Nom /Name : Lina Boukhateb Classe /Class : 2nde2

Rapport de stage/Internship Report

Nom de l’entreprise/ Company name : HTH Architects

Adresse de l’entreprise/ Company address : 3767 Overland Ave. Suite #111

Dates du stage / Internship dates : June 4th - June 8th 2018

Nom du responsable de stage / Name of Internship Jane Housden

Director :
 Remerciements/Acknowledgements

First of all and most importantly I would like to give a big thank you Mrs.Housden for accepting

me into the core of HTH Architects. Her hospitality and kindness was greatly appreciated. I would

also like to thank to Mr. Tweed, for his inspirational words and motivation for the future. Another

special thank you to Mr. Bolanos and Mr. MacGilfrey for their time, patience, and consideration. As

well as allowing me to grab some insight of what it is like to be an architect. A final thanks to the

entire team for their conviviality and their contribution to my work. Thank you.
Part I : Présentation de l’entreprise/Company
presentation

After having trouble finding an internship, I asked Mr.Naulleau if he could help me find one. I

told him that I was interested in the sciences as well as design, so he suggested HTH Architects.

I was really excited when he found me an internship in an architectural firm, for architecture has

always been an interest of mine; for the passed to years at career day I have gotten the pleasure

of meeting architects who have really inspired me and I couldn’t wait to be able to observe what

went on in the daily life of an architect. Therefore, I immediately contacted Mrs.Housden letting

her know how thrilled I was to intern at HTH Architects. HTH Architects was created in 2000 with

Mr.Tweed and Mrs.Housden as its founders and owners. The firm employs a total of four people;

Mark Tweed, the president and head designer, Jane Housden, the managing partner, Chadd

MacGilfrey, the project manager, and Walter Bolanos, the firm's designer. The company’s sales

revenue depends on the project, the service and the consultants working for them. Consultants

they work with are structural engineers, MEP engineers (mechanical, electrical, and plumbing

engineers) and are usually all from a same company. At times they work with landscape

architects depending on the project. The firm tries to stay away from civil engineers for they

usually ensue liability problems. They also work with interior designers sometimes, however

most of the time they do that part themselves. The firm’s clients are mainly developers.

Developers are the people who purchase the site, organize the banking and the contractors;

generally the developer is made up of a big team with several players. Sometimes, the

developer works for an owner who owns the property. HTH Architects has many competitors,

which are every architect out there. It all comes down to the proposal: how much a company will

take on the project for. An advantage the firm has is its small number of people working in the

office. This factor promotes efficiency, flexibility and rentability.

 Part II: Description du stage/ Internship description

MONDAY
Monday had been a long but relaxing day. At 9:00 am I was pleasantly greeted by Mrs.

Housden. She started off by giving me a tour of the office. I was grateful for this because it can

be daunting to start something new in an unfamiliar environment. The first thing I noticed as I

walked in were the drawings of recent projects ornamenting the walls. The uniqueness of

these drawings was that they were hand drawn, a practice that has phased out of architecture

due to technological advances at the beginning of the 2000s. As I scanned the room, I

discovered a whimsical drawing of a port. When I asked about it, Mrs. Housed informed me

that this was a project that had been developed by Royal Caribbean Cruises in Hobart Bay,

Alaska. As I was contemplating the spirally and naturesque design, Mrs.Housden went on

telling me that the project unfortunately never came to realization due to budget restraints. I

was shocked; how could such a big company drop a project after having made the firm work

so hard on it and having come up with a beautiful concept? At this moment, I had learned my

first lesson about architecture: with lots of hard work also comes a great deal of

disappointment and it doesn’t matter how nice your design is, it’s the budget that rules.

