Mentoring Mayhem

The local AIA Hampton Roads chapter had their first annual "Mentoring Mayhem" event last night and it was a big success. The event was meant to share with the students from the local colleges professional thoughts an opinions about their resume, portfolio and the process that would best give them to obtain jobs once they graduate.  In an industry that has been hit hard over the last couple of years there isn't as many graduating in architecture as the past.  Many are changing their career paths to other directions to better obtain employment after school.  This was an opportunity for many of these young students to hear what professional architects, engineers and contractors had to say about seeking employment.  A large number of these professionals have been in the industry for many years and the students were eager to hear what each had to say and share.

With the number of individuals giving their time to mentor these young designers, all were able to get their varied opinions.  All architects see and do different things, so to hear options from numerous sources had to be beneficial to the students. There were students from Hampton University, Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia.  A great turnout for a rainy evening. We even had individuals from NCARB there for support and DPOR about licensure.

I had planned on staying for only a short time but got wrapped up in the discussions and ended up speaking for over 3 hours.  It was great fun and I feel a great success.  I received all sorts of questions not only regarding their work but my work, how I got started, where I went to school, how long had I been an architect, was I the owner of my firm, how did I start the firm......A great fun and I hope we continue to do this event. Ionic DeZign will certainly continue to be part of this event.

Real Steel



Conceptual Rendering of Finished Product

It is always exciting to finally see your projects begin to come alive after so much time on the drawing board. As architects, we spend enormous amount of time "imagining" our designs and creating renderings so others can visualize what we have projected on our drawings. Once the site work is completed and the foundations are laid, we get the opportunity to "imagine" a little more once the steel frame gets erected in place and provides that outline in the sky for the shape of our design. Piece by piece the steel gets placed and connected in place by welds and bolts. Once those are in place, we get to see the steel joists lifted one at a time by the crane to begin forming the roof plane.

All of this is taking place just a few blocks from Towncenter in Virginia Beach at the Russo Office Building. We are all anxious to see the development over the weeks to come. The Ionic DeZign Team will begin more progress pictures as the weeks progress.
Drive by and take a look when you are in the area and let us know what you think and how it is going. We would love to hear your feedback.

Have a great day!