Architectural Design with Technical Expertise
In the fall of 2019 I started back at school at Western Dakota Technical College's Computer Aided Design program as a career change from the production welding I had been doing for almost a decade. The welding career itself had come about after not completing a Computer Science degree after High School and working in tech support. I enjoyed welding but the physicality and schedule of the job was catching up to me. In the intervening years between my first attempt at college I had matured as a student and was able to graduate Summa Cum Laude with my Associates Degree.
I had an internship doing CAD and Revit work while attending Western Dakota Tech at a company that creates pre-manufactured bathrooms and kitchenettes; I continued at that company after graduating and, on the design side, ended up taking the bathrooms and kitchenettes from our clients' architectural plans and adapting them to fit with our pre-manufacturing process. This included the design of the shell in light gauge steel framing all the way through to detailing specific fixtures, finishes, and equipment in order to meet our clients' design goals.
This was a small company where everyone wears many hats so my responsibilities also included being a Project Manager for particular production runs which included, coordinating the design with our client's design team, working with our client's construction team to coordinate schedule and shipping, making Bills of Material for our procurement team to ensure that materials were available on schedule, working with the production floor manager to keep track of progress and schedules, being a part of the QA/QC team ensuring that a quality product was shipped to the jobsite, and, finally, filling in on the production floor when necessary. This last role gave me hands-on experience in everything we did on the production floor including the aforementioned light gauge steel framing, drywall hanging and finishing, painting, electrical and plumbing rough-in and finishing as well as tile setting.
In my last semester at Western Dakota Tech we had a speaker come in and tell us about an opportunity from Dunwoody College of Technology for people with two year degrees in CAD to obtain a Bachelor's Degree in Architecture by attending Dunwoody, online, for three more years. I wasn't able to take advantage of that opportunity directly after graduating from Western Dakota Tech, but after a few years of building up finances my wife and I decided that I should be able to do that. I applied and was accepted and was able to start that program in the fall of 2024.
Knowing I wanted to do that and wanting to get a jump on recording AXP hours I started looking for a different job because the pre-manufacturing job didn't have any architects to facilitate recording AXP hours. I wasn't able to find an architecture job but was able to find a position at an MEP engineering job on the electrical desk doing CAD drafting and Revit modeling. They especially needed help in updating their in-house Revit families and having done a fair bit of that for the pre-manufacturing job, I was a good fit to help them with that and have exhausted the AXP hours I am allowed to obtain in the "O" alternative setting for recording those hours. I have been in that position, working full time and getting an even deeper education in the MEP side of building design while taking classes at Dunwoody and maintaining a 4.0 GPA.
In addition to doing well in the classwork at Dunwoody, I have been enjoying being able to flex my artistic and design sensibilities. I had taken many art classes in High School including a painting independent study in my senior year where I painted 5 paintings in different historical styles and I have had a jewelry making hobby for a number of years but I haven't painted since high school and the jewelry making is an on again/off again hobby as I find time for it so I am looking forward to being able to use those skills in a professional setting.
Now, as I am coming to my final year at Dunwoody, I am looking to be able to apply those design skills as well as the project management and construction skills I have acquired along the way to an architectural position and, eventually, become fully a fully licensed architect.
