#practicepreviews

[kentuckypracticepreviews]

Griffin Enright Architects

Two weeks in LA flew by. This was my fourth time participating in the practice previews program and my first experience working in LA. Griffin Enright Architects is an exceptional office that is currently focused on lots of high end residential housing projects. In the two weeks there it seemed that they had at least 7 projects working through construction and several others along the way. Because of this I was surprised at how small the office was. I arrived my first day expecting somewhere between 10-15 employees, but was warmly greeted by 3 full time employees, 1 part time intern along with Margaret Griffin and John Enright. This small office size made for a really wonderful experience as I was allowed a very personal vantage into the mechanics of the office and day to day activities.  

Because so many of the projects in the office are in the CD/CA phase I spent lots of time redlining drawings in cad. It had been a few years since drafting with xrefs so I spent some time getting re-acquainted with the process. It seems that much of the workflow involves generating ultra clean/controlled models withing Rhino then exporting out for high tolerance drafting into Autocad. There was also some work being done with VR and the Unreal engine in the office which seems to have replaced Maxwell as their primary form of rendering.

I found that the greatest difference between my experiences in New York offices and this one was the amount of trust the principals here place in young designers. All of the full time employees were around my age and had graduated from sciarc within the last few years. Because of this trust in young employees I found the office required individuals to work outside of their comfort zone and engage in tasks that they may have little experience with prior. After a few days working in the office it became apparent that anyone working there would be allowed to engage in a variety of architectural endeavors assisting in projects from their inception through construction. Certainly an exciting place to be for someone hungry for for real world experience. Both John and Margaret leave several afternoons a week to go to sciarc to teach. This appropriately keeps the office rooted within a progressive contemporary conversation while engaging in the politics of building high end residential architecture. The experience was unique, challenging, and refreshing. 

There were several excellent lectures happening while i was there. Tom Wiscombe gave a great lecture titled Objects Containers Worlds that sparked an interesting conversation between himself and Thom Mayne, and sciarc had their Drawings Conclusions Symposium where I was able to see Peter Eisenmann give a keynote. It was a nice departure from watching these people on youtube while working in studio.  Aside from the great office experience I was able to see some wonderful projects, eat some amazing food, and reconnect with old friends doing remarkable things in LA. 

-Thompson Burry

2nd Year Graduate Student

[kentuckypracticepreviews]

Article about a recent project by Leong-Leong, who is a great resource for or lucky students in the Practice Previews Program.

Everlane | Leong Leong

Online fashion brand Everlane is continuing to expand its bricks-and-mortar offering with a new location inside a century-old building in San Francisco.

Everlane’s in-house team worked with New York studio Leong Leong to design the interior of the space on Valencia Street, following the opening of its first permanent store in New York’s Soho last year.

The property dates back a century, and the brand was keen to keep many of its original features while creating a minimal look that matches its product range.

[kentuckypracticepreviews]

We have moved to Instagram. If you like following our talented architecture students as they document their experiences in the best architectural design practices in the world, then follow us on Instagram. @practicepreviews_uky #practicepreviewsuky

[kentuckypracticepreviews]

Practice Previews 2017

The University of Kentucky College of Design, School of Architecture has begun preparations for another exciting year of the Practice Previews Program. We are honored that many offices who have participated in the past are joining us again this year, thank you for the continued support! We have also added several new offices this year and continue to expand the opportunities afforded to our students in the School of Architecture.

Below you will find the list of participants for this year along with their office and destination city. They will be posting to the Practice Previews Tumblr and on social media so follow their journey and experiences. #practicepreviews

 Students Participating and Destination:

Owen Duross – Ball-Nogues, Los Angeles

Nick Michl – Brooks + Scarpa, Los Angeles

Jennifer Bui – Bureau Spectacular, Los Angeles

Oliver Hidalgo – D.A. Project, Tomsk (Russia)

Vanessa Vidal – Exkew+Dumez+Ripple, New Orleans

Rachel Jackson – GRADE, New York City

Thompson Burry – Griffin Enright, Los Angeles

Katie Halsey – HOK, Kansas City

Chris Westfall – Iwamoto Scott, San Francisco

Dalton Wharff – John Ronan Architects, Chicago

Natalie May – Leong-Leong, New York City

Freddy Maggiorani – Leong-Leong, New York City

Thomas Kirk – LTL Architects, New York City

Carlos Robledo – Morphosis Architects, New York City

Tanner Smith – NMDA (Neil Denari), Los Angeles

Thomas Lanham – Oyler Wu Collaborative, Los Angeles

Irvin Shaifa – Oyler Wu Collaborative, Los Angeles

Alexis Peneff – PATTERNS, Los Angeles

Travis Spears - Perkins Eastman, New York City

Zachary Martin – SHoP, New York City

Shelby Carpenter – Skylab, Portland

Sommer Cade – SO-IL, New York City

Chris Redomon – Synthesis Design + Architecture, Los Angeles

Demetrius Edwards Jr. – Urban Lab, Chicago

Olivia Winn – Urban Lab, Chicago

Addison Mullions – West of West, Portland

Bryan Hardin – WORKac, New York City

[kentuckypracticepreviews]

