I have been in Los Angeles for a week now, and I just finished my first week at Neil Denari’s office in West LA.  I tried not to expect too much when I started work on Monday, and I have been pleasantly surprised with the level of work that they have entrusted to me!

Throughout the last week, I’ve worked on a context and site model for one of their new projects, drawn a set of plans for Neil which he used in his lecture presentation at SciArc on Wednesday, helped the other interns photoshop some renderings for a fifty percent design meeting that Neil had with a client on Friday (which apparently went well!) and began working on a digital re-modeling of a project that has recently undergone several changes.

More importantly than the work I have been able to assist the office with, this first week has been a great learning experience as to how a small and very talented design office operates. To use a quote from Neil in one of our conversations: “This program is less about you doing things for us, and more about you becoming an autodidact of sorts; being able to learn about what we do and why.”  I’m very grateful for my reception at the office, and for Neil’s willingness to teach over the limited time that I have here.