During a trip to Seattle, I had a chance to go to the Gensler for a job shadow in Seattle WA. It was a trip that I will always remember. I was great to see how a leading firm like Gensler works really opened up my eyes on how I should go about reaching my goals of becoming a professional designer.
Growing up I learned from many professionals, that no one ever becomes successful on their own, that critical thinking and collaboration is one of the most impotent aspect of a successful company. Gensler showed me how they use these skills, this could be the reason why they create great designs. Gensler's office is oriented in a way that makes it possible for all of the workers in different profession to talk, collaborate, and help out one another. This fact makes Gensler one of a kind, just the way they are unified as a company is fascinating.
Everyone in the office was kind and open to answer any questions I had that day. I was shown around some of the office by Bruce Dahlstrom (AIA, LEED AP). He talked about what it was like in the field, one great thing he talked about was how green their office is and explained it in such a way that made easy to understand He gave an amazing in depth explanation of what LEED certification was and all the different LEED levels (Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum). A bad part about the LEED certification for companies is how much more it cost to make a sit LEED certified, it is sad to say that a LEED certification is the first thing to go when they need to save money He also talked about the living building requirement in Seattle.Then he started showing some of the project they are working on. It was interesting to see how they design projects and the reasoning behind why they did it. All of their design chooses seem to be backed by some kind of research. a great example of this is from the way they designed their windows for their ......... project. The building is in a large space where the plans are built, for this reason they when with an interesting window design. the windows are cut out in a way to but noise from the exterior from getting into the interior. You can see this in the image below. the smaller windows let in less sound where the bigger windows let in more.
I had a chance to sit in some meeting when I was at Gensler. I was taken to the first meeting by Susana Covarrubias (LEED AP), she lead me around for most of the day. She took me to a pretty open space that they use for meeting. They where talking about a design job they had for Microsoft. To hear how these professionals talk to one anther was a great way to see what it would be like to be a profession. Team work is a was evident throughout the whole meeting. From their collaboration, I learned about what colors where in this season.
Though out the whole day I learned a may great things. From codes to how to interview a client and how to collect their information, as well as the impotent of lighting. I even had a chance to show and talk about some of my work with a professional. It a great thing that I have this blog, because if I did not, I don't think i would of had the chance to do that.
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