Oyler Wu Collaborative // Irvin Shaifa

Tomorrow I’ll be heading to Los Angeles. It’s perhaps my first time being that far out west. I will be interning under Oyler Wu Collaborative. What interested me in this firm in the first place is the work ethic to office size ratio. I have no idea what to expect in terms of the ins and outs of such a consistent firm but hope to learn from that attitude and reflect in in my own work ethic. 

“Cali here we come man.”

[kentuckypracticepreviews]

Practice Previews 2016

The University of Kentucky College of Design, School of Architecture has begun preparations for another exciting year of the Practice Previews Program.  We honored that many offices who have participated in the past are joining us again this year, thank you!  We also added several new offices to the growing list of participating firms Including - David Adjaye Associates, GRADE, Leong-Leong, MOS, Perkins Eastman & Young-Ayata all in New York along with De Leon + Primmer, Louisville. They will add new dimensions to the experience our program can offer to our students.

Unfortunately from year to year it is hard to predict the number of students who will be able to participate, therefore we had several other offices agree to participate but where we ultimately could not place a student.  We would like to thank them here publicly and hopefully reconnect next year (Griffen Enright, Neil Denari & Synthesis Design, Los Angeles | Iwamoto Scott, San Francisco.)  It seems like this year a majority of students wanted to head northeast.

Below you will find the list of participants for this year along with their office and destination city.  They will be posting to the tumblr and on social media so follow along.

Participants:

Jared Giles  – Brooks + Scarpa, Los Angeles

Tiffany Combs – Brooks + Scarpa, Los Angeles

Thomas Kirk – David Adjaye Associates, New York City

Joe Brewer - de Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop, Louisville

Aaron Fritsch - de Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop, Louisville

Paul Isaacs – GRADE, New York City

Kevin Bloomfield – HWKN, New York City

Julia Arnold – Leong-Leong, New York City

Zack Allen – Leong-Leong, New York City

Emily Fannin – LTL Architects, New York City

Nathan Williams – Morphosis Architects, Los Angeles

Zack Martin – Morphosis Architects, New York City

Sarah Wagner – MOS, New York City

Bryan Hardin - OMA, New York City

Andy Magner – Oyler Wu Collaborative, Los Angeles

Dalton Partin – PATTERNS, Los Angeles

Whitney Osborne - Perkins Eastman, New York City

Kelsea Clayton - Populous, Kansas City

Andrew Meyer – Reiser Umemoto, New York City

Thompson Burry – ShoP, New York City

Jennifer Bui – SO-IL, New York City

Lauren Turnage – Urban Lab, Chicago

Olivia Winn – Urban Lab, Chicago

Mariana Carvalho – Young-Ayata, New York City

Tyler Abell – Young-Ayata, New York City

[kentuckypracticepreviews]

SoCal Lifestyles 101

tylerabell & Cody Thamann

LAX - Landed in Cali

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Relaxing - soothing to the culture.

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Sunset & Silverlake Blvd. - Wood - Pizza restaurant opening this weekend - Pre-opening visit with the furniture designers, Jeff Guiducci and Rob Panossian. Who designed and built tables made of steel, wood, and iridescent filmed glazing. The restaurant is owned by the pizza guy from the #Oscars #Ellen

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Late night trip to Fargo St, the second steepest hill in american. (allegedly) #calipeeps #5am

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Enjoyed the early day ‘Animal Style’ at #In-N-Out Burger. On the way to a site walk and the desert #secretrestaurant 

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#Site Trip with Jeff, by wHY [http://why-site.com] #Pomona #College #Studio #Art #Hall

#Site Trip with Jeff, by wHY [http://why-site.com] #Pomona #College #Studio #Art #Hall

A community of program for art students. The roof plane undulation responds contextually to the landscape. The exposed systems (pipes, structure, air vents) provide an educational environment towards design.

