Aidan Green: Environmental Architecture, Week Three

Wow! It has already been three weeks. How time flies. It is hard to think I only have one more week with my great host family and the lovely coastal climate. I truly can not believe I will be on a flight to Denver in just seven days! Over the past week, I have done a lot. In life outside of the internship I have done a lot with the Hans family and brothers, Mikey and Kevin. We have had a Game of Thrones marathon, yet were are only getting through two or three episodes throughout the week. We have played a bunch of old Nintendo games that have been downloaded on their Wii. We have played games such as Super Smash Bros and Mario Kart 64. It has been really fun and we created a tournament system to see who is the best of the best. We have played basketball and got wings at a local place. It has been a really fun week, but also full of learning.

Inside the office and intern life I have participated in more meetings and on site tours of buildings. I have read more articles expanding my knowledge of sea level rise and architecture. Now I am taking the information I have gained and started transforming it into a Prezi (power point) for the use of presenting and showing people what I have learned. I am trying to create a Prezi that flows well from topic to topic while being interesting and informational. The next step once I have created the Prezi is to present my Prezi to Reinaldo, my boss, to see what he thinks and for me to feedback on the quality of the presentation and how to improve it. I hope it goes well and that I have created a decent presentation. Along with working at my desk on the Prezi and reading articles I have done a lot of on-sight learning. I sat in on a long, but interesting meeting in an area of Miami called Wynwood. Wynwood is the art district of Miami which used to be old warehouses covered in graffiti and art that were transformed into

a hip and new district with bars, restaurants and retail stores. A big part of the Wynwood goal is to hold onto the hipster, artsy feel with art present. The meeting was held in the Wynwood Business Improvement District (BID) office. BID’s goal is to preserve the culture and feel of Wynwood so any new building projects have to go through the Wynwood BID office to see whether or not the building will follow Wynwood standard. The meeting was based around architectural firms presenting building ideas to the Wynwood BID committee as they discus the pros and cons of the building and if the design would fit in the Wynwwod area without takings away from the art. A big part of the meeting was that any signs put on the buildings would have to be hand painted. It was an interesting meeting to see the process of how buildings can be approved. I really enjoyed going to the meeting in Wynwood because I was able to see some of the art around the area and have a great lunch of fried shrimp tacos! Its a very interesting

area which I would love to walk around more, taking better and more photos with the hope to possibly draw. Along with participating in the Wynwood meeting I also went to to an on sight meeting at a construction sight in Miami beach. The building I visited is considered a historic building of the area and the conversations had were based about whether or not the building should just be repaired or taken down. I don’t fully understand the regulations and rules about Miami buildings, but in this case if all the residents of the building sign a form selling their apartment to a new buyer and client then they have permission to demolish the building and start from new. To start from new is preferred so the building can become more resilient, pretty, and functional. Also it would be a big project for the firm I work in. So my boss wants the building gone. While there, we toured the inside of the deteriorating building and took a piece of concrete with us back to the office to be sent in for testing to see whether or not the concrete is still in good condition, safe and strong. After visiting the building, my boss showed me around man made islands of Miami that have some of the most expensive houses and real-estate of the area, yet they are the most prone to be affected by sea level rise. The two islands we visited are called Hibiscus island and Palm island. They sit in between Miami Beach and Miami. On both of the islands Borges office has built and is building houses there all of which are sea level rise ready, when a lot of the nice villa houses are not. This was very educational and fun for me. STRANG architecture has also built houses on these islands. STRANG is a firm based out of Coconut Grove Miami, with an office in Telluride where I interned last winter.

Well there you have it. That’s what I did last week and I am looking forward to next week, except for the fact it is my last week.