Alejandra Meza recently joined the ranks of the firm’s licensed architects. Alejandra received her Bachelor of Architecture from Carnagie Mellon University. Today we celebrate her accomplishments.
What is the best part of your job?
Learning from other people’s experiences – my team, our clients and consultants. Learning about the different ways our spaces are being used is what makes my job interesting. I get to learn about different fields and how the work is done in these spaces. In the complex typologies we work with at Payette, we find ourselves needing to learn about every aspect of our building’s lives and then pull it all together into one project.
What projects have you worked on and are currently working on?
I am currently working on a new inpatient hospital in New York that is currently in Design Development. Seeing a project of this scale go from the early phase of Schematic Design to Design Development has been a significant learning experience. On this project I had the opportunity to lead the physical mock-up, work on the virtual mock-up and lead equipment coordination efforts. This has given me the pleasure of working with the Design Visualization and Fabrication teams closely as well as with our consultants. Before I started working on this project, I was previously working on the CA Team for Northeastern EXP. Additionally, under the Northeastern umbrella, I worked on ISEC Cognitive Brain and Behavioral Health Renovation Project from Schematic Design through to the beginning of construction.
EXP, Northeastern University
What is the most important thing you have learned so far?
The most important thing I have learned so far is to appreciate Architecture as a “Practice”. As an Architect, I will never stop learning and exploring different ways to apply what I have learned in one project to the next.
If you could take a month-long trip anywhere, where would you go and why?
If I had a full month, I would explore Central and South America. I have friends and family scattered around and I would love to be able to spend the time to appreciate the richness of the different countries throughout.
Opening later this year, the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, MA is an essay in the tuning of building façades for performance. The aluminum sunshades that veil the building began as a concept tested by scoring Bristol paper. The team utilized tools from all modalities: paper models, CNC-mills, parametric studies, solar analysis, wind and water simulations and full-scale mock-ups to inform the design and drive energy use down. The ultra-high performance building is tracking a 61% reduction in energy use compared to the 2030 baseline.
#earthweek #designalways #buildingscience #performalism #cambridge #bostonarchitecture