The 2024 CO Architectural Discovery Program
During the month of June, CO welcomed four high school students from across Los Angeles for our annual Architectural Discovery Program. The program is designed to immerse the students in the daily life of an architect, teach them foundational skills, and foster their curiosity about a career in the industry. This year we were joined by Gael Gutierrez and Hilary Ortiz from STEM Prep Schools, and Sara Jayaraman and Avery Reyes from Marymount High School.
The program assigns various exercises to build fundamental knowledge and provide insight into the design process. During Week 1, students teamed up to design and construct chairs out of cardboard, followed by a “sit” test to determine if their design was successful. Students were later introduced to their design project of creating a pavilion located in the La Brea Tar Pits/LACMA site. This was followed by activities teaching key aspects of site analysis and documentation. Their analysis and site selection were critical as they began to think about what program they would design their pavilions around.
During the second week, students visited an active construction site at our Harbor-UCLA Medical Center project. Touring the site allowed the students to see first-hand how drawings translate to the built environment. The second week also focused on the technical skills of physical model-making. They explored their pavilions in three-dimensional study models while constantly challenging their original ideas and pushing the design further as they brought life to their pre-conceived sketches and ideas.
Week three focused on drawing their ideas to scale, the process of thinking through drawing, and expanding on the design studies as students used what they learned in their first two weeks to draw and model initial concepts for feedback. COworkers sat with the students and engaged in conversation and insightful discussion, pushing ideas forward and challenging initial instincts. In the final week, the students fine-tuned their pavilion design concepts and prepared to present their ideas to an audience of COworkers. Check out the final projects below!
