Background

-As an architect, I'm passionate about promoting urbanism, affordable housing, and sustainability. -My goal is to work as a project architect, helping manage projects through completion. -I also have experience being a de facto BIM manager at multiple firms, where I’ve updated the firms’ project templates, created custom Revit families, and taught firm-wide lessons on best practices

Job experience

• May 2023 - June 2024
  Project Architect
  AXIS Design Group
  

  Portland, OR, USA

  At AXIS Design Group, sixty percent of the firm's portfolio consists of automotive sales & service projects. My largest project was working with Steven Eggleston on the roof details, non-conforming upgrades, and appeals for three schools being renovated for David Douglas School District. I also was the project architect on several small automotive projects. While there, I worked to improve the firm's Bluebeam, CAD, & Revit standards. For Revit implementation, I gave firm-wide lessons on best practices, created new Revit templates to match the firm's AutoCAD graphic standards, and created custom Revit families for firm-wide use.

• July 2020 - April 2023
  Project Architect / Manager
  Ruckel Architecture & Design
  

  Portland, OR, USA

  After being laid-off in 2020 because of the pandemic slowdown, I started my own one-person architecture & design firm. Of the projects I worked on, 50% were for small commercial projects and single family residential, and the other half were contracting projects with my cousin's contracting business in Indiana. For these contracting jobs, I did take-offs, solicited requests for quotes from suppliers, drew shop drawings in Revit or AutoCAD, and prepared submittals to be sent to the engineer of record.

• July 2016 - June 2020
  Project Assist
  SERA Architects
  

  Portland, OR, USA

  At SERA Architects, I was in the multifamily studio, where I worked on four different multifamily apartment buildings, but most of my time there was spent on one building - Denizen Apartments. As a team of four, we started work on the project in 2017 with Schematic Design, and I would later become the project's lead for Construction Administration, where I'd see the project through completion. My main responsibilities on that project were BIM management and detailing the exterior envelope. In addition, I worked on a couple project proposals and helped develop standard BIM families for firm-wide use.

• November 2013 - June 2016
  Graduate Architect
  Elevatus Architecture
  

  Fort Wayne, IN, USA

  Elevatus was a firm of 14 people located in Fort Wayne, Indiana. They specialized in the Education and Criminal Justice, but most of the other projects were renovations. My largest responsibility was managing Revit modeling and detailing for a country club expansion, and I was later in charge of Construction Administration. I also worked on three schools, renovations to six "big box" retail stores throughout the Midwest, and briefly helped out with other projects like a jail, an airport FBO center, and office renovations. For the big box retail renovations, I helped create custom Revit families so that our office could transfer these projects from a CAD to Revit workflow, since most of the office was familiar with Revit.

• October 2011 - November 2013
  Project Manager
  Ottenweller Contracting
  

  Fort Wayne, IN, USA

  While working at Ottenweller Company (see below), I spent part of my time working with my cousin who owns a general contracting company specializing in water & wastewater treatment projects named Ottenweller Contracting. For him, I created shop drawings so we could fabricate parts using Ottenweller Company's laser cutters and forming equipment. I also worked closely with welders, and even created templates and other tools for them so they could fabricate custom parts for projects. My largest projects including two flood gates we replaced on the Saint Joe river, and a pedestrian bridge replacement in Richmond Indiana. For these projects, I also served as a project manager, as I got quotes from suppliers, estimated costs, and supervised installation.

• October 2010 - November 2013
  Facilities Coordinator
  Ottenweller Company
  

  Fort Wayne, IN, USA

  After graduating into the recession, I worked for my uncle's metal fabrication shop for three years. His company employs 300 people and makes parts for Caterpillar and John Deere. I helped the company with equipment relocation and custom equipment design to help with operations. My largest projects were the design of a light gauge "flow lane" that was designed using six sigma principles, and two paint lines (one for parts that could be hung on a chain and driven in a loop, and another for large parts that were wheeled into booths).

• January 2009 - July 2009
  Intern Architect
  MSKTD & Associates
  

  Fort Wayne, IN, USA

  MSKTD was an A&E firm with about 70 employees. During my internship, I created Sketchup images for proposals and learned Revit and an obsolete drafting program specific to that firm called "Cadvance." (They've since transitioned entirely to Revit.) While there, I created as-built drawings for mechanical and plumbing systems for a recent library expansion. I also worked on two projects for a Lutheran seminary located in Fort Wayne. Other projects I worked on included a single family home addition and an icecream plant expansion.

Education

• Ball State University
  Masters of Architecture
  

  2008 - 2010

  Following a gap year in Mexico City, I returned to the U.S. in 2008 to finish my 4-plus-2 architectural study at the same university. Our first year was divided between a one semester internship and semester on campus. Our second year was our "Masters Thesis." My thesis was a study of New Urbanism, where I took a lot of inspiration from Duany & Plater-Zyberk's "Suburban Nation." That year, there was conference in New Urbanism at Denver that featured several neighborhoods built (or revitalized) based on New Urbanist principles, and I traveled there to evaluate them. I later proposed a way to revitalize Fort Wayne's downtown by repairing the boundaries that had been created by the a railroad and earth berm that divided the urban center from the neighborhoods to the south.
• Ball State University
  Bachelor of Arts in Architecture
  

  2003 - 2007

  Ball State is located in Muncie, Indiana. During my 4-year undergraduate degree, I participated in a Virginia Ball Center symposium, where I spent a semester working with Professor Ana de Brea and nine other students on a cross-cultural study between Indiana and our professor's home of Buenos Aires. I also spent my final semester studying abroad, where I took architectural classes at UNAM university in Mexico City. I received a minor in Spanish, and I have a conversational fluency where I can speak at a high-school level in Spanish.

• Oregon License of Architecture
  Oregon State Board of Architect Examiners (OSBAE)
  ARI-11945
  

  June 2018 - present
• LEED Green Associate
  U.S. Green Building Council
  0011544545
  

  June 2023 - present