I had a wonderful summer working in Andersonville at Berman Design. My experience working here has been invaluable.
I am in my fourth year of architecture school and I haven’t had any professional experience beforehand so this was my first internship. The hand sketched brand identity is something that drew me here and something that is compelling for their clients as well.
I recommend every architecture student to work for sometime at a smaller firm. Berman Design is very small so this means that each person has to take on a lot of responsibility. I remember my second day at work I was in a client meeting and in my first week I had drawn up existing conditions for a new project. From the first day I was producing work and involved in projects.
I wanted to gain more technical knowledge from my internship and I learned a lot from Kurt and Joel by simply listening on into client meetings and video calls. I was exposed to the more technical and business side of architecture. Also Berman Design does a lot of hospitality and restaurants and I learned a lot about restaurant and kitchen layout. This is something you can’t learn in school.
Working at Berman Design was a unique experience and I had the opportunity to do some fun and unexpected things in my time here. One day we had a meeting with two Russian cosmetic shop owners and I had to wear false eyelashes for the meeting. Also I went on many site visits to measure existing conditions and while doing this I could meet a variety of people. My favorite site visit was to the south side were I met two successful, hardworking African american women who are restaurant owners who are planning an exciting addition to their restaurants. It’s great that the office puts efforts to revitalize the south side neighborhoods.
I had a good time while I was here. Working for Joel was extremely valuable personally and professionally and I am thankful that this firm decided to invest in me.
-Aldeana