Student Summary:

In week 3 we started off with guest speaker, Andy Fossett who runs his own design build company, and he helped us with our design process. Then in the middle of the week we finished up our bigger models and digital models of the project and also discussed any extras to the projects, like a bench, colors, mosaics, or more hands on our 1st scheme. in the middle of the week we also developed a schedule and prepared for our client presentation on Friday. Finally on Friday we met at the library with Jenice Simmons and a few other community members to discuss which gateway we should use and where but they took a vote and it came to a tie.

Weekly Progress/Observations:

* Guest speaker: Andy Fossett

- runs a design build company

* Traditional model ( design Bid-Build) Vs. Design build

* Design Build

- Shortened process/faster

- More well informed on how it will be built

* Schedual and Budget

- Design to clients budget

* Budget

- Tax

- Contingency

- Materials

- Labor

- Design Services

- Space/Buy/Lease

* Schedual

- Plan in advance

- Multi-Task

- Criticle Path (prioritized activities that need to be completed on schedual)

* Finished models

* Developed a schedual

* Digital models and drawings

* Prepared for client presentation

* Visited last years project

* Visited the Richard M. Daley Library

* Talked to Jenice  Simmons (main contact, community developer, rewarding job, make improvements and build relationships with the community, works with block clubs, similar job to Obama, community organizer, masters in behavorial science)

* Friday Charrett

- No decision yet

- Critisism: Maintenence of mosaics, cost, maintenence, loitering, bench, safty, vandelism, 1st scheme taller, more light, colors, position, location

Kayla, workshop participant

Student Summary: During week 2 we had a guess speaker Thomas from studio Talo who discussed the design process with us. He explained to us that the design process is like a spiral, not a straight line.  So we had to come up with a list of design criteria that each of those designs must satisfy. After that we began to work on two new design schemes in which we had to split up in two groups, a design team and a build team. One scheme was the idea of a pair of hands holding a block. The hands would represent the community and the block would represent the actual blocks in the west Humboldt park community. This idea was taken from what some of the residents of that area had said. They said that the blocks were what made the community and the people in the community all try to work together to make them better. The second scheme was the idea of a body walking through this wall. It would give the effect of someone entering or exiting the community. This allowed us to speed up the process in which we were and get feedback from both teams that would help us all rise to one decision. And with that, we were able to make scale models, final sketches, and sketch-up models.

Weekly Progress/Observations:

- Thomas from Studio Talo came in to discuss the design process.

- many different creative styles of designing

- the design process is like a spiral, not a straight line

- split up into design team and build team

- began work on two new design schemes

- came up with a list of design criteria that each of those designs must satisfy

- Discuss the steps of the design process:

pre-design/criteria design- brainstorming, charrette, site visit

concept design/schematic- first generation of design ideas

design development think about money, time, construction detail, materials

construction documents all necessary drawings to get the job done, permit

purchasing-getting all the materials, best prices

build/pre-fabrication

site fabrication/installation

- Made scale models, sketches, sketch-up  models

Charmyne

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Student Summary:

We started the week with practice exercises in sketching. We visited the site to take measurements. We visited the Richard Daley Branch Library, and did background research about West Humboldt Park. We met with Cdot, and had shop orientation. On Friday we had the Community Design Charrette. We met at 9:00 at the Garfield Park Conservatory. Throughout the course of the day we discussed the ideas the community members had. After a long day of designing each group presented several possible designs for the Kedzie side of Chicago Ave.  By the end of the day we had a general list of ideas of what the community members wanted, and we were able to make a list of what the community members want, which includes: the use of hands as a welcoming symbol, lighting for under the viaduct, and bright colors to catch the attention of passing people. During the presentations the local alderman gave his views on the different designs. The Charrette has given us a glimpse of what the community members are looking for in this gateway.

Weekly Progress/Observations:

Community Design Charrette (Brainstorming ideas and bringing them together for one general idea in the design field)

—Spoke to community members

• Positive outlook on community
• Colorful
• Visibility
• Lighting
• For community members and visitors
• Create a destination
• Want a lasting structure

—Worked on design exercises

—Made collages of mural

—Presented ideas

—Visited Site to take Measurements

Welcome to the 2011 ACE Design Build Summer Workshop!  This year marks the second year of  partnership between the Chicago ACE Mentor Program and the Chicago Public Schools, making possible a fantastic opportunity for CPS high school youth interested in the design and construction industry!

Last year’s pilot program enrolled 12 CPS juniors (rising seniors) to work on a community design project for the Ujima Community Garden, near Garfield Park on Chicago’s west side.  This year’s team of 15 students will tackle an even bigger and more prominent project – designing and building a community gateway structure for the West Humboldt Park neighborhood, along Chicago Ave. West of Sacremento Blvd.!  The team will work closely with local community leaders and residents, the Chicago Dept. of Transportation, fabricators, and other professionals to deliver a capstone project along a stretch of Chicago Avenue which is seeing major street improvements along a three-mile length of road running through several neighborhoods and three aldermanic wards.  The project is made possible through generous funding by the Chicago Public Schools Youth Ready program, the Lend Lease Foundation, and a local TIFF grant providing construction funding.

