Emily Poulter - February 24,2020
Hey everyone,
I am so sad to not be in Louisiana right now. Being a native Louisianian spending Mardi Gras out of state makes me feel like a fish out of water. The only thing that makes it okay is that we have had 4 king cakes in the office so far. None of them are as good as the ones from home. Riley's parents came to visit last weekend and my parents were visiting this weekend. My mom brought me a creme brulee king cake with chocolate frosting that is absolutely amazing. The best part about having them here is that we have been eating at all types of restaurants. Yall.The.Food.Here.Is.So.Good. Austin is one of the 5 food capitols of the country. Im sorry but Nola does not compare. Unless you only like fried food.
The past few weeks I have been working on really fast pace projects. One project is a multilevel building where we are designing the outside terraces. There are crazy slanted planters that are weird shapes. For this project I read through all of their specs to make sure there were no errors. I also created take offs and checked the design packets for errors.
Another project I am working on is a project that we just entered after the last landscape architects were fired. I had to fix a bunch of their sections on Photoshop because they literally made no sense. I also had to make new sections that looked like the old ones. The other companies that we are working with are essentially the worst partner you've ever had in a group project. The first issue was that the title block they sent us on indesign was an image on a ind document that could not be edited. After we finally got them to send us an editable title block, they wouldn't share the font with us. THEY CHOSE A FONT THAT WAS $87 FOR ONE. Not a package that had bold medium regular and light. Just the bold. thats it. $87 . And the office said due to licensing issues they weren't sharing it with us. Why would they chose a font that was this expensive and not share? Horrible group project partner right there. After all of that. We were supposed to resubmit this document to the city last Tuesday, February 18th. We still haven't submitted it because the engineers and architects are behind. So what have I learned in the past two weeks? Group projects never get better guys. Its not just in college.
Another project I am working on is for an amenity center for a neighborhood development in dripping springs Texas. I had to make sure the site has the correct number of street trees, buffer trees, parking trees and buffer shrubs. The codes this city has are absolutely wack. At first the city told us we had to use each tree for only one credit (street, parking or buffer) which essentially meant there were so many trees between the row and parking that no landscape treatments were possible. We finally got them to let us use the trees for all three credits so now there is space for other things.
What have I learned from this? New cities that are smaller have codes and ordinances that are not developed and are open ended. My boss said she is going to talk to the city and tell them that the codes are hard to understand and follow.
I am currently designing a multi level pool deck for an amenity center that deals with 10 ft of grade change. I have free rein over what this will look like so that is exciting.
I have been using landfx and its extremely handy. It makes plant schedules for you. It also labels and counts plants which saves so much time. I haven't been able to use any civil 3D programs because I have FXcad not regular autocad. I also dont do any 3D rendering because we have a guy in the office who exclusively does that for us.
Happy Mardi Gras everyone!
I cant wait until spring break where Ill meet up with Haley and Kat in Atlanta to go to Paris and Germany. I also am super excited to visit Claytin in May. What are everyone's spring break plans now that you have money to spend?! Does anyone have any other fun trips planned?
P.S.
Riley and I are going back to BR for the St Pattys Day parade and a baby shower so at least I will get one parade in this season!
Cheers,
Emily
I am so sad to not be in Louisiana right now. Being a native Louisianian spending Mardi Gras out of state makes me feel like a fish out of water. The only thing that makes it okay is that we have had 4 king cakes in the office so far. None of them are as good as the ones from home. Riley's parents came to visit last weekend and my parents were visiting this weekend. My mom brought me a creme brulee king cake with chocolate frosting that is absolutely amazing. The best part about having them here is that we have been eating at all types of restaurants. Yall.The.Food.Here.Is.So.Good. Austin is one of the 5 food capitols of the country. Im sorry but Nola does not compare. Unless you only like fried food.