Continuing the tour, the amount of paper scrolls around the office did not take me by surprise

on the other hand. I had always imagined architectural offices would have a bunch of plans

lying around the place, but I never really believed this was a reality. After showing me the

conference table where I would be staying the rest of the day, Mrs.Housden explained that the

office would be quite busy today, therefore she apologized for not being able to occupy me for

the day. However this did not bother me because everything was so new and intriguing, that I

was glad to have time to myself to soak it all in. About an hour later, the rest of the team

started to arrive. First was Walter Bolanos, the firm’s designer. Then came Mark Tweed, the
president and head designer of HTH architects. Last was Chadd MacGilfrey and his dogs, he

is the project manager. We introduced ourselves briefly for I knew they had a large workload

ahead of them. While Mrs.Housden was answering phone calls and emails, a typical day’s

worth of work, and while the others were upstairs working on the Grandscape project in Dallas,

Texas, I went over to the mound of books on their bookshelf and picked out a few. Out of my

selection were construction plans, magazines, Hotel Design by Otto Riewoldt, which I had

found the most interesting, as well as the Winning Shopping Center designs of 2015 to help

inform myself more on retail architecture which the firm specializes in. Observing the plans had

inspired me to see if I was able to plan out a building that I knew like the back of my hand, my

house. I grabbed a sheet of paper and started planning out my house. Going into my little

project I was surprised at how difficult it would be knowing the dimensions of my house inside

out. Walls and intersections began to not line up, and rooms were disproportionate. I ended up

with an overall and very generalized idea of my house, but nothing close to the precision

displayed on the firm’s plans. Then I moved onto reading the book on hotel design. Ever since

I was small I have always been amazed and in awe of any hotel I have gone to. There is a

unique feeling to entering a hotel and just admiring its beauty; something I believe many can

relate to. Reading the book, I learned about the different types of hotels, something I was not

aware of. First were the designer and art hotels. These hotels are known for their aesthetic

statements and “laid back” avant garde. Quoting the book, designer and art hotels are a “direct

confrontation with authentic design creations (interiors of designer hotels, contemporary art

works that form the centerpiece of art hotels)”. This artistic aspect is attractive to the youth and

due to its relatively small scale, these hotels prove to be attractive for elite customers as well.

Examples of designer and art hotels would be the Mondrian, Los Angeles and The Clarence

Hotel, Dublin. Another type of hotel architecture is new business hotels. New business hotels

are renovation projects for disused industrial sites. This serves as a good example of

urbanization and deindustrialization happening in the world today. It also serves as a good
indicator of development for it demonstrates the transition from a secondary sector based

economy to tertiary. Examples of these hotels are the Sheraton Paris airpot hotel in Roissy,

and the Soho Grand, New York. Next are resort and theme hotels. These hotels are known for

their mass touristic attraction. They respond to consumer’s hunger for adventure and

exoticism. There are two different types of resort and theme hotels: the gigantic and fantastic

type and the comfortable, natural and full of character type. On another note, ecology has

become increasingly influential to these hotels in order to respond to tourists search for a

beautiful, untouched wilderness, for example the Great Barrier reef in Australia. Other

examples of resort and theme hotels are the New York, New York Hotel and Casino, Las

Vegas and the Westin Regina Los Cabos Hotel, San Jose des Cabos. The final type of hotel

architecture touched in the book is new grand hotels. Before, grand hotels would be regarded

as temporary aristocratic residence or a palace for travelers. Now, grand hotels are going

through a period of renaissance. New grand hotels integrate contemporary furniture design as

well as meshing national and regional cultural tradition. These hotels seek to formulate a new

luxury style influenced by the Art Deco tradition which is a style that relies on bold designs,

clear lines, vibrant colors and patterns. Examples of these hotels are the Four Seasons Hotels

around the world such as New York and Istanbul. Finally, I went on to reading the Winning

Shopping Center designs of 2015. The first thing I learned were the different members that are

needed for a project: there is the owner of the property, the management and leasing

company, the design architect, the production architect, the graphic designer, the lighting

designer, the landscape architect, the general contractor and the development company. That

makes a total of nine firms. While developing a shopping center, the firms must focus on the

major tenants such as AMC theaters, Macy’s and JC Penney as well as the needs of the

establishment. Then I began reading about a project in Yorkdale, Canada. The shopping

center’s goal had been “to lead Canada’s shopping center industry with an innovative overall

“greening” solution for Yorkdale, designed to reduce greenhouse gas emission and reduce the
center’s energy costs by five percent”. To do so, the center had to undertake many operations

such as replacing the rooftop units, replacing the entryway heater units, installing occupancy

sensors for unused rooms, supplying recycling bins for the tenants, and installing low-flow

toilet bowls. The center exceeded its goal, reducing its total energy costs by 8% rather than

5% which they had originally sought. Everything I learned on Monday was very interesting and

now I have a better knowledge on the basics of architecture.