For more information about this program, please contact acementorchicago@gmail.com or contact the program Director, Matt A. Snoap at msnoap@umich.edu

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Thank you!

Thank you to all of the talented and hardworking ACE students who participated this summer; and thank you to the many supporters of our inaugural summer program!

• ACE Chicago Board of Directors, Associate Board, and Supporting Professional Firms
• Chicago Public Schools
• Curie Metro High School
• Bovis Lend Lease
• Wight Construction
• West Humboldt Park Development Council
• the Ujima Community Garden
• Cobb Connection
• Arup Engineers
• Helios Design-Build
• Studio Talo
• Cushing Company
• Gibson Electric
• Sharchitecture
• the Rebuilding Exchange
• Chicago Water Jet
• the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign Landscape Architecture Department
• Claretian Associates
• Academy for Global Citizenship
• Chicago Center for Green Technology
• Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance
• Landscapes in Motion photography
• ..and many individual volunteers!

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Director Summary:

These handsome photos were taken earlier in the week.. before final completion.  Eleven Chicago Public School students, all entering their senior year, were responsible for the design and construcion of this rain harvesting garden tool shed!  The shed was built for the Ujima Community Garden on Chicago’s west side, but installed on a temporary site at the Cobb Connection Urban farm (N. St. Louis and W. Franklin Blvd.). 

Congratulations to all of our students for their hard work this summer and on a beautiful garden shed design!  Note that the shed was completed aproximately $100 under budget!  Thanks to successful student budgeting and to some timely donations (such as the fabrication of your trellis panels by Chicago Water-Jet, and discounts on our reclaimed wood cladding through the Rebuilding Exchange).  ..if only we had finished on time!

Matt Snoap (ACE Design-Build Director)

Student Summary:

This week for week 7 we are framing and building the wall panels for the tool shed. At the beginning of the week, one group of the team started cutting the reclaimed wood and another group started to stain the reclaimed wood, while other groups started the framing of the wall panels for the shed.  We’ve had little problems here and there, but we fixed them. The second day, we started to construct the wall panels. We just are almost done with the installation of the rain barriers for the wall panels. We are going to put in a window on the south elevation panel. Right now, we have most of the wall panels done for now. All that is left for the panels with the rain barriers is to install the cladding using the cut and stained reclaimed wood.

Next we will start the construction of the roof panels. We will frame them first to have a layout of the roof panels. After that we will install the rain barriers for the roof. We are going to put in two skylights for the roof so that the tool shed can have natural lighting.  And finally we will build the interior shelves and racks. At the end of this week and the beginning of next week, we will be at the site working on the foundation of the tool shed using concrete and tubing for the concrete. We will have the tool shed finished by the end of the 8^th and final week.

Steven Monroe (Workshop Participant)

Student Summary:

Week six was a tough week for us. We had a guest speaker come in, Carmen from Gibson Electric Company, he talked about how imporant it is to install electricity the correct way throughout a buildings, highrises, and homes. In his presention he had many complex drawing showing the power boxes, the electric room, how the wires are organize, etc. Carmen also gave us the idea to put some eltricity in our tool shed, so the people who is working inside to see; he suggested sensored lights. As you already know, we was over more budget by $3,000, so we had to redesign the toolshed. As as team, we decided to take away the greenhouse because this alone was $2,000. The client can still put up a greenhouse in the future.The design team had to redo all the cad drawing and hand drawing for the new shed. We still have our unique roofing, but we had to shorten the size. The build team worked on the budget, and made sure we caught up with our schedule. Starting next week we are going to have to start building the shed!

Jenice (workshop participant)

Student Summary:

It’s already week 5 and we have accomplished very much in that short period of time. At the beginning of week 5, we had Todd Zima and Aash Desai visit and lecture us. Aash helped us with the budget and Todd discussed the new de Young museum. Designing this building involved using Computer Aided Manufacturing to create the copper panels on the exterior of the building.

During the rest of the week we continued to work on construction drawings (design team) and we also finished the tool shed model, foundation drawings, and we finished the budget (build team).

Friday was the day we finally met with the client to present our hard work. For the most part, they loved the design. The only problems they had with the shed was it’s foundation and it’s size, and also it’s cost of about $6,000 (our budget is only $3,000).

- Erica

Student Summary:

On week four we started off with two lectures. Matt .B and Matt.D showed up at Curie on monday to talk about materials, and structures. From there the design team started finalizing the concept plans for the shed. The build team putting the final walls for the physical model for the 1/4″ scale model. And started working on the 1/2″ scale model. Also we had the quantity take off. So the build team made a list of the materials that are need for the shed. At the end of the week we had a field trip to Home depot and to the re-build exchange, which we took prices for the list that we made of materials.

Workshop Observations:

• Monday we had lectures from Matt. B, Matt. D. They talked about different materials, and their companies, and also talked the museum in chicago and the flying carpet which is a bridge.
• We worked on the elevation of the shed. the build team was started constructing a 1/2″ physical model.
• Quantity take off
• We created a list of materials that we are going to need for the shed. And then went to Home depot.
• We visited the re-build exchange building and Home depot. We looked for materials. And took the prices for some materials.