Katelin Hamann

Throughout the internship, I had acquired skills and knowledge that I had not had the opportunity to receive in school since it was in-field work with real clients.
Understanding the connections with reps and how vital it is to work together, to ordering samples and the importance of the material library to a small office setting itself.

I had the opportunity to see a lot of flooring design with the use of carpet tiles and vinyl selections as well as a lot of opportunities to work in photoshop. I have more appreciation for flooring as well as now incorporate flooring more in my design than I would prior to the internship.

Senior Thesis Growing up, my mother would come home daily sharing her work day with us at the dinner table for all of my life. She is a GED teacher for a higher education facility (BETC), teaching those who could not obtain their GED classes elementary level to twelve. The most common topic talked about would be how many students attended that day, on average, only half of the class would attend on a good day. Add any outside environmental factor, the attendance would drop even more. I would even visit my mother now and then and spend the day in the classroom observing. As i was presented with my senior thesis credentials, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to address problems within the outdated facility as well as the classroom flow and usage. The current classroom and building itself tends to be a mandatory sit down during your class period, then go home to attend to life. This atmosphere lacks the want to be there on their own time, working together or solely to use the building to their advantage. This building also did not adapt to the needs of individuals to accommodate their outside environment which tends to often be an adult life, many times a bad environment. This was future validated by site visit, micro and macro information on the company BETC, precedent studies, readings, surveys and interviews. Moving forward some things that will be considered will be Hierarchy of Needs, effective color choices for better productivity including green and yellow, and the idea of comfort in the space. Given this information, I chose to propose a center that is highly functional for a universal usage for all students. A new take on classroom set ups for a more intimate learning experience and accommodate the needs of students by taking elements of their current lifestyles into the design of the building to make it feel more personal. The building will have a common area for individual and collaboration opportunities as well as individual heads down spaces and break away spaces. This building is located downtown Buffalo on Goodell street. The BETC center gives the opportunity for students to change their lives around and obtain career jobs students strive for or by chance may have never thought possible. The next step is to reflect this concept and who BETC stands for within the building itself.