Diary of a Design Student

I finally got around to getting some nice shots of a project I worked on last year. I really liked working on it at the time, and I’m still really pleased with it. I think a few of these have already been posted, but here they are again, and more of ‘em.

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve blogged. I lost track of this just before Thanksgiving, when I was about to face the madness of finals. Then My sister had a baby. Then it was the holidays. Then I was busy with life and school and work. And then my restaurant burned down… It’s been a weird winter.

Not here to dwell on the crappy stuff, but to remind myself that this is a good outlet for myself (especially since nobody reads it), and a great place for me to post pictures.

I’m going to post some pictures soon. I’m at finals AGAIN (oh how I dislike the quarter system we’re on…) and as busy as ever. It might even be worse this time around, as I’m in the process of helping organize a benefit for the folk’s who own the restaurant I worked at that just burnt down. It’s chaotic.

“5 Good Things”

-I just finished one of the projects I have due on Friday. NO MORE SPECS!

-I’m nearly done with the other project due on Friday.

-Even though I’ve totally been blowing off the restaurant project that’s due in less than a week, I’m confident I’ll get it done on time, and still manage to do a pretty good job on it.

-I’m really excited for the benefit we’re having this weekend! It’s been a lot of work, but it’s all come together really smoothly.

-My “new” baby neice is so cute. I just listened to a recording I made of her last week. Man, she is SWEEEEEEEEEET!

Wow, AutoCAD is SO neat!

Holy cow. I’ve been crazy busy with school recently. We did a really cool public restroom project last week, which was both a challenge and very informative. It’s probably a bore to most people, but I was amazed that even though I’ve been in hundreds, nay thousands, of public restrooms in my life, I felt like I was putting a puzzle together when I was laying it out. Anyway, done and done with that project… and right on into the next.

I am currently working on designing an office space for a mergers and acquisitions lawyer, and her small staff. Over the weekend and yesterday, I worked and re-worked the floor plan, and came to school feeling confident that I was set, and could begin moving forward. And then, OF COURSE, my instructors added a public restroom into our assignment. It only makes sense after just doing the other project, I guess. We are working with the floor plan of an existing building and were allowed to take some liberties with the space we chose, as long as certain features of the building remained as shown (elevators, stairs, and other means of egress), and the portion of the floor plan I chose had to be 2400 sqft or less.

I really worked at figuring out the puzzle: Executive office, conference room, technology room, smaller private office, law library, reception/ waiting area and work areas for receptionist/ legal assistant, and paralegal to work. Those are the required elements. Additionally, I was able to squeeze in a personal room for the  attorney (complete with personal restroom with shower, custom designed wardrobe/ media center, and sofa), as well as a kitchenette, a uni-sex restroom, and I made room for a ton of storage with horizontal work surfaces. Like I say, I worked really hard to figure it all out, and I was psyched with what I’d come up with. But, OF COURSE!, (things just can’t go that smoothly) there were some changes made to the assignment and we are now required to add ADA compliant restrooms that are up to current code. I’d already designed a public restroom for the space, but in order for the office to be at code, two restrooms are required- one for each gender. UGH. I had to basically start from scratch and re-work the entire puzzle.

Finally, after about 8 hours of working on it today, I’m feeling content with what I’ve got. I’m just scared of what’s yet to come… We’re working on 3-D drawings in my CAD class, so I’m afraid they’re going to make us draw and render our perspective  with CAD. Double ugh. I’ll do it, and it’ll probably look pretty cool, but it’ll take me for freeking ever to do it.

As much as I was frustrated but the addition, I feel really good about it now- I faced the challenge, and I learned a lot in the process. I think my floor plan is all the better for it, too. It flows nicely, and seems like it would function well.

In order to end this entry, I’ve got some more Good Things. Five, to be exact. I could probably think of more, but my brain hurts from all this AutoCAD.

-I spent the day with my nephew the other day. We went out for lunch, made a volcano erupt (baking soda and vinegar! SO FUN!!), played wii, and took a really sweet nap. He’s so great.

-My sister is pregnant agin, and is due at any moment. If she doesn’t deliver before 11/23, she’s scheduled for a C-section. She’s so great, too. And I’m SuperDuper excite to meet the baby.

-I went out for sushi happy hour yesterday with my so-awesome-BF and some of our friends yesterday. Both the food and the company were top notch.

-It’s almost Thanksgiving. I like Thanksgiving.

-I FINALLY HAVE MY FLOOR PLAN SET!

I was out sick for a few days so I have a lot of work to do to get back on track.
- I managed to almost stay caught up on AutoCAD. Was able to finish one of two projects assigned while I was out.
- feeling inspired by my next studio project.
- doing research on ADA accessible restrooms makes the design process slightly easier.
- making up a quiz that I missed and feeling relatively confident…. I hope!/?/!
- feeling mostly better, healthwise. It allowed me to have a fun Halloween and a really great day yesterday with my awesome beyond words boyfriend/family/friends. I feel fortunate to have such amazing people in my life.

A few of the many pictures I took in France. These are definitely my favorite images.

We presented our group project today in which we reworked our school library. It was the first project we’ve worked on that actually dealt with an existing space.

Since it was a “real” job, we presented to “real” clients. We got really great feedback from our instructors, librarians, department head, and the school president.

There is such a rush after presenting. It’s always SO good to be done- we put so many hours into those projects, and it all boils down to just a few minutes standing and talking, answering a few questions, and then- DONE. Weird. AND AWESOME!

Below are photos of our presentation boards. They’re in the wrong order- the first one should actually be the last, and the last the first, etc. I reposted them above in the right order, though the photots are smaller.

(there’s nobody actually reading this so it doesn’t even matter!)

Wow, Auto-CAD is so neat!

I’m not sure these can even be seen. Perhaps. Perhaps not. Regardless, it’s a before and after of one of the elevations for the library project.

Below are a few pictures from my final project for my first studio class from last year. There are a few shots of my final boards for presentation, as well as a few rendered elevations and the floor plan before they were mounted on my boards.

I can’t imagine that these’ll look great posted on here, which is a shame: it’s a project I really enjoyed and I was really happy with the outcome.