michael p. elsman resume

Dear Human Resources:

I recently graduated and received my accredited five-year professional Bachelor of Architecture degree from Pennsylvania State University, and now I’m entering the job market. At Penn State we have an exceptional design program that teaches valuable skills to use in the design world. Would those skills be a valued addition to your firm?

I feel that I could be a valuable asset to your firm. As a graduate I can offer a fresh perspective on design. We gain extensive experience with communicating design ideas through drawings and models. Our studio requires extensive use of different media, from pencil hand drafting to complex, handcrafted 3D physical presentation models. Personally, I devote a large part of my design process to digital 3D modeling using programs like FormZ, and have become quite skilled in creating usable, accurate digital environments that realize my designs. I have also learned to use Autodesk Revit and used it exclusively for the past year to complete my architectural thesis; utilizing it for both extensive design development and for creating a professional final product to present as my thesis.

As a studio program, we must not only know how to produce in these different mediums, but we must also use them to effectively communicate our ideas. We gain a lot of experience with the way a design studio functions. We are constantly exchanging ideas with other students and professors, critiquing and being critiqued, and always working to communicate our ideas through our designs. Over the summer I worked with a small design firm and saw the way projects develop between the client and architect. It is an interesting and rewarding experience to actually sit with clients and discuss design ideas.

I have enclosed my resume and a small work sample for consideration. My skills as an architecture graduate could become valuable assets to your firm. If you wish to arrange an interview please contact me at (724) 544-2851, or I will contact you in two weeks to follow up and set up an interview. Thank you for your time and consideration.Thank you,

Michael P. Elsman

Attachment: Resume And Work Sample

M i c h a e l P . e l s M a n

Michael P. elsMan

206 Mannal StreetBeaver Falls, PA 15010

[email protected]

c o v e r l e t t e r

objective

Bachelor of Architecture graduate seeking entry-level position in Architecture or related field in order to provide degree-level architectural design experience and begin working toward licensure. Desire firm where design is an important creative process that seeks to provide for the client and where 2D drafting and 3D modeling skills are needed to create and present design ideas and bring life to the client’s vision.

skills

• Drafting: Skilled in both pencil and computer-aided drafting • Modeling/Rendering: Skilled in 3D modeling, animation, lighting and rendering • CAD/Office Computer Skills: Revit, AutoCAD, Form Z, Adobe Creative Suite, MS Office • Shop/Construction: Works well with hands, problem-solving skills, spatial reasoning • Design: Eye for detail and design, experience in design-oriented studio environment

education

• Penn State University, 5-yr Professional Bachelor of Architecture Degree 2012, 3.52 GPA • Blackhawk High School, Diploma 2007, 3.92 GPA

awards/honors

• Order of the Arrow (Boy Scout National Honor Society) 2002 • Eagle Scout Award 2006 • TSA CADD 3D Engineering Competition-First Place, TSA State Competition 2007 • TSA Construction Systems Competition-First Place, TSA National Competition 2007 • Dean’s List, Penn State Spring 2008, Spring 2009, Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011 • Alma Heinz and August Louis Pohland Scholarship, Penn State 2009 & 2011 • Foreman Architects Study Abroad Scholarship, Penn State 2010 • Mark Kates Memorial Scholarship, Penn State 2010 • College Creative Achievement Award, College of Arts and Architecture 2011

exPerience

• CAD Draftsman/Design Assistant - Bill Hutton Architectural Services (2010) o Preparation of Preliminary Design Drawings/Preliminary Presentations • Assistant Mechanic - Elsman Trucking (2005-2011) o Repairing, maintaining tractor-trailers • Cashier/Garden Assistant - Beaver County Fruit Co. (2008-2011) o Sales and care of gardens, flowers, produce market, landscaping, etc. • Cashier/Sales Associate - Michaels’ Arts & Crafts (2011) o Assisted customers with projects, ran cash register, stocked shelves, etc. • Dietary Technician - Franciscan Manor Assisted Living Home (2006-2007) o Served/assisted elderly residents at mealtime, worked in kitchen, etc.

activities

• AIAS • First Presbyterian Church of Beaver


Michael P. elsMan

206 Mannal StreetBeaver Falls, PA 15010

[email protected]

r e s u M e

The following is a list of professional and academic references. Feel free to contact any of these individuals; they will be happy to discuss my merits. They have all seen me work in a professional setting and can vouch for my ability as a professional.

