The BAC Practice ConnEx Experience
01.27.25 | Alicia Drumm | Events
For the second year in a row WRA has chosen to host three Boston Architectural College (BAC) students for a week-long "externship" as part of the school’s Practice ConnEx program. This program offers bachelors and masters students at the college the opportunity to shadow mentors at local firms so that they can experience what professional practice looks like.
Our firm is constantly seeking ways to engage future designers in our community—from kindergarteners to college students. We were eager to be asked to be a part of this program once more to provide a glimpse of our firm's process, philosophy, and portfolio of work. Throughout the week, the BAC students interacted with nearly 3/4 of the office staff representing all levels of leadership and all departments. We structured the week around a few of our core tenets and how we engage those tenets throughout the design process.
Day 1: How We Work
We kicked off on Monday, January 13th and dove right into activities with our assigned students Julia (B.Arch), Archit (M.Arch), and Mujahid (M.Arch). The morning included an introduction to WRA, an office tour, and a brief overview of our design process and tooling before throwing the externs into their first of two portfolio reviews. In this review they were able to show their work and present their design process to a group of WRA designers responsible for hiring. This gave us an opportunity to get to know them and their design sensibilities right away, while the students were able to come away with ways to update their portfolio to catch the attention of a firm in their future job searches.
The afternoon included an introduction to each phase of design, paired with a project team going through that design phase currently so the students could see examples of what kind of work was being done in each phase.
Day 2: Sustainability
Associate principal Andy Jonic met the students for their first tour of the week at the Boston Public Library’s Boylston Street Building Transformation on Tuesday morning. There, the students learned about what it takes to work with a beloved civic institution steeped in history—both honoring its past while also ushering it into a new age. Reuse and renovation is necessary in a city like Boston with so much historical architecture, so finding ways to preserve architecturally significant buildings and reinvigorate them for contemporary use is fundamental to a sustainable future.
In the afternoon the students were introduced to WRA's sustainability initiatives, learned about the software that the firm uses (including new sustainability software), and sat in on an internal office meeting where they were allowed to participate.
Day 3: Design for Community
The next day, we started the morning with another tour, this time at Brookline High School where WRA has completed multiple projects (one new building, one addition, and a variety of interior renovations). Alicia Drumm and Mark Borreliz met the students at the new STEM Wing addition, completed in 2021, where we talked about the extensive community engagement process that our firm underwent with the town of Brookline and school administrators and teachers to plan for the school's expansion. The tour then ventured to the third floor of the original building, which used to house the high school's science wing. We talked with the BAC students about how we navigated moving the science classrooms to the new STEM Wing and transforming the old science rooms into general use classrooms. Finally, we stopped at 22 Tappan, the new freshman school completed in 2022. Here we got an opportunity to talk to multiple school administrators about their experience working with our firm to explore designing a building over top of the green line subway tracks.
Upon getting back to the office, the BAC students were immersed in sessions covering community engagement on current projects, how to navigate a construction set, and some of the technical details of our built work.
Day 4: Professional Practice
The students from the BAC had the opportunity to tour Mount Auburn Cemetery along with WRA designer John Knauft. Katelyn Leaird, the Visitor Coordinator from Mount Auburn, led the students on a comprehensive tour through the grounds. Beginning in Story Chapel, the students were able to see our renovation of the Bigelow Chapel, a key event space and focal point within the Cemetery. Throughout the tour, the students learned about the history of Mount Auburn as an institution as well as the day-to-day operations that allow the Cemetery to remain one of the largest and most influential green spaces in the region. The tour concluded at the Crematory addition to Bigelow Chapel, completed in 2018, where the students learned about how the space operates and saw firsthand how design can bridge old and new to carry an institution forward while respecting what came before.
After returning from the tour of Mount Auburn, the BAC students met with associate principal Erik Tellander and senior associate Dan Bielenin to discuss how WRA tackles professional practice. The externs then got to sit in on an informational session about marketing practices and later got to meet with the leaders of the office's professional groups: Rawn Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (REDI), Digital Initiatives Learning Lab (DILL), and Women in Architecture (WiA).
Day 5: Construction
The weeklong externship culminated in a hard hat tour of the current renovation of MIT's East Campus undergraduate residences known as the “Parallels”. The students got their shoes dirty on this active construction site, learning what it takes to move a project off the page and into the ground. WRA designer, Dan Shen led the group through the two dormitories, each in different phases of the demolition and renovation process, while sharing her experience working on Construction Administration for this job.
Once the BAC externs returned from their final site visit, they got to sit through their second portfolio review of the week. This review was meant to be a review of any changes made to the students' portfolios since their Monday critique or a fresh look at their resumes and sample cover letters.
Wrap Up at the BAC Reception
The externship officially wrapped up with a reception at the BAC where the students presented on the week from their point of view. Julia, Archit, and Mujahid shared their experience working with us and provided great moments of reflection (documented here on their BAC tumbler blog). Alicia Drumm, who was the students' WRA mentor for the week, joined them at the BAC to listen to their presentation and share WRA's experience hosting for its second year.
As a firm, it was gratifying to invest our time in this future generation of architects and simultaneously allow ourselves an opportunity to reflect on our practice and impact. We were amazed with the students’ engagement and enthusiasm throughout a week of conversations, presentations, and hands-on experiences. We look forward to future collaboration with the students and their BAC colleagues.