20 Aug Thank You DC

These past few weeks in DC have been fun and full of achievements. The internship has come to an end, so today I will be sharing an overview of my experience with HABS(Historic American Buildings Survey) and LHIP(Latino Heritage Internship Program) in DC. This summer the team that I was part of documented a Row House in the Woodley Park area of DC. This house called a day lighter was known and popular for its natural light and ventilation that was integrated into its design. After ten weeks, we finished all the drawings and ended up with the results seen below.

We finished with a total of six sheets which included the drawings of the elevation, two floor plans, a section, and door and frame details. I enjoyed the whole process ever since we started. I would say that my favorite part was hand sketching at the site, and later seeing the result in CAD makes it even more exciting. I’m so grateful for the opportunity I got, to learn how to use a laser scanner and a point cloud to draw the elevation, although it was challenging at times its incredible how tools help us document certain things easier.

This internship gave me so many experiences, apart from getting to know my coworkers and learning new techniques and acquiring professional experience hopefully for my future career in this field, I got to meet and network with people in the architecture and heritage fields. I even had the opportunity to show my work to an American Institute of Architects Historic American Buildings Survey Steering Committee. This exposed me to issues that the Heritage Documentation program is going through and how the program works, it also further reassured me on how important the education on documentation is and how more people should learn and know about HABS documentation. One of my new goals is to one day hopefully become a member of that group and help further the knowledge of HABS on others.

This internship couldn’t have been possible without all my mentors throughout all these years. Starting off from the ones in Architecture school who introduced me to HABS documentation and encouraged me to participate in competitions and to even apply to HABS internships. Also couldn’t have been possible without my professors at Upenn who encouraged us to apply for this internship as well. But most importantly the LHIP and HABS for selecting me and giving me such an amazing summer filled with opportunities to further my skills. Thank you, I truly loved my job and all the people I met along the way, and I will never forget it.

Before I officially sign off from my blogs I want to thank you, the reader, for visiting my page. I hope that my experiences as told by me have been of some use or enjoyment to you all.

Adios o Hasta Luego,

-Mónica

Ps. Contact Information

Email: moni.ortz.archs@gmail.com

Figure 1. Elevation Process made in AutoCad. 

Figure 2. Section process made in AutoCad. 

Figure 3. Plan process made in AutoCad.