I have always loved cities – the constant activity and flow of people is so exciting to me. As I traveled more, seeing places like Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles made me notice the distinctions between the appearances of these cities and that of Boston and grew my interest in the field of architecture. This summer, I had the opportunity to intern at NADAAA, an architectural firm based in Boston. NADAAA has designed projects all over the globe, from the Tanderrum Bridge in Melbourne, Australia to the Research and Design building at Beaver Country Day School. During this time, I learned a lot about the many different elements that go into running the firm efficiently and ultimately drawing up a successful proposal.
My first few days were spent getting acquainted with the lower level of the office building, which contained the two woodshops, 3D printing machines, and storage for models. NADAAA builds small-scale models to keep records of every project that they completed, as well as initial drafts of each design, so each project usually had anywhere from 10 to 30 different pieces associated with it. The first thing I noticed when I walked into the office was the large glass cases that housed intricate models of their most prominent projects.
The rest of NADAAA’s projects, as well as initial prototypes, are stored in the basement. My first job was to clean, reorganize, and store all of the different models using rags, brushes, and pressurized air. Most of the models were made out of gypsum, involving a 3D printing process that involves layering gypsum powder on top of glue in order to develop the design, which made the shelves and air very dusty.
After all of the models were cleaned, the shelves dusted, and the whole area reorganized, I moved upstairs to the material library. After a project has been finalized, the desk area is usually very cluttered with a lot of different samples, ranging from acoustic ceiling felt to toilet porcelain. I was tasked with returning all of the materials to their proper place on the shelves, and reorganizing some of the areas as I went.
Next, I was introduced to their primary 3D digital design program, Rhino. Rhino enabled me to draw and manipulate 2D shapes, as well as project them into 3D objects, which would ultimately be used to print models. A lot of my time using this program was spent developing a model from a preexisting blueprint of a school building that NADAAA had designed. The building had four floors, so my job was to layer the four distinct blueprints on top of each other, project the wall markings into actual walls, and determine the appropriate ceiling and wall heights from the altitude markings.
About two and a half weeks into the internship, I started to help with the proposal that the team was working on—a wing of the British Museum that housed exhibits relating to the Ancient Middle East. For each proposal, a lot of work goes into researching the purpose of the building in order to include relevant graphics and information in the final submission. For example, I was involved in researching different archaeological locations related to the ancient empires of the Middle East. I needed to use Rhino to accurately map the major archaeological sites associated with nine different empires, then color code and label them with site names, time periods, and their respective empire. The finished product would then be processed and converted into a graphic modeling population density during the heights of each empire. I learned how to use Photoshop and Rhino side by side to create an effective image, and I also learned the importance of organization and brevity when communicating information, as many proposals have a word limit.
Additionally, I learned how to archive files from previous projects into NADAAA’s main database in order to preserve the old proposals. While my job was just to copy and paste the files into new locations, I had a lot of fun going through the pictures and designs from the site visit records in each folder, and seeing how the project unfolded.
This summer, I learned a lot, not only about different materials, model building, and digital design, but also about larger themes related to communication, collaboration, and definitely organization. Seeing how so many different people and jobs come together in a successful project is really inspiring and has definitely increased my interest in a similarly collaborative work environment.
I am so grateful for the opportunity to be in such a professional environment that gave me a great grasp on what working in an architecture firm looks like, as well as all of the learning and growth I have experienced as a result. A huge thank you to Mr. Arthur Chang for hosting me, and teaching me so much about everything that NADAAA does on a daily basis, and to Mr. Schlenker, for running this incredible program, finding this firm, and making this internship happen for me.
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