TUESDAY

The next morning had arrived. I entered the office, expecting to only see Mrs.Housden just

like the previous day. However I was surprised to see Mr.Tweed and Mr.Bolanos, already hard

at work. I understood that here, you may choose your hours accordingly to the work that needs

to be done. After greeting everyone in the office I had a very pleasant conversation with the

firm’s president, whom I had not really gotten a correct encounter with the other day. We had a

simple conversation discussing my future plans and hopes for my career. He told me that no

matter what I decided to do, if it be architecture or not, I must follow my heart. He said “the

heart will come first, then the money will follow, no matter what”. He continued with the

example of a passionate cupcake maker; if someone loves cupcakes and that baking is their

passion, without a doubt that person will succeed, no matter the cost. Why? Because they

have heart. These words really meant a lot to me, especially being someone who does not

know what she wants to do in the future. Although it can be stressful, and because money has

become such a priority to people recently, it is important to know what you are passionate

about, because once you have found that passion, you will never have to work a day in your

life it seems. It has become a stress to people to have to make a lot of money in order to be

happy, and successful, even if they have to hate their job. Whereas doing what you love will

lead to success if you put your mind to it and commit. After our discussion, I went to look at a

book I had been meaning to read the previous day but had not gotten the chance to. This book

was Dubai:Architecture and Design by Daab. Some might wonder out of all the books on that

shelf, why that one? First of all, I have a friend who lives in Dubai and I have always wanted to

visit. I also find it such a beautiful city. Secondly, the architecture is unbelievable and I wanted

to learn more. As of 2012, Dubai was the most expensive city in the Middle East; its economy

relies on tourism, aviation, real estate and financial services. Dubai’s collection of buildings

and structures vary in architectural style. The most prelevant would be modern Islamic, which

has developed incredibly with skyscraper building design and technology. The Burj Khalifa in
particular has left a mark in Dubai adding to its unique skyline. The Burj Khalifa defies all

heights being the world’s tallest building at 2,717 feet. Another one of my favorites is the Palm

Jumeirah, artificial islands which were designed and developed by Helman Hurley Charvat

Peacock/Architects,Inc. It is one of the three artificial islands called the Palm Islands which

extend into the Persian Gulf. The Palm Jumeirah is the smallest and the original of the three

Palm Islands. These man made islands are characteristic of Dubai’s landscape. It is incredible

what architecture can create. Dubai’s architecture never ceases to amaze me which is why I

consider it such a beautiful city. After having read some of the book, Mrs.Housden brought up

one portion of the plans for their project in Brea, California. The plan consists of every note and

detail, rule and regulation that is put into the realization of a project. These are mounts of big

papers stapled together and rolled up into the scrolls that I had noticed the other day. It was

interesting to see all the different components that are put into creating a plan. On the first few

pages are the “general notes” which are essentially rules and criteria that the architects must

follow. After that comes the initial design of the plan area and what the architects desire it to

look like. Once the architects have come up with their idea, the plan must be reviewed by

many different firms such as the fire department, and MEP engineers (mechanical, electrical

and plumbing). It takes a major group effort to get the plan set. I was amazed at the detailing

put into consideration for the plan; the firm takes into account everything from the size of a

parking space to the flooring being used to every exit in the building. The amount of

organization and cooperation the firms must have is incredible. Everything needs to be written

out on the plan and triple-checked by every firm to ensure a safe and easy construction.

Having looked at the plans, I was inspired to try some planning of my own, to see what I was

capable of. To do so, I downloaded SketchUp, a 3D modeling computer program frequently

used in architecture, and tested what I could do. I started off by drawing simple houses and

playing around with the different tools. Unfortunately I had only downloaded the application
later on in the day so the day was over before I could finish, but I was determined to continue

the next day and put my newly acquired modeling skills to the test.
WEDNESDAY

Per usual, I arrived at the office at 9:00am ready to start my day. I greeted Mrs.Housden as

she made her morning coffee. She told me that today the firm would not be too busy until Mark

arrived so she encouraged that I go upstairs where Chadd had been working to observe his

work. Excited to finally be able to see the real magic that happened in the firm, I went upstairs

with my notebook in hand and discretely asked Chadd if he did not mind me observing him as

he worked. Without hesitation, he let me watch over his shoulder as he worked on the

