Aw fiddlesticks guys, I’m so disappointed that I couldn’t go to the site visit last week, but I hope everyone else had a good time!  In case anyone else missed the site visit, our group met at the University of Chicago Medical Center, and got to peek around at this hospital in progress.  It was a great opportunity to see some of the things we’ve been talking about in class when learning about the architecture, engineering, and construction fields and how they work together.  Hopefully some of you guys that went were able to take the activities we’ve been doing in class and see how they are done in actuality, and how complex the systems are to be integrated into a final product.

Some of the cool things that were featured included the generator room with four massive machines, that totaled some spare change worth of $2 million a pop, and a giant piece of glass located in the lobby which had to be specially manufactured and shipped from China.  The project was also configured on a 31.5 foot grid that enabled a wide structural span allotting unobstructed space for nursing and lab stations.  Special MEP design was also used in the surgery rooms, which was done to reduce infection in patients and staff.  And while all these design elements of the building  were pretty sweet, I was told that everyone was still pretty enamored with the fact that every patient room got their own flat screen TV… come on yo, you can see a ton of flat screens at any electronic store.  It’s fine, you guys will all become nerdy eventually when you stop dead in your tracks on a street and exclaim and point, “Wow, that’s a really nice connection detail!” and proceed in taking pictures of it for 15 minutes … I’m pretty sure it’s a requirement when becoming an architect/construction manager/ engineer.  Just you wait.

Since I wasn’t able to go on the site visit, you guys tell me (via comment on this blog), what was your favorite thing about the site visit this past week? (Both ACE students and mentors are welcome to answer!)

[slideshow]Next meeting:

Goettsch Partners office @ 224 South Michigan Ave, Floor 17

4:30 – 6:30 on 24 January

Next meeting will be focusing on our theatre, and hopefully we can get a program pretty much nailed down this week.  Some come to the meeting with ideas!  We’ll be finished the bubble diagrams that we started two weeks ago and then we’ll be working on a quick-paced charette!  These are fun, a little stressful, but really good for ideas…and don’t be discouraged if your charette doesn’t turn out perfect, these are  supposed to be intuition based and pretty loose…so come ready just to have a little bit of design fun.  See you on Tuesday!