about, and the office ethos. It is important to choose the key items which will quickly catch the attention of the visitor. We have to be concise but full of content at the same time!
10:12 am One of our residential clients has just sent several furniture images. We finished the design drawings for her house a couple of weeks ago and she wants to have our input on the furnishings. Although she has great taste and everything she sent us is beautiful, we help her choose the most appropriate dimensions, locations, and finishes for the different furniture. This is lots of fun!
11:50 am Meeting with one of our private university clients to visit an urban site we are working on together. We are developing strategies to connect two shopping districts and to improve perceived accessibility to new shoppers. The meeting was very productive and we are ready to draft our first site plan to collect the good ideas that were brain-stormed during the walkthrough. One of the things I like best about this project is that it directly relates to the community in which I live, and we get to be involved in improving the area, making it more accessible and visitor friendly, at the same time keeping its own character.
1:45 pm Coffee-meeting with Laura to discuss general work and next steps, new clients and coming projects. It was a great discussion. I love talking to her, not only because she is smart, creative and passionate, but mostly because in a natural way she is able to make the best of me and my talents.
3:15 pm Preparing a pre-construction meeting agenda for an institutional project. This is a very important step for our clients. The construction drawings are finished and the permit is approved. The construction is about to start and we want to explain to our client the next steps that will follow and to discuss with them the procedures, communication between client, architect and contractor, schedule, approval of work, submittals and shop drawings. There are many important items we want to discuss to establish a common frame of reference as the project literally takes form. This is a very exciting moment in the project development as our ideas (coming from the work of all, clients, consultants and in-house team) are finally starting to become real!
4:30pm I finish preparing some sketches for a corporate bio-tech client. They asked us for help to improve their visual communication with their clients, and potential clients, through images, architectural elements and interpretive design in their main facility. The company is doing an amazing job and we are very excited to be a part of their growing process.
Anytime... I love my job at an architecture firm because it is creative, it changes with every project, each project is a new adventure filled with aesthetic richness, and because each new client fills our office with great new collaborators!
Do you want to love your job?