Grandscape project in Dallas, Texas. He showed what he was working on on SketchUp and

answered my questions. At Mark’s arrival, I returned downstairs so that the group could work

more freely. However I did get to listen onto the conference call they had to take. The

conference call concerned the project in Brea and the landscape architect. Several problems

were brought up during the call: due to unstable soil capacity, where the architects had

envisioned trees, they had to change the idea to plants in pots so that the debit of water did not

overcharge the ground. However, the developer of the project who had also been in on the call

informed the firms that due to budget restraints the pots would be too costly for the project.

Therefore the team had to come up with a low cost alternative that was sustainable for the

ground. In conclusion, they decided to with shrubbery along the sidewalk instead of plants in

pots. Once the problems were resolved, the architects had to rearrange and adjust their

models on SketchUp, which cost them time. This is a factor that can be frustrating for an

architect who probably has more things to do than to re-organize their model to accommodate

the change in landscape, especially when they have no control over what should change or

not. After the conference call I decided to reignite my SketchUp endeavor. This time, I chose

not to follow the sample tutorials offered when first entering the program and decided to put my

designing skills to test. I designed a really cool house. I started of with a simple rectangle

playing with the different sizes and shapes I could turn it into.I was feeling kind of stuck with

what I should do with my house and how I wanted to design it. Then I started adding windows.
As I designed the windows my creativity just started to flow. I tried all different sorts of

geometric designs and tested what I knew how to do with the program. After that, I could not

stop. I ended up making a modern house, given that it contained lots of glass, simple

geometric shapes and a fresh, clean design, characteristics of modern architecture. As I was

constructing my house I did not see the time go by and it was already time to go. Before

leaving I showed Mrs. Housden my sketch. She was impressed by everything I had taught

myself in such a little amount of time. She especially liked the courtyard in the center of the

house. Her only concern, something I had neglected and takes a professional’s eye to take

into account, was the resonance of the sound in the courtyard due to the tall walls surrounding

it.
THURSDAY

Today I decided to observe Walter, the designer as he worked. Mark was absent for the rest

of the week so the office was a lot more relaxed and I got to spend more time upstairs. Walter

had just received digital plans on Auto CAD Architecture, or computer-aided design, another

architectural software, from the structural engineer coordinating from Texas for the

Grandscape project. For Grandscape, Walter was in charge of designing the area for minor

tenants who normally would just have kiosks around the mall, giving them small buildings

where they can sell their products. While designing Granscape, the firm did not want to have

kiosks all around the place like other malls for they believe it is less aesthetic and clients are

not attracted to them as much and which ultimately hurts the business. This proves an

important marketing side to architecture that sometimes may be forgotten about. It is important

that the architects plan everything out so that each tenant has good access to every part of

mall for being secluded may not attract as many customers. The plans sent to him by the

structural engineer provided notes and corrections that Walter needed to make in his model.

The correction had to do with the size of the sliding doors he had placed in one of the

buildings. The job consisted of remeasuring the doors and everything connected to them and

applying it onto his model on SketchUp, a meticulous and tedious task that requires much

focus to ensure no mistakes. In the middle of his work, Walter received an email from the

landscape architect. The email consisted of the reviewed plans for the mall. Walter had

previously shown me a section of the mall he had worked on named the grotto. It was a lower

leveled area of the mall designed for restaurants and a neat place to maybe sit and read a

book. The design was truly imaginative and beautiful. It had vibrant colors, vegetation and

masterful artwork he had designed to attract customers. When he opened the reviewed plan,

all of that had disappeared. There was no more vegetation, or artwork and the area was a

boring blend of neutral colors. I asked what Walter was going to do about his design being

completely abandoned and he simply answered that nothing could be done and that the
decision had been made. I noticed that the restaurants pushed back and that from the angle

on the superior floor they were not even visible. So I asked Walter if the landscape architect

knew or had taken into account that this would make the restaurants less visible to passing

customers and hinder business. Walter sighed and told me that he insisted on it when he

talked with the landscape architect last. All Walter had left of his grotto was the signage he had

put up and yet he still needed to make adjustments according to the landscape artist’s design.

