Field Paoli

When you’re in high school, unless you know an architect, you probably don’t know much about what architects do. Or engineers, or contractors, for that matter. You spend time in buildings most hours of the day, but the process by which those buildings came into being remains a mystery. And even if you happen to be the sort of person who might be drawn to one of the AEC professions, you might not ever have a chance to find out whether it’s your cup of tea or not. Luckily, the ACE Mentor Program of America is changing that.

I first started volunteering for ACE when I was working toward my architect’s license in 2010. I had to put in a number of volunteer hours to fulfill the requirements, and I wanted to do something related to architecture. Founded in New York in 1994, ACE is now a nationwide nonprofit organization dedicated to helping high school students explore careers in design and construction. The idea is that professional architects, engineers, and contractors give a few hours of their time for sixteen weeks a year to mentor the students, usually in their own offices. To get the word out, mentors also go out to high schools to give presentations or just connect with teachers or college counselors who can point students in ACE’s direction. Anyone, freshman to senior, can sign up—we don’t turn anyone away.

The program gives students a perspective they haven’t had before. Before they come into the program, for instance, students tend to think architects sit around drawing napkin sketches! We invite professionals in to give presentations on various topics, from building information modeling to structural engineering. The students ask a lot of questions, too. They always ask how much architects make, and so we show them the statistics. We tell them that if you go into this field, it won’t be for the money—it will be because you like it. We don’t ever really get questions about work/life balance. I don’t think that’s even on their radar.

We hope to inspire students to pursue a career in the AEC industry, whether by going into the construction trade or an apprenticeship program, or by taking the traditional college route. Of course, once we give them an idea of all the nitty-gritty details of the industry, some decide they don’t want to pursue architecture or engineering, and that’s fine. A lot of what we’re trying to teach is teamwork, communication, and presentation skills—which are useful no matter what they end up doing for a career.

They get excited when we show them construction pictures or get to visit a site. A lot of them never knew that architects are involved in the construction process too, that we visit sites to check how the work’s proceeding and make sure that our design intent is being followed.

Along the way, students work in teams to design a project—this year, it was a single-family home. We gave each team a client with a profile and a persona, and they had to design a house to meet the particular needs of that client.

On May 20, the 12 San Francisco Bay Area teams put on a show at the Autodesk Gallery, displaying the projects they’d designed. It was like a science fair.

The program can be transformative. We actually have a former ACE mentee working here at Field Paoli. I remember another student from the first year I volunteered for ACE. He was very quiet, and English was probably his second language. It was really hard to get him to engage with his group at first. Then one day, we brought in modeling supplies, and everything clicked for him. He was so into the project that he brought the model home to work on, carried it with him through the school day, and then brought it here after school. It was so exciting to see him come alive.

One of my favorite activities is the one we use to teach them about scale. Because when we draw a building, we obviously can’t fit the whole thing on the page, actual size. So we bring in a batch of Hostess Cupcakes, the ones with the cream filling and the swirl on top. We have them cut the cupcakes into plans and sections, and then they have to draw a site plan, an elevation, sections, and a plan.

They’re scaling the cupcake up, not down, but the principle is the same. Like a building, a cupcake looks different from every angle, and the cream filling is a good representation of interior space. It helps them to visualize what they’re doing when they make a floor plan—they’re taking a slice out of a building.

As a bonus, they get to eat their cupcake when they finish drawing it.

Gabi Blackburn is an Architect at Field Paoli with over 5 years of experience working on complex, multi-phased projects. In addition to her volunteer work with ACE, Gabi is also an avid knitter and enjoys experimenting in her kitchen.