On July 6th, we attended the BLDD mid-year meeting at the Eastview Christian Church, in Normal, IL where all five offices congregated at a single location. We wanted to share our thoughts of the experience and how we, as interns, learned a thing or two from that trip.
The mid-year meeting was a fun-filled day for us. We got to take a tour of the Eastview Christian Church and had a group activity planned for the remainder of the afternoon. We were split up into 5 teams and were tasked to come up with a design for the kids at the YWCA. With our creative pants and our thinking shoes on, we came up with several fun and exciting designs. The kids from the YWCA aided us with our creations which made the designs even more compelling.
Kayla from the Decatur, IL office thinks that the ‘creative side’ is sometimes lost while trying to pin down the reality of constructing a building. Because of that, she found the mid-year meeting to be a refreshing take on what made her choose architecture as a career – the creative imagination! She says that the kids had the wildest ideas and gave a fresh new take on what design could potentially become.
Lena from the Davenport, IA really enjoyed working with the kids and was impressed with the ideas they were coming up with. Like Kayla, she believes that there is more potential when you think outside the box and let your imagination run wild. Anything is possible if you put your mind to it and work together as a team.
Ninevah from the Chicago, IL office shares her favorite moment when she had a conversation with Mitchell from the YWCA. Mitchell told her that his favorite class was social studies, because of his teacher who continually encouraged him to think that he was capable of anything he put his mind to. His teacher was his constant motivator and inspiration. According to Ninevah, this moment with Mitchell became a quick reminder for her to always keep her head up under pressure and that she is capable of anything.
As for me, it was a real treat to get to work with the kids because they ultimately led all our design decisions and brought out our inner childhood imagination. It was a great team building exercise that helped me get a grasp on how things work in real world scenarios; i.e. working with limited resources, coming up with on the spot changes and modifications, etc. Overall, it was really nice to take a break from the workroom and spend the day getting to know all the wonderful people from the other offices.
Until next time,
The Interns of BLDD
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