A Behind the Scenes Look at Building an Architecture Model
See how junior Gabrielle Porter's experience during her summer internship building architecture models in Boston has helped her strive for perfection
By Juan Siliezar
As part of her summer internship at a Boston architecture firm, Gabrielle Porter '20 worked on building a scaled site model of a ticket booth kiosk the firm designed for a park in Buffalo.
BOSTON, M.A. – On weekdays during the summer, Gabrielle Porter '20 spent most of her time focused on perfection. It came with the nature of her internship at a small architecture firm consistently ranked among the top in the nation where her main responsibility was building scaled models of some of the firm's current architecture projects.
Porter spent hours over the summer sanding, cutting, gluing and making sure every piece of material she worked with was perfect for the scaled site model of a ticket booth kiosk she was building for the firm, Touloukian Touloukian Inc.
The experience with the firm, which last year served as one of the School of Architecture, Art and Historic Preservation's Teaching Firms in Residence, left Porter with an appreciation for a hands-on, attention-to-every-detail process that she plans to carry over to her school work and future career. Porter, who landed the internship at the end of her sophomore year, said that type of care and strive for perfection is what often makes the biggest difference in any project.
See the gallery below for an inside peak at how Porter put the model together.
Focused on Perfection
Porter’s internship often spanned from the Touloukian Touloukian Inc. office in downtown Boston to RWU’s School of Architecture, Art and Historic Preservation in Bristol. In Boston, Porter would take sections of finished AutoCAD drawings and interpret them into pieces she can laser cut.
At SAAHP, Porter would use the laser cutter to cut pieces she needed for the model she was building.
“Believe it or not, it’s so common to make errors when you’re laser cutting pieces,” Porter said. It speaks to the detailed nature of the work and the trial and error process. But making mistakes teaches important lessons, Porter said. “You take note of it and then you go back and fix it.”
“It really makes you look at all the small details that really make a difference,” Porter said.
On this day, Porter was cutting the base of the site where the model of the project she was working on will be placed.
Porter measured carefully many times before the cut. She wore goggles because safety is a top priority when working.
Her eyes focused, her hands steady, Porter slid the wood smoothly across the table for a clean cut of the base.
Back in Boston, Porter would gather the materials she needed and headed from Touloukian’s computer station space to the workspace one floor up.
The site model Porter was working on was of a ticket booth kiosk in the Buffalo Outer Harbor Access park. It’s part of a large city-wide initiative to bring visitors to the Outer Harbor park, which features walking and bike paths, waterfront views and event space. The ticket booth was designed to serve both a practical function and act as a landmark beacon for the park. Unlike the wooden model Porter worked on, it will be made of metal and steel.
Porter made two iterations of the kiosk before refining her technique and problem solving points of imperfection to create a model both she and the firm approved of.
Porter spent hours getting the details of the model right. She took great care with every level of detail, never taking short cuts. For example, these wires – which for the actual kiosk will be stainless steel rods – were put in by hand with a pair of tweezers.
“It took a long time,” Porter joked. “But it’s well worth it.”
After and during the construction of each iteration of the kiosk, Porter would present it to the firm’s president Theodore Touloukian and his team to go over what she’d done and any improvements she'd made. “It’s a big conversation about it,” Porter said.
Building the site is the last step in the process after getting final approval on the model itself. So with her materials in hand from an art supply store run and the material she had laser cut days before, Porter now worked on recreating the site where the kiosk would go.
Even with the precision of a laser cut, pieces don’t always fit as well as they could. Porter has a range of tools at her disposal to get her material where she wants to be though. Here, she sanded the tiles where this piece of wood connected to another. “The sanding will help it fit like a glove.”
Porter relied heavily on a small collection of knives, like X-Acto knives, to get exact cuts.
A ruler is a simple item that makes a huge the difference in the quest for perfection, Porter said.
When Porter was confident the piece of material she was working on was the proper length and was able to fit smoothly, she made it final with glue.
“And now it fits,” Porter said as she added the piece.
As a finishing touch, Porter often added weight so the glue attached properly and remained flat. A lot of the time when it comes from the art store, the thin flexible wood is often rolled like a piece of parchment. The weight helps guarantee it stays flat, Porter said.
While Porter waited for the glue to settle, she got to work on another part of the site. She grabbed a piece of cork meant to represent green area of the park.
Porter, the perfectionist, placed a paper outline of the shape she needed against the cork to ensure her cut is accurate.
When it was just right, she added it to the site and moved on to another step. There was more work to be done.
Porter, who completed her internship in August, is now studying in Florence, Italy for a semester as part of SAAHP's study abroad program for students. She hopes to bring everything she learned from her experience at Touloukian Touloukian Inc. to her school work and future career.
At RWU, we develop Civic Scholars who believe in community-engaged work. That’s why we commit to providing every student an opportunity that empowers them to put their knowledge and skills to the test solving real-world problems and creating meaningful change with community partners. Learn more about the Civic Scholars program and how to help us reach our goal of every student participating in civic scholarship.