This moment really marked me and reminded me of the great deal of disappointment that goes

into architecture. As the discussion progressed I learned a lot about different styles

encompassed in architecture. I learned about modern architecture in the 1920s. An important

figure during this period of simplistic, geometric and linear form and design, would be Le

Corbusier, a swiss-french architect. He is considered the most influential urban planner and

architect of the 20th century. Next he introduced to me post-modern architecture emerging

from the 1960s. Walter explained to me that postmodern architecture can be characterized by

the usage of façades on the buildings. A good example would be Las Vegas. A building might

have the exterior of the Eiffel Tower when in reality, it only contains a restaurant and casino at

the bottom. The creation of the post-modern era is a result of architects’ reaction against the

plainness, formality and lack of variety of modern architecture, which explains its grandiose

and ornate look. Then I was introduced to deconstructivism, which in my opinion is the most

impressive. By definition, deconstructivism is an architectural movement or style influenced by

deconstruction that encourages radical freedom of form and the open manifestation of

complexity in a building rather than strict attention to functional concerns and conventional

design elements such as right angles or grids. A popular example would be the magnificent

Walt Disney Concert Hall by Frank Gehry, an architectural genius. Moving on to ephemeral

architecture, Walter described this movement as transient, lightweight, and small scale.

Ephemeral architecture usually are not “concrete” buildings rather exhibitions. It is

characterized by its intricacy, detail, and lightness that is bound to take visitors breath away.
Finally, I learned about parametric design. Parametric design is the most recent movement and

most complicated. It is way of designing that uses a specific computer program to develop

different designs. Parametric designs are typically used for the skin of a building or as a

showpiece. A good example of this would be the Broad Museum by Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

After having showed us most of his work, Walter set me on a project of my own: I was to take

the measurements of the office and to model it on SketchUp. The task felt very daunting at first

but I made sure to take everything piece by piece so that I did not feel so overwhelmed. He

handed me the measuring tape and I was off to work. I started off by making a hard sketch of

the office to see what I needed to measure, which was everything. Then I gradually filled in the

sketch measurements. All of a sudden it was 3:00pm and my day was over. I was to continue

my quest the next day.

FRIDAY

The final day had arrived. I installed myself at my usual spot for the last time and flipped

through some magazines Mrs. Housden had recently received and recommended I look at.

They were mostly interior design magazines with sample showrooms displayed inside. My

favorite was the newest issue of RH interiors. Looking through all the different designs and

renditions of a room that was once barren and blank made me realize how much imagination

and organization interior design takes. Interior designers can be compared to painters; they

start off with a blank canvas and gradually add dimension to it to create something beautiful

and that conveys the artist’s vision and creativity. I believe, career-wise, that interior design can

be an in-between of architecture and art. Interior design encompasses the idea of a plan,

responding to a client’s needs and wishes, yet without the stress and headache of everything

an architect takes care of. Interior design also has a creative and aesthetic side to it, yet is not

a typical form of art. After having flipped through the magazines and contemplated on how I

would redesign the interior of my whole house, I made my way upstairs to continue my attempt

at modeling the entire office on SketchUp. Continuing where I had left off the previous day, I

started to add dimension to, what almost seemed to be, a 2D model. I started off by working on

the door frame of every door, while keeping in mind the measurements I had taken the other

day. A fun fact that I learned over the week is that it is a rule in architecture that no doors must

be positioned on a slant or unleveled surface for it is considered a safety hazard. Around

11:00pm, Walter arrived at the office. Since I really enjoyed our discussion Thursday, I decided

that it would be interesting to interview him for my project. Although I had already asked a lot of

questions the previous day, he was still very willing to give me some of his time for the

interview. During the interview, he responded to my questions with great insight and giving his

opinion on things. When I asked him about the New Urbanism movement and how Green

buildings are affecting architecture he told me that it is really a waste of time and money, an

answer that shocked me initially. He continued by explaining that in 2020, California will be
imposing a law that all buildings constructed must use photovoltaic panels therefore relying its

source of electricity on solar energy. In his opinion, companies selling their solar panels

claiming that they are saving the environment are hypocrites; he considers the amount of fossil

fuels consumed to make these photovoltaic panels is greater than what regular buildings are

consuming today, which makes the situation very ironic. The other problem with solar panels is

that they do not produce a lot of energy to fully support large buildings, they do not store any of

the energy, and they are not aesthetic so clients prefer to stay away from them. Understanding

his point of view, I wondered if we should still try to use solar panels for smaller components

such as air-conditioning that consume a lot of energy especially in hot regions such as

