September 5, 2012

An Intern’s Perspective

We were lucky to have Milo Farley join us for part of the summer, before he headed off to college.  We asked him to write a little about his experiences here.  This is what he sent us:

In July, Kuhn Riddle Architects hired me as an intern to help out around the office. I’d been looking for work all summer, so I was excited about having finally found gainful employment.

When I got to the office I was given the job of inventorying an abandoned cubicle. During its stretch of uninhabitation it had turned into a sort of limbo; people had filled it with items that weren’t being used but were too useful to throw away.

I figured that since this inventory was my first assignment I ought to do a really good job. Thus I went about meticulously inventorying literally every object in the cubicle:

2 paper clips (red)
89 sheets of cardboard (brown)
1 Cave Dancers CD
…and so on.

 

After I submitted my extraordinarily detailed inventory I went off to lunch. Upon returning I was approached by various people who complimented me on the inventory I had made. I took this in stride. However after about three people did this, I started to wonder if everyone in the office had seen it.

It turns out they had.

My inventory had been forwarded around the office with a mixture of admiration (for the good job I had done) and baffled amusement (who counts different colors of paper clip?).

Doing an efficient inventory was just one of the things I learned while at Kuhn Riddle. Collating drawing sets, updating the Kuhn Riddle blog, and organizing archived files all became common duties. And during my time I learned much more than I had expected to about architecture and office life in general. RFPs, CDs (not the disks!), submittal transmittals, and LEED ratings all became part of my lexicon.

When I think back on it, that first inventory experience informed my entire time at Kuhn Riddle. Everyone is serious about their work but maintains a great sense of humor simultaneously. I assume they’re excellent architects, but I know for sure they’re great people to work with.