This week consisted of two intense projects. Last week Kelly took a trip up to Ft. Collins to start a new mixed use historical preservation project. This project consists of taking an old Feed and Supply building near the railroad tracks, renovating it, and dividing it into several business, retail as well as restaurant. My job was to take the as built plans and elevations, which were very poor and lacking quite a bit of information, using Kelly’s photos and measurements from the site visit and creating a Revit file of the building to then deliver to the main architects, Roth Sheppherd which is also located in Denver, for them to begin concept sketches on the project. Our job in this project is not to be the head designers, but point for the client to try and get a historical grant, as well as advice them on all of the specifications to meet landmark preservation standards and restrictions. Therefore, it was very important in the Revit drawings to capture the important historical aspects such as the existing façade, grain elevators, windows, roof, headhouse, etc. Honestly, the building was what I like to call a franken-building, and has seen better days. I am glad that it will be receiving a facelift, yet keep it’s historic value, details, and charm.
The rest of the week was filled with finishing this phase of work on the McNichols model, which included alterations to the third floor lobby, stairs, and access to the catwalk, all of which I was responsible for modeling the changes.
The very last part of my week was spent beginning to gather materials and prepare for a trip I will be taking with Dennis early next week up to Eagle, Colorado, just thirty minutes west of Vail for a workshop with the staff at the library up there, to gather information from our clients of what they are looking for and beginning that new relationship.
Maddie Schneider's Internship 
This week sounds like a very interesting week. I too have been in charge of creating drawings from photos but I used AutoCAD instead of Revit. I found it difficult to get the possitions of some of the elements correct from just the pictures. Did you find any similar challenges in your work?
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Yes, it is very difficult to build a model off of pictures. We usually take measurements in the field as well, but it is impossible to measure everything you need, so a little bit of it is guess and check. We also try and use any existing drawings from the building department as reference for our models.
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Maddie this project sounds amazing! Maybe I’m a little biased because of my past in Ft. Collins but nonetheless it is really great you are getting to work on this. I see a tremendous value in renovations because they don’t take up anymore of our beautiful untouched nature. Not to mention that renovation like this where there is a historical aspect give inspiration to the new purpose of the building as well as add a great story to the site. Keep up the great updates!
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Sounds like you are getting to work on quite a diversity of work! Have you found it hard to get Revit to capture that historicness of the Ft. Collins building? How did you go about making sure that Revit did capture some of the key aspects of this project?
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The building is a little bit of a franken-building, and our scope of work on this project was just to provide historic drawings and floor plans for another firm to do the design work on. Therefore, it wasn’t terribly important that the building reflect it’s age, just it’s shape and size.
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The project in Ft. Collins sounds like a really interesting one and one that is taking place in so many urban areas around the country! It is great that they are considering historic aspects of this and how it will enhance the character of the new uses. Has your experience during your internship made you develop more of an interest for historic preservation? This can be such a specific aspect of architecture and design and has its own set of policies, guidelines, and codes, but is such an interesting specialty.
I am also glad you are going to Eagle for the workshop!
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Yes, since I have been working on several preservation projects, and our firm does a lot of historic work, I have developed quite an interest in these types of projects. What’s interesting is that if a building is registered as historic, original parts have to be preserved. If it is not already registered as historic, the owners can apply for grants to help pay for restorations as long as they preserve certain parts of buildings.
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