"The new studio Art Hall at Pomona College brings together under one roof art making, art appreciation, and art interaction, reimagining the program and site as the center of life within the campus. The porous nature of the buildings elements are inviting and open, allowing the cross pollination of ideas throughout the campus. Within the art ecosystem, there are very few divisions between disciples, encouraging student to explore new ideas. It is a green, cool, transparent and collaborative atmosphere that serves as a nexus for cross-pollination of ideas from the entire campus." wHy

http://why-site.com/albums/pomona-college-studio-arts-hall/

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We drove to high desert test site located in Joshua Tree. #secretrestaurant for “Full Moon Ramen” 150+ people _ #wordofmouth</>

 What secret restaurant is an installation in the desert by a designer/cook at wHY. The installation is a 4’ wide by 4’ long and 8’ tall steel box, 4’ below grade and 4’ above. The top wireframe is giving homage to the form below. Exact dimensions of the box below. The wireframe is a beacon in the moon light desert.

The following morning: The backyard desert of the cabin. #oasis

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Metro ride to the office: #brooksscarpa #p-a-t-t-e-r-n-s #patterns

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Brooks + Scarpa models in the office gallery. #brooksscarpa (tylerabell)

#brooksscarpa

#brooksscarpa

#brooksscarpa

#brooksscarpa

I am currently working on a residential house for a site in Chicago by working through the #schematic #design of the project. I began creating a 3D model in #rhino from a construction set in #Autocad. I am now in a red ink phase with the architect Larry Scarpa, and updating the construction set drawings to reflect changes made in the process.

More to come! - tylerabell

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p-a-t-t-e-r-n-s models in the office gallery. #p-a-t-t-e-r-n-s #patterns  (Cody Thamann)

#p-a-t-t-e-r-n-s

#p-a-t-t-e-r-n-s

#p-a-t-t-e-r-n-s

#p-a-t-t-e-r-n-s

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#architecture #design #ukcod #practicepreviews #design #architectureschool #architecturestudent #seeblue #universityofky #losangeles #modelmaking #3dprinting #sitevisit #rhino #revit #autocad #intern

Post by tylerabell & Cody Thamann

[kentuckypracticepreviews]

Gray Construction Day Two

Today was another great day at Gray Construction! I arrived early to work and immediately began working on Revit tutorials for about two hours with one of the workers in the office. Afterwards, I felt much more prepared to jump into  Revit and conquer the tasks before me. The more I work with Revit the more I love it. At lunch I got the chance to talk with multiple employees from UK’s College of Design, my supervisor, and an employee who had worked with the office for over 25 years. At lunch, we discussed the future of architecture. This included how to accommodate change of culture and environment without loosing a firm’s core values. When we returned from lunch, I attended a meeting with my supervisor and her project’s interior designer. We discussed the quality of entrance spaces and what type of environment must be created when welcoming guests within a small space. I will be attending a subsequent meeting with the interior designer, my supervisor, and the client on Friday. Towards the end of the day, I worked on renderings for my supervisor’s project. Tomorrow I will be finalizing the renders that I worked on today, and attending a Gray University meeting about how to deal with subcontractor issues. 

#ukcod #architecture #practicepreviews #thinkdesign #grayconstruction

[kentuckypracticepreviews]

Gray Construction First Day

I could not have had a better first day at my first internship with Gray Construction. I spent the beginning of my day on a tour of the office, and then worked the rest of the day on Revit tutorials. I started these tutorials because the office primarily uses Revit and I have not yet had the chance to learn the program. Although this seemed like a road block at first, one of the workers at the office gave me a very helpful run through of Revit and its similarities with Rhino. Despite the differences of Revit, I am extremely excited to work with this program and have set the goal of learning the program by the end of this semester. I have specifically been assigned to work with one woman who is working on the construction of a new manufacturing and distribution plant. By tomorrow afternoon, I will have learned enough in Revit to begin working on renders for the project. All in all, I made the most of my day and squeezed every ounce of learning that I could out of it. 

This day has meant so much to me, and has given me so much joy. I ended my day at a little get together with the employees of the office. I cannot fully express my gratitude for the warm welcome that all of Gray’s employees gave me. They truly are a firm focused on the relationships that they build. 

#ukcod #architecture #practicepreviews #thinkdesign #grayconstruction

[kentuckypracticepreviews]

Nick Hodge & Blane Hornung - Studio Gang, Chicago

Hey everyone!

We are checking in from Chicago, where we started working at Studio Gang yesterday.  We actually got a head start on the experience and came up on Wednesday with our studio, Studio Louisville. On Thursday we got a tour of Studio Gang’s office, which is in the old Polish National Alliance building in Wicker Park. After the tour, we had a great work session in the office where we presented our research and preliminary concepts for the final project of the semester. On Friday we toured a number of Studio Gang’s projects including the Campus North Residential Commons at the University of Chicago, the Nature Boardwalk Lincoln Park Zoo, and the Eleanor Boathouse at Park 571.