We went to Rileys restaurant for brunch yesterday and the executive chef sent us a bunch of food for free. This was my favorite thing we got. Its a board with all homemade dips. Pinto bean hummus, house made spicy yogurt, beet puree, chopped marinated carrots with candied pecans, and cabbage dip with house made pita. Riley is learning to make some crazy meat products at Dai Due. Everything on their menu is made in house including all bread and dairy products and beet ketchup. All of their ingredients are stored in glass and huge ceramic jars. Walking into the restaurant makes you feel like you're back in the 50s when food was actually good.
Last Friday afternoon my parents and I went to McKinney falls state park. There were huge rock formations, waterfalls and caves to swim in when its warmer. I thought it was pretty amazing how the water cuts into the rock. Being from Louisiana, seeing any huge rocks is cool.
The Mexican Plum tree is blooming all over right now. Yall remember Fryling showing us this? It smells like tacos!!
Texas Redbuds are also blooming. I cant wait for spring to get here for two reason. 1.Flowers will start blooming like crazy. 2. I can finally use my apartments pool.
Right now the big grassy areas along the interstate entrances are starting to bloom! People have told me that by spring there are flowers everywhere you look. Ill post a picture when they are in full bloom.
I thought this plant looked pretty cool :D
Another project I am working on is a project that we just entered after the last landscape architects were fired. I had to fix a bunch of their sections on Photoshop because they literally made no sense. I also had to make new sections that looked like the old ones. The other companies that we are working with are essentially the worst partner you've ever had in a group project. The first issue was that the title block they sent us on indesign was an image on a ind document that could not be edited. After we finally got them to send us an editable title block, they wouldn't share the font with us. THEY CHOSE A FONT THAT WAS $87 FOR ONE. Not a package that had bold medium regular and light. Just the bold. thats it. $87 . And the office said due to licensing issues they weren't sharing it with us. Why would they chose a font that was this expensive and not share? Horrible group project partner right there. After all of that. We were supposed to resubmit this document to the city last Tuesday, February 18th. We still haven't submitted it because the engineers and architects are behind. So what have I learned in the past two weeks? Group projects never get better guys. Its not just in college.
Another project I am working on is for an amenity center for a neighborhood development in dripping springs Texas. I had to make sure the site has the correct number of street trees, buffer trees, parking trees and buffer shrubs. The codes this city has are absolutely wack. At first the city told us we had to use each tree for only one credit (street, parking or buffer) which essentially meant there were so many trees between the row and parking that no landscape treatments were possible. We finally got them to let us use the trees for all three credits so now there is space for other things.
What have I learned from this? New cities that are smaller have codes and ordinances that are not developed and are open ended. My boss said she is going to talk to the city and tell them that the codes are hard to understand and follow.
I am currently designing a multi level pool deck for an amenity center that deals with 10 ft of grade change. I have free rein over what this will look like so that is exciting.
I have been using landfx and its extremely handy. It makes plant schedules for you. It also labels and counts plants which saves so much time. I haven't been able to use any civil 3D programs because I have FXcad not regular autocad. I also dont do any 3D rendering because we have a guy in the office who exclusively does that for us.
Happy Mardi Gras everyone!
I cant wait until spring break where Ill meet up with Haley and Kat in Atlanta to go to Paris and Germany. I also am super excited to visit Claytin in May. What are everyone's spring break plans now that you have money to spend?! Does anyone have any other fun trips planned?
P.S.
Riley and I are going back to BR for the St Pattys Day parade and a baby shower so at least I will get one parade in this season!
Cheers,
Emily
Damn Emily sounds like you're having a great time at your job. I can imagine how beautiful Austin (THE CITY....) will be in the spring and I wish I could see it.
ReplyDeleteThis year has been a record high for, in terms of how many king cakes I've eaten. We've reliably had at least on in the office at all times, and I'm not complaining about it.
So cool that you get to do some designing of your own! It seems like most entry level people at Design Workshop exclusively work on project deliverables.
ReplyDeleteGood for you for taking spring break off. How was the process for asking for an entire week off of work as an intern? I'm often tentative to ask for time off being a so new to a company, even just a day. That being said you've gotta do it- taking time off is important.
ReplyDelete