hey welcome back to the channel we've got a great video in store for you guys
today this one's gonna be vlog number two a day in the life of an architect
it's gonna be a good one and it is a super hot day down here in Dallas Texas
but that's not gonna stop us I'm headed actually out to a construction site this
is a project that I did the design and construction documenting on the same
project architect that I was working under is still on the project and she
invited us to go take a look at it it's gonna be pretty cool constructions about
halfway done it's a two floor hotel project 64 units total with some common
spaces and amenity spaces and the kicker is we've converted the top two floors
which were originally office of a skyscraper in downtown Dallas into this
hotel it's a it's pretty cool 49 and 50th
floor so you guys gonna enjoy that and stick around because we got a little
surprise in store for you maybe the thumbnail gave it away maybe
not I don't know but just stick around cuz you guys are
sure to enjoy this one and like always give us a thumbs up if you enjoyed the
video and hit subscribe if you're not already subscribed but a we're headed
straight there so let's get after it
well some of you guys may know that I'm an architect some of you may not realize
that I work for a large multifamily firm and we do a lot of these big crazy
apartment complexes that you see going on all over the country right now it
seems to be a big trend and it's kind of what drew me to Dallas to start working
and what the bread and butter for the firm I work for is but we also do some
stuff like hospitality and so that project of what we're going on today and
then we're gonna go take a look at is actually a pretty cool hotel it's a
boutique for sure they're out of Austin I'm not gonna really say that name
because they're not open right now and they don't really want everybody to know
who they are and that they've got this thing going on
but it's a super cool project and I think you guys will enjoy it well some
of you guys may or may not know what it is an architect does there's a few
people out there that don't and so what I want to do is shed some light on what
it is that we do for them we're going to be kind of checking the work done to
make sure it's in accordance with what we have specified and drawn out all in
the construction documents those drawings are the contract that binds
everybody and they're really the standards as to what gets built so the
contractors told us that the model units finished for those hotel rooms and we're
going to check it out make sure that it meets all the specifications that we've
lined out for the project we're gonna make sure it is also in
accordance with what the interior designer has specified because they also
play a large role on the team and we want to make sure that everything is
what the owner is expecting they're getting well you'll see first is us
walking that model unit we're gonna make sure that's done right and then we're
gonna follow it up by walking the units under construction each type I think we
have five or six types of units because of how unique the building plan is and
we're gonna follow that up with a tour of all the amenity spaces so once we've
walked everything that's under construction on this project our next
step is to actually check out one very unique element and I think you guys are
going to join that one
five or six the pocket door knocking this is that
flush pol blah blah blah so when you google that it's the haps tears but but
this part here when you google that that's just the circle part that you
have so as I'm back here editing this video for you I realized I didn't
explain what was going on here this is a lift system on the 49th and 50th floor
there is no service elevator that reaches that high because the overrun on
that service elevator would actually run into the mechanical equipment on the
50th floor for the entire building to get materials up and down you need to
have this lift system so what you're seeing here is a construction worker
taking garbage and putting it on that lift system to drop it down to the 49th
floor to then take it transfer it and drop it down to 48 for where it can be
put on to the service elevator and taken down to the basement to put in the trash
the Scylla skylight so when is this thing going to land never it's over why
were they here the oil company that leased this top floor on the structural
drawings has there
oh that's too bad yep
that actually but that would be
like electri over here
would you be only no washer
yeah
perks of the job the perks of the job
do you guys like these kind of videos where I show you projects that I'm
working on let us know down in the comments or if there's something else
that you guys want to see that we do or kind of behind the scenes drop down
there in the comments let me know appreciate it I'm always down there kind
of interacting with you guys to the best of my ability you know I know our
channel is kind of taking off a little more recently so I can't answer every
comment but you know if you guys have a question about what it is that we we do
as architects or you know what the day to day is like because I know there's
some people down there that are thinking about being an architect or kind of
curious about what it is we do let us know and I'll try and get back to you so
I didn't want to jump in and annoy you guys while we were taking a tour of that
roof because it was just an awesome skyline and I was way too pumped to
share that with you guys now the reason we were up there was to check out the
skylight that we were proposed and it's gonna be cut into the existing helipad
that helipad had been there since day one it was integral to the building and
so it actually ended up having a lot of design work done on the structural
engineering side just to be able to cut into that because the structure of that
is incorporated in the structure of the building itself now the building owner
was okay with it they said that the last time somebody's used the helipad was the
early 2000s so we're looking 15 to 20 years ago that somebody's used that
helipad and they didn't mind cutting a hole into it to allow some light in the
center our goal for that was to allow some natural light into the amenity
space those spaces weren't getting any light at all because we ring the entire
outside of the building with the guest rooms so they ended up being a pretty
dark space and we wanted to liven them up a little bit now those other two
skylights you saw those were existing and they actually served offices beneath
there now those offices were removed and the way we laid out our hotel rooms we
couldn't utilize those skylights ended up having walls going through the middle
of them or something like that so we ended up just covering them over
with the same roofing membrane as the rest of the roof during its reroofing
process recently and cover them up on the inside as well I wish we really were
able to save those skylights and repurpose them but it just didn't work
out as we were doing our investigating we realized that there's a lot of
mechanical equipment on that ceiling of the 50th floor for
or a restaurant level on the 48th floor and it inhibited our ability to cut a
skylight so we ended up with this narrow skylight that you guys saw there but
that's okay because it still achieves what the owner wanted to bring that
light into those spaces let us know in the comments what you guys think should
we've kept the helipad as is or do you guys like that skylight idea personally
I don't think we should have left that helipad who knows some bride and groom
could have been staying at the hotel we just designed had their wedding
reception at that restaurant level I just told you about they could have
flown in landed on top of the building with a helicopter live feed down to the
reception but hey I'm not a wedding planner I'm just our architect so if you
guys enjoyed the video hit that like button hit subscribe if you're not
already subscribed and we'll see you the next one but like always keep building