DAY 5

*Whew!* I accidentally deleted this post while I was managing this blog... After two hours of endless searching I was able to recover the entire post. Samir, I apologize for the deleted comment; I will do what I can to bring back your post.

DAY 5

(4 June 2011)

Firm: Gensler, Los Angeles

Host: Kap Malik, AIA

7:00 AM – Tustin Metrolink Station

My very first Metrolink ticket. It took much perseverance
with the uncooperative vending machine to obtain this.

Tustin Metrolink station

                Yup, kicked off Monday with an early start. My father drove me to the Tustin Metrolink Station, where I met Mr. Malik for the train ride to Los Angeles.  I met Mr. Malik at the station, and we rode the Metrolink train to the Los Angeles Union Station. Once we got to the Union Station, we took the metro then walked to Gensler’s LA office. 

9:00 AM – Introduction to Gensler

This is it!

Mr. Malik's office

                Immediately after we arrived at the office Mr. Malik had to attend a meeting, so for the time being I was allowed to sort of walk around on my own. I spent about half an hour in the library on the third floor looking at the different materials (I wish I had asked if there were any outdated swatches I could take home… they would have worked well for the collage work that I’m working on right now).

Some samples. Imagine walls and walls covered with this stuff.

                Soon thereafter Mr. Malik  introduced me to Hogan, who gave me a tour of the entire office. The office is organized in three floors, with roughly two design studios per floor. The studios include Planning, Sports, Accounting, Campus, and Hospitality (which Mr. Malik is in charge of).  Gensler had in fact designed the LA office. One thing that stood out to me about the design of the space was the consideration of collaborative efforts among employees. There were no cubicles (quite unexpected for a large, corporate firm) and much of the space between desks and studios were open, encouraging communication not only between individual employees but also between different studios within the office.

 Some pictures:

The Hospitality studio

Each person has an option to get two of the stools (left)
or a desk (right). Either option fosters collaboration
between employees.

Conference rooms

Conference room in use

2nd and 3rd floors

      The sustainability-sensitive design of the building also caught my attention. The building won LEED Silver certification (for a crash-course on LEED: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leadership_in_Energy_and_Environmental_Design), which I think is an impressive achievement. The fact that the firm was aware of the “green design” trend, I think, is another aspect that gave Gensler that competitive edge.

Sensor-automated screens either cover or e
xpose thewindows to minimize heating/cooling.

Later in the day...

                Hogan also walked me down to the model shop downstairs. Though Gensler often hires professionals for the final renderings and models, most of the models used for concept studies and esign phase are done “in-house” at this modeling shop. 

Some mass-study models

Some more mass-study models. These
sort of stuff are done in-house.

Models!

MORE models! I think some
of thee are done professionally done.

Quick look around the model shop

The legendary 3-D printer... 

So this is an example of a professionally done
model. This entire thing costs about $25,000

 Now let's go into some current projects in the office. Hogan, Garo, and Adam gave me an overview of each. I won't go into too much detail over them because... Well, this post is already pretty long.

Beverly Hills Hilton Project

Hogan gave me an overview of Beverly Hills Hilton project.

Revit file. The office has been slowly transitioning from AutoCAD
to this program, mainly because the 3-D model and 2-D blueprint
go hand-in-hand. In AutoCAD, these two drawings had to
be generated separately.

Chile Shopping Mall Project (I don't recall the name of the mall; sorry! And pictures unrelated)

Hand sketches! This made me happy.

Garo walked me through the shopping mall project in Chile, which originally began as an entry for a competition. Gensler won the competition, so they were in the process of refining the design for it to be built. That was about a year and a half ago; when the economy crashed, the project sort of went on hold (which is not uncommon...) until recently the project started again, now on an even larger scale. 

 A view out into the
streets of downtown LA

DIA South Redevelopment Program

Pin-ups. The images on the right show
some variations on the design of the terminal.

 Adam walked me through this project. The Denver International Airport project entails adding a terminal (with a 500-key hotel) that connects the airport to the railway station. He showed me a 4-minute animation that he would show his clients to communicate the firm's concept and vision of the design. This was one of the few projects that the architecture and the interior design sections of the studio collaborated on. Only a few firms have the capabilities to design a structure inside-out.

first floor lobby area

The softwares that the firm uses are: AutoCAD (for 2-D works), 3D Studio Max (for 3-D stuff obviously), Revit, SketchUp, Rhino (sometimes with Grasshopper) and Maya. 

After the walk-through of the current projects, I spent the rest of the day picking brains in the Hospitality studio. 

Tape sculptures made by elementary school (I think)
 students. They were displayed all over the office.
A bit creepy... but kinda cute I guess.

 I talked to Vic, who is in charge of budget management. I think this is where I really understood that architecture isn't just about drawing pretty pictures. In order for the project to be successful, it is important to understand the client's expectations and to take into account the "business" aspect of the building. Vic is also in charge of scheduling each phases of the project and to make sure that what comes out of the studio is quality product.

Afterwards I spoke with John. I asked him, "Why did you want to be an architect?" The reply I got was: "I never knew I would be anything else." This is yet another recurring theme in my visit. Every single person I talked to is so passionate about what they do. John told me about when he had graduated from college, how he came to California with nothing but a thousand dollars he had saved up. From there he had come all the way to the present. I was inspired by his passion and love for what he does. I think this sort of take on life could be applied to anything other than architecture, too.

Adam at the desk, a few members
of the Hospitality studio discussing the DIA Project

 A little bit of a twist: at the end of the day I talked to some people from the interior design studio, Michelle, Candra, and Edith. I guess the big stereotype is for the guys to be at the architecture side, and the women to be in the interior side (although that division wasn't necessarily true in this studio, as you can see from the pictures).

Anyhow, this was an excellent opportunity for me to ask some questions about something other than architecture. An interesting thing is that many people in the interior design studio came from an architectural background, and that many who currently have a degree in interior design plan to obtain a degree in architecture. So the two go hand-in-hand.

 This was also an excellent opportunity for me to ask about what it's like to be a career woman. In the last few decades conditions for the working woman has drastically improved. Many laws have been passed for equal treatment, and increasingly more women have been accepted into the workforce. At the end of the day, the most important thing is individual talent. Just like any men, it is important to represent yourself and work just as hard.



I was done around 6pm (the longest day yet!). Mr. Malik and I ran to the Union Station to catch the train (my excercise for the day) and we returned to Tustin. So that was my day; now I need to leave like, now.

Now for the photo of the day:

Whoop Whoop!