We wrapped up our last day in the Boston office with Angela. She arranged two important meetings for us. One was with Catherine McCandless, the Climate Change and Environmental Planning Project Manager for the City of Boston, and the second one was with Austin Gregory, the Chief of Operations and Engineering at Backyard ADU (Accessory Dwelling Unit).

Catherine McCandless gave us a great presentation about the roadmap for creating a stronger and more resilient city. She explained how the city is facing a flood issue in the future and she gave us a quick review of the projects they've been working on collaboratively with a long list of creative people involved in the process.

After that meeting, we met with Austin Gregory. He also desired to enlighten us on his field work. He walked us through a couple of projects and explained the differences and similarities between traditional construction and modular home assembly. We also talked about how the tiny house movement supports the demand on building more modular houses and units. It was fun to learn about a different construction, and it definitely changes perspectives on the different aspects of the building process.

Overall, this was one of the best work experiences I've had within the architecture field. I've learned and experienced so many different aspects of my field. I had a chance to observe the process of Housing Development and Management. Seeing how team work actually matters in every department of the work and how everybody pushes themselves and each other to deliver the best results was incredible and inspiring. Everybody in the company was willing to answer questions and share their experiences. Thank you to everyone at WinnCompanies who helped to provide this externship opportunity!

Shout out to the greatest Intern Supervisors and Developers, Angela and Martin!

Diagram showing  Swampscott Housing Project design iteration process

Today, we were in the Boston office with Angela. We shadowed her in her Teams meetings and then Catherine and I joined the ones about Salem and Braintree Projects (the site we visited yesterday). We had 5 different follow up meetings in total. It was nice to see the work flow and how every individual doing their best to deliver the most out of everything in the team.

Today, Catherine and I joined WinnCompanys’ Braintree office. Martin, the developer, hosted us patiently during his busy Tuesday schedule filled with consecutive team meetings. The first meeting we attended was focused on the Swampscott project and permits. We attended the meeting with architects, project managers, developers, and the analytics and finance departments. We discussed financial models, tasks, and due dates before we jumped into an extension of this meeting with an MBTA coordinator. 

The second meeting was mostly focused on the permits and the required/necessary documents that need to be exchanged with MBTA. The MBTA is involved in the Swampsccott project because there is a commuter railway fence ten feet away from the site. In case of any possible accidents, emergencies, or discoveries at the site, the MBTA requires extra documentation.

The third meeting was about unit specifications of the new construction and a building in Rehab. We discussed price and category adjustments, materials, bathroom, kitchen, paints, doors, and etc. 

The last zoom meeting we attended was with David, the director of analytics and finance. He shared his insightful perspectives on financial modeling, as well as how he approaches his precise calculations and finalizing his presentations. He showed us different projects and we discussed his thinking process as well as how to become more accurate with calculations and currently valuing project components and other details.

Among the projects that David shared with us, I enjoyed the Wells school project in Southbridge, MA. The greater than 100-year-old historic school building was transformed into a residency with 62 apartments for seniors aged 55 and older. The renovations for the building cost $25.7 million dollars. They offer 1- and 2-bedroom apartments, a fitness center, a crafting room, a theatre room, and a lounge room plus an outdoor patio seating. This is my favorite design and development project at WinnCompanies so far. 

Overall, today was another productive day that ended with a spooky site visit to an abandoned building in Braintree, MA with Matthew from AXIOM environmental engineers. The building was Braintree Electric Light Department (BELD) at 44 Allen Street.

P.S. Thank you to Maria Sardinas for visiting us at the Braintree office in the morning!