Next Week:

According to our schedule, we will be meeting at Thorton Tomasetti’s office Thursday, November 3, 2011. Their office is located at 330 N. Wabash Avenue, in Suite 1500 (on the 15^th floor):

The entrance looks like this:

You will get an introduction to both Construction and Engineering. We have a fun engineering activity planned as well!

Let’s recap our last meeting, October 27:

First Part: a building-type guessing game.

We learned that even though we may not be familiar with a building, there are certain characteristics that can indicate its function. For example, retail spaces often display their wares to people both on the street and already in the store:

Something that tripped us up a little was seeing a pool at a healthcare facility. We usually figure that pools are used for sports but we learned that they can be used for physical therapy rehab (as in rehabilitation after surgery or an accident or something, not like Celebrity Rehab).

We also learned that sometimes, buildings have multiple purposes. The Roman Coliseum was once a sports facility but is now a museum:

Second Part: Gensler Office Tour

The architect mentors gave us a tour of their office. Their office is situated in a very famous building built by Louis Sullivan in 1899. It’s actually a Chicago Landmark!

The mentors showed us our desks (which I thought were a lot cleaner than mine) and a lot of you saw how a lot of them had two computer screens. Architects now work with computers to create designs and just like it’s easier to work with a drawing on a large piece of paper, it’s easier to design on a computer with lots of screen space.

Third Part: Murder Mystery

We played a game in which we had to guess the profession of three suspects (architect, engineer or construction manager) in a “murder mystery.” We asked them questions like:

“What time do you arrive at work and leave every day?”
“What do you wear to work?”
“Where did you go to school?”

We also tried to guess whodunit by connecting each suspect to the “clues” left behind at the scene of the crime. The clues were a roll of drawings, a scale, a calculator, a hard hat and finally a schedule wheel. While all three professions make use of drawings, scales, calculators and hard hats, the schedule wheel gave it away as the construction manager. Schedule is one of the biggest concerns for construction managers.

Here are some other photos we took last night:

And the part you’ve all been waiting for…

ACE Team Six Trivia of the Week

The primary purpose of steel bars in reinforced concrete buildings is:

A) To strengthen to concrete wherever there is a tension or pulling force.
B) To hold up the formwork until the concrete has hardened.
C) To strengthen the concrete evenly because it has very little strength.
D) Both B and C.

Leave your answer in the comments! Please be sure to include your name. The first to respond correctly will win a prize!