After the tour, we checked out of the hotel we were staying in and into the apartment that we are renting while we are in Chicago. Over the weekend we both spent time exploring the surrounding neighborhoods and learning more about Chicago.

Yesterday was our first day as externs in the office. We are both working on different projects right now and really enjoying the work. There is such a diverse set of projects going on right now and it is an incredible opportunity to be able to be on the team and contributing for two weeks.

See you soon, Nick & Blane

[kentuckypracticepreviews]

Congratulations to IwamotoScott Architecture on their recent Frame, People’s Choice Award. It is exciting to know that our students have the opportunity to work with such talented and generous people during the Practice Previews Program.

[kentuckypracticepreviews]

MOS // Sarah Wagner

It’s been a week since leaving MOS, but I could not be more glad to have been provided with the experience of working in such a fantastic firm if even for a short period of time. Included are some images from my time in the office, of both where we would work long hours on complex drawings and of the shop space tucked away into the basement of the building. While I didn’t spend time in the shop during my short externship, I feel that it gives a more complete image of the space and values of the team working there. Fabrication is central to their design processes, and even as I was working on drawings for the Venice Biennale, others were prototyping and then immediately manufacturing in-house doorstops for an apartment project. The demanding pace of the office requires rapid process of designing, building, and redesigning to happen often in the course of a single workday, and their small shop is crucial to that workflow.

I cannot thank Michael and Hilary enough for letting me join the office for a couple of weeks, answering all of my questions, and showing me so many fantastic projects and proposals. Thanks for the cups of coffee and the patience as I figured out the filing systems on your server. And thanks to John, Ivi, and Andrew, all three of whom taught me so much about building, about design, and about managing gigantic Illustrator files. And thanks, of course, to Marty for arranging this all.

Cheers-

Sarah

[kentuckypracticepreviews]

Brooks+Scarpa Week Two

Jared Giles / Brooks+Scarpa / Los Angeles

It has been a great week and a half working at Brooks+Scarpa. For the most part, I have been working in Rhino and PhotoShop, and right now I am currently working on renderings for their Green Dot Middle School project. In addition to that, I have also been doing odd jobs around the office, such as converting old CAD files, and organizing the material library.  

 So far, I have enjoyed being a part of this program, and I have learned a great deal about how an office operates, and how to better myself as a student to one day work in the industry.

  Jared Giles

[kentuckypracticepreviews]

EDR Day 3

Thus far, it's been an amazing week at EDR! Mark and I have had been able to visit various projects (both built and on-going) as well as meet with contractors, clients, and engineers. This week I have been assisting with the rennovation of the Orpheum Theatre in New Orleans. I have been working in CAD and Rhino to make a digital model of the revisions made to the front two lobbies of the theatre. Hopefully by the end of the week, I will have various renderings and drawings to aide in Monday's presentation. This has been a great project to work on becasue it depicts how quickly rennovations and design proposals have to be produced in an office. It is a very quick-paced and kind-hearted environment, where there is always something to do. 

Outside of the office, Mark and I have been touring the city a little more everyday. We have had fantasic food and come across beautiful buildings. It seems like there is a parade every other day here, including the St. Patrick's Day parade (where we mingled with some locals). Also, we were lucky enough to tour Tulane and their architecture building today. It was funny to see how something so different in layout is so similar to the way we teach/learn at UK. Looks like architecture students are very similar, no matter their location.  

[kentuckypracticepreviews]

IwamotoScott

I'm excited to be back at IwamotoScott for the second year in a row! San Francisco is one of my favorite cities, and the weather during the day has been as warm as the people. I am actually glad to have been sunburned in Dolores Park on Sunday, especially after hearing that Lexington got a little bit of snow that day. Ben Ward (interning at Future Cities Lab) and I are staying with a wonderful host and look forward to exploring (read: hiking) more of the city this week and hopefully meeting up with some former UK/CoD students.

The office is exactly as I remembered it - except for the addition of a few new office dogs. I have been very busy digital modeling and have learned a lot from the team already. Many very exciting projects are underway, though that's nothing new around here.

-Cat Wentworth-

IwamotoScott's design for Heavybit Industries is currently in the lead for an A+ Award - check it out!

[kentuckypracticepreviews]

OMA tomorrow

After a long day of driving, I finally arrived at New Jersey. I'm going to the OMA tomorrow morning. Really excited about it. 

I don't know what tomorrow morning will like, but I'm just getting a little bit nervous about it.

Seth told me that when he did the spring break practice there, he was sent to the model shop since that is the easiest way for them to assign students.like us. But I expect more than that. 

Need to go to sleep now since I need to commuting from New Jersey to NYC every. I will spend 1.5 hours on my way to work everyday. 

Leon