California. He stated that we could but it would be very costly because solar panels are still

fairly new therefore are still very expensive. He proposed a simple and natural alternative

using his knowledge on the sun and wind patterns. I am not an expert on this subject but from

what I understood, Walter believes that instead of imposing solar panels on buildings in 2020,

buildings should be positioned in a way that the windows are facing the direction of the wind to

produce cross-ventilation in the unit. Such a simple factor as facing windows towards the the

wind can create such a difference. It is just a matter of knowing your environment and what

would work best. This would be a great alternative for states like California that are along the

coast to benefit from the coastal winds. During our interview, Chadd had arrived so I ended

getting input from both of them. After finishing up the interview and went back to my SketchUp

office. At this point I realized how much frustration modeling everything to perfection can bring.

SketchUp is certainly a brain teaser, its almost like a puzzle or algorithm to me. It takes a lot of

figuring out. Sometimes it does unexpected things, sometimes I ended up deleting things I did

not mean to delete, and that was just the first floor of a small office! Simply learning how to

manipulate all of these programs takes much practice, patience and determination. Although it

was very troubling, I kept going and finally finished the model. The pride in my accomplishment

was rewarding, and I can now say I have somewhat of a new skill.
Part III: Interview du responsable de stage / Interview with
the Internship Director

Walter Bolanos at his desk

Chadd MacGilfrey at his desk

 Conclusion /Conclusion

This week had been my first work experience and I was able to discover the professional

world. My internship went well overall. However, the internship did not turn out at all as I had

envisioned it. I saw myself “working” more and helping out with chores around the office that

needed to be taken care of. In reality, I felt the internship to be more of an observational

experience rather than laborious. Nevertheless I learned a lot about architecture that I do not

think can be felt or understood from a book. I enjoyed being able to see the behind the scenes

of what goes into creating a building because I believe architecture can be very overlooked or

even neglected at times. Their is so much hard work, focus, and precision that is put into every

single building in the world which I think is overwhelmingly crazy to think about. I can definitely

say that I see the landscape around me differently. Although I loved learning about all the

different aspects of architecture what almost scared me was when during the interview, Walter

told me that out of twenty-two projects, fifteen of them fall through. The amount of

disappointment that architects must go through really shocked me and made me rethink if

architecture would be a good career choice for me. I learned that no matter how good your

design may be, if the client does not approve or if the budget does not meet, it may never

come to realization and you just have to accept it. Following Walter’s advice, architecture

requires a strong love and passion, otherwise it becomes impossible to find motivation after

the disappointment. On the other hand, I really like the design and geometrical side of

architecture. They are things that I really enjoy and may consider pursuing as a potential future

career. Through this internship I have also discovered that if architecture is not for me, perhaps

interior design is. I like the way simple things such as furniture can fill a place with character

and beauty; I also believe interior design will ensue less of a headache and stress. I have

learned throughout this internship that I have great determination; if I have my mind set on

something, I am going to succeed. I learned this through my SketchUp endeavors. At the

beginning I was getting really frustrated, I did not know how to use it very well but I continued

and kept at it and I am very proud of my accomplishment. In my opinion, the result is not even

half bad. I also really enjoyed being able to read about things that I would not normally have

read about in my regular books. Learning about the different styles and types of architecture

around the world was very interesting.

 Annexes /Appendices

Front cover of the Brea,

California Improv Theatre project plan >

Plan reviewed by the fire department v

Green Building Requirements v

 Plans scrolled up in the office >

First floor of the office and conference table. v

v second
 Images from Dubai:Design and Architecture of the Bujr Khalif

Impressive designs of the Hydropolis Underwater Resort Hotel in Dubai

Scenes of my SketchUp house
 Scenes of my SketchUp Office

Comparison between
SketchUp Model and real
office