GAUX JEAUX BLOG #3

WEEKS 5-6

WEEK #5 FEB 10 -14

Week 5 at SWT was an eventful week back in the office after being sick for a week. On Monday, I jumped back into the swing of things at our two Monday morning meetings. We also had a Carbon Kick-off lunch and learn, led by Bonnie, that was quite informative and interesting. After the lunch and learn, Scott, Will, and I ran off to Jacob’s office for a design team meeting for SEED. On Tuesday, I had my first Mid-Quarter Review with and Bonnie. During this meeting we set up objectives for my development during my internship. I think it will be great to have these objectives to look back on and compare at the end of my internship to see which ones I have accomplished, or at least grown in.  They walked me through the qualitive evaluation process that all team members go through and explained to me why this is done and how it has helped them. Overall, the mid-quarter review was very helpful, and I appreciate the opportunity for evaluation and the focus on my growth and development while I am here at SWT. For the rest of the week I continued working on my research project, fully diving into Normandy Highschool now. Corey and I sent our final (for now) rendition of our interpretive signage for River Forest Park, which Lance and Corey loved! I imagine that the task will be almost over soon. Hopefully one day I can do see the signage. On Thursday, we had another Lunch and Learn with Midwest Groundcovers, which grew plants that were sold at the nursery I worked at two years ago, so it was interesting to get background information on their growing process as a full circle moment. On Thursday, I also got introduced to the Ozark master planning and Garrison Springs Park planning efforts. I worked on researching and beginning to build a basemap for the rest of the week. On Friday, Valentines Day, the office got donuts as a sweet treat, and it was a delicious cap to a great week here at SWT. 

WEEK #6 Feb 17-21 

Morning meetings, one with STL2 (my studio) + the KC studio, the other with all of SWT. That goes from all 4 studios, marketing, and accounting. I love getting to know some “behind the scenes” information through these meetings. I worked on my internship project and Ozark master planning research. Tuesday night it began to snow (WHY AGAIN) and piled on pretty heavy. I worked remote Tuesday and Wednesday I, along with most of the team, worked remote as the roads were snowy and icy. While working remote I continue working on Ozark master planning and garrison springs design plan research. There are several documents that are incredibly long and dense that I have been combing through for information. Sometimes it can be a hit or miss but it is great to find a piece of information that answers a question we have been trying to.  I didn’t have any other projects to work on while on snow days, so I worked on my internship project along with Ozark to make some headway in preparation for my approaching meeting with Bri. When finally, back in the office on Thursday I jumped right back into my routine. We had our Thursday Weekly Meeting, which is just studio STL2, where we did workload coordination. I joined a quick online meeting with Jacobs to talk design development for SEED STL. I also went out for lunch with Bri to talk about my internship project. I have decided to choose Normandy High School Demonstration Garden and Courtyard as my site location. I have chosen this site because is the alma mater of Micheal Brown. I want to create a design that both is a memorial to him and a testament to the resiliency of the school and area, both of which are underserviced. I will also be adding a scope to the project that SWT did not original have-which has been the best part of the internship project, making it my own. Not only will I be designing a garden and courtyard for Normandy, but I will also propose a masterplan of greenways connecting Normandy to other schools in the district and potentially even other high schools outside their district. I believe this will aid in my budding concept of resiliency in connection. Bri’s and I lunch meeting went great and I am excited to move forward on this project. Later on, I had a meeting with Scott and Andy, showing them the progress I had made in researching and on my GIS inventory and analysis map. We had a good talk about what I have learned so far and Scott gave me new steps to move forward on. For the rest of the week, I split my time between SEED, where I worked on a material collage based off a comment the client had made on materiality, and Ozark where I continued working on research and GIS. Overall, I had a great and productive week.