Thursday, November 17, 2005




Hi my name is Robert Silva and I'm an intern at the Hester Street Collaborative. At the beginning I thought that we would be going to a construction site, moving bricks and wood but it was really diferrent. The Hester Street Collaborative is an Architectural Firm.

When I first came here we made our own designs and symbols in concrete.The name of the project is called Step On Your Neighorhood. The second activity that we worked on was designing a small box so we could put concrete in it. However before that we had to do measurements so that all sides could be equal.After the concrete was smooth and almost dry we put our own designs in it. The next day when it was dry we took out the screws and wood to see how our concrete design looked and we all were amazed at the results.

The next project that we did was the Garden in which our task was to help 5th graders at PS. 134 with their garden which Hester Street Collaborative and the school has been working on since last year.We helped them clean,water,and fix the garden.Also we went to a school that is across the street from the Hester Street Collaborative to help students design for benches for a playground. It was an 8th grade class.Most of them had good ideas for the benches.It took us 3 weeks to do all this, we only got to see the 8th and 5th gragers once a week.

Lunch time was my favorite time. We traveled around Chinatown but stayed near the firm. We went to eat fried dumplings, vietnamese food, chinese buffet and red bean bun which were all surprisingly delicious.

Internship In Hester Street Collaborative Was Great!



Hello! my name is Yomaris Millan I am an intern in Hester Street Collaborative, I come from Pablo Neruda Academy for Architecture and World Studies. I am a sophmore in my school and this is my first time as an intern. I have to be sincere and say what I thought intership would be like. I thougt internship was going to be boring and a waste of time. But... I was wrong. One thing I could say about Hester Street Collaborative is that they get to work immediately.

The past few week I've been in internship, I have to admit I've had a blast! I really enjoyed being here. Alex Gilliam my supervisor made this experience for me very exciting and intresting. I also enjoyed working with the other interns from my school Robert Silva, Josue Ortiz and Victor Vidal. Being here has been a great experience, I got to eat vietnamese food,dumplings and even got to eat in a buffet and I have to tell ya all the food was delicious and at an unbeatable price! I couldn't believe how cheap things are here in China Town.

Now let's get to business! In my time here we've been working on two projects. One of the projects we've been working on is called Step on your Neighborhood for PS.134, the second project is working on fixing up the garden which is also for PS.134. The project I enjoyed the most was the Step on your Neigborhood Project and becuase I like it so much I decided to write about my experience.

In the beginning of this project I was working with Robert Silva and Jihye who was also an intern here from Pratt College. First, Robert and I were drilling holes in the wooden peices that later on we would use to put in cement. Second, Jihye and I were taking one side of the wooden pecies and sanding them so that the inner walls of the square we were going to make would be smooth. But after we had sanded the wooden pieces Jihye would spray Polyurethane.

Then, Robert and I were trying to drill the nails into the wooden pieces to make it a square and that wasn't working out at all. The wood kept on breaking so the next day our friends Josue and Robert were drilling while Victor and I were molding clay into sqaures so that we would go around the neighborhood and find some unique shapes or designs and stamp the clay into them.

Last, Robert and Josue were finished in making the squares so Victor and I were mixing cement and putting them inside the squares. Later, that day the cement was almost dired up and Robert,Alex and I were taking things that we found around us and started to make designs in the cement. I took a saftey pin and started to press it in the cement, then I took another one and started to imprint the end of an architectural scale into the cement.

I've learned so much in only three weeks. I'm so sad that this is going to be my last day here. I wish it could be longer but sadly it's only three weeks. I've learned alot about architecture, China Town and Korea (from Jihye). Working in the garden was also a great experince beacuse I had the oppurtunity to learn how to deal with kids. It was very difficult, at the beginning it was a havoc but it gave me a taste of how I was when I was younger. But I really liked it even though at times I was lazy and tried to get away with things Alex was always keeping an eye on all of us. At the end of the day when it was about time for us to be dismissed were would reflect on how the day went. We would talk to eachother and discuss what we liked and didn't like,what we did good and what we could improve or have done differently. That time of the day was very intresting. I think it's something that they should implement in school.