reggie aviles

First, second Year ProFessor; digital animation ProFessor

instructor oF architecture

email: [email protected]

Phone number: 814.863.2453oFFice address: 327 stuckeman FamilY building

jawaid haider

5th Year thesis ProFessor

ProFessor, tenured



loukas kalisPeris

second Year ProFessor, digital animation ProFessor: ProFessor oF architecture, tenured



williaM r. hutton

emPloYer: architectural services


Phone number: 724.843.5509oFFice address: 770 edgewood rd.beaver Falls, Pa 15010-4924 candy wasson

emPloYer: beaver valleY Fruit comPanY

Phone number: 724.846.1030oFFice address:460 constitution blvd

new brighton, Pa 15066


r e f e r e n c e s


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intiMate intervention

location: state college, Pa

ProFessor: jamie cooPer

date: Fall 2007duration: 4 weeks

design bY: michael elsman

laura woolFord

descriPtion: Our first project focused on a neglected area of PSU campus and aimed to make it more usable. Design focuses on materiality of existing buildings, formalization of circulation, and integration of seating and planting.

This was our first real exercise in design drawing. We learned and implemented classical illustration and drafting techniques to illustrate existed conditions we could study in person.


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on-caMPus construction

location: state college, Pa

ProFessor: kaustav guPta

date: sPring 2008duration: 7 weeks


lYnne daniels

david milliken

caitlin roe

arYn sniechoski

descriPtion: This design-build project looked at the site and determined what was needed. Seating shelter offered protection from elements while also reacting and embracing them. Project used modular 2x4 system that made design and build integrate effortlessly.

This was a great exercise that forced us to take a project all the way from inception to a finished product. It was incredible to see how the quality of our design and planning helped to make the construction smooth and easy.


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Moving the barnes MuseuM

location: PhiladelPhia, Pa

ProFessor: ute Poerschke



descriPtion: This project followed real-life plan to move the famous Barnes collection to downtown Philadelphia. Design is a sort of abstraction of the original gallery, exploding the original gallery to create complex, adjustable spaces that allow more intimate interaction with the collection while maintaining the integrity of Barnes’s original layout.

I feel that this was one of my most successful building designs. We began with a powerful artistic artifact, the Barnes, and used that to drive our designs. My simple splitting of the gallery walls became a powerful gesture that I could apply to every level of the project, creating a successful design that carried through on every scale.


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Moving the barnes MuseuM - PhiladelPhia, Pa

M i c h a e l P . e l s M a n724.544.2851

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east Port land develoPMent

location: toronto, ot

ProFessor: madis Pihlak



kYle schumann

descriPtion: This urban planning project was a spin-off of the Toronto Lower Don Lands competition, focusing on the adjacent industrial site. Our design created an urban plan with emphasis on mixed-use housing and a green swath that linked green area to the east and west and culminated in a large cultural plaza. The plaza contained the Harbour Center Maritime Museum and Boathouse and an Avant Garde Immersion Theater.

This project was an urban planning scheme in which we had complete freedom to determine what the site needed. We wanted to preserve a powerful main street presence with our street section. Our plan drew people into the site and led them to the turning basin in an effort to reunite the neighborhood with the waterfront. Our two buildings created a cultural center on the water that became the focus of the entire urban space.


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5th year thesis: urban iMPerManence

location: new York citY, new York

ProFessor: jawaid hader

date: Fall 2011-sPring 2012duration: 2 semesters


descriPtion: My thesis questions the concept of architecture as a permanent, unmoving entity, in conflict with human life as a transient, impermanent entity, and how architecture can become adaptable to resolve this conflict and better meet the needs of society.

The project focuses on the street market and how it is, in its essence, the impermanence of humanity given form. To create an adaptable architecture I created a vertical street market, forcing it to abandon its sprawling ways and instead embrace the rigidity of structure without losing its ever-shifting nature. The building is thus a market high rise; the project weaves itself into the High Line park and then shoots upwards, creating open terraces that replace the market stalls while a large spiraling atrium replaces the street.

I incorporated the growing of produce to create an architecture where space is created by the program itself; actual living, changing plants. The plants are grown on 3’x3’ panels that are part of a larger system of panels that allows a great deal of flexibility with all of the building’s systems.


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