December 16th marked Jenny Minney’s last day as an intern with Wilson Butler Architects. Over the past eight months, Jenny became an integral part of the marketing and BD team, helping to create detailed graphics supporting WBA’s marketing and BD efforts. Before we said our goodbyes we wanted to learn a bit more about Jenny and hear about her experience working with Wilson Butler Architects.

Tell us about yourself and your background.

I am 21 years old and grew up in Marblehead, MA. I am currently a third-year undergrad student at Northeastern University pursuing a combined degree in Architecture and Design. With both my parents having grown up in England, I would call London and other parts of England my second home. Some of my interests are traveling, dancing, exploring new cities, baking, and of course, design and architecture.

What made you decide architecture was for you?

When I was eight years old, I became fascinated by how the world was built and designed. I began measuring the rooms in my house, drawings floorplans, flipping through interior design magazines for hours, and piecing together what my future house would look like one day. Later, during high school I really enjoyed studio art class, however when it came time to deciding what major I wanted to pick in college, fine arts didn’t feel completely right. I had always enjoyed calculus and physics, so I figured architecture was the perfect path between arts and science. While I have loved studying architecture, I found out this year that my real passion still lies more in the creative and artistic side of this discipline. Northeastern’s combined major of Architecture & Design has been the perfect fit for me and enabled me to gain a clearer vision of what career paths I am most passionate about.

What was the biggest takeaway from your co-op at WBA?

My biggest takeaway from my time at WBA was just how collaborative a design firm like WBA can be, despite working remotely. Although I was working mostly from home, I still leave this experience with a good sense of what it is like to work full time at WBA. All the employees welcomed and treated me as a valuable member of their team and expected tasks of me just as they did of their more experienced colleagues. I have gained a great knowledge of what it takes to be a part of a successful team. Having the opportunity to work on successful submissions and interviews was a very exciting and rewarding experience.

What surprised you most about working at an architecture firm?

I was surprised how much networking and outreach work goes on from the marketing side of things. It might appear that architecture firms are a group of architects designing one project after the next, but I have witnessed first-hand that it takes an insane amount of advance work to win and eventually complete a project.  It involves not only architects and consultants, but marketing professionals, graphic designers, and sometimes HR personnel.

What’s next for you?

In January 2022 I am very excited to be moving to New York City to take a semester of interior design courses at the Pratt Institute. While I will still be a third-year student at Northeastern University, this program is a new exchange between the two schools that will give me the opportunity to study in “The Big Apple”. Working at WBA has also made me realized that my interests may lie in the field of interior design, so after becoming aware of the program, I jumped on the opportunity to dive deeper into interior design and see for myself if it is the right career path for me.

Most importantly, did you enjoy your time at Wilson Butler Architects? (And what were some of the highlights)

Yes, I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Wilson Butler Architects. Some memorable moments included the zoom calls for multiple hours at a time going to go over the details of the graphics of proposals with the marketing and BD team, the Peer-to-Peer lunches where I got to know other members of the design teams and was able to ask them questions about what it has been like for them to work in the profession. Designing the holiday card and animation video for the firm was definitely a challenge for me but I really enjoyed the process of figuring out how to best represent the firm in a fun holiday graphic. Overall, I had a wonderful time at WBA as everyone contributed to create an amazing and comfortable work environment. They have really made the most of remote work and haven’t let the “new normal” to dull the momentum of this firm’s culture and its designs.