EQiA Chronicles - Emily Khalid
Spend the day with Emily Khalid, a Master of Architecture student and member of EQiA since 2018.
Emily Khalid
LEED Green Associate
M.ARCH ‘2020
7:30am: Wake up, jump in the shower, and start brewing a cup of coffee immediately (it’s an addiction). I make a quick breakfast of a piece of bread and half an avocado spread on top. As I’m chowing down, I check my email and review my google calendar to prepare myself for the day. I religiously use google calendar to organize research assistant hours, classes, school meetings, etc. I’d be a mess without it!
8:15am: I head out for my walk to Tech Square to start my shift as a Graduate Research Assistant position at the SimTigrate Design Lab. The walk is around 30 mins through my pretty lil’ neighborhood in Midtown. I use the walk as *me* time where I catch up on podcasts (usually something involving true crime) before a busy day.
8:50am: I arrive at the lab for my 9:00am shift.The project I am working on focuses on Emory's Cognitive Empowerment Program Center, a center for people with Mild Cognitive Impairment which is currently under construction in Executive Park and represents a collaboration between Georgia Tech and Emory. Being involved with research at SimTigrate has been super rewarding because you are working towards bettering the quality of life of people every day, which is why I entered the architecture field in the first place! Today I happened to be editing the center’s Revit model and rendering a walk-through video to depict the experience of the Center. I work closely with the architect to make sure their design intentions are clearly represented in the video.
11:00am: I attend a meeting with a co-research assistant and my Project Manager involving Post Occupancy Evaluation for the Cognitive Empowerment program. We brainstorm ideas/hypotheses/strategies for how we can evaluate the space after it has been occupied by members, Emory staff, researchers etc. We ultimately are making sure the building is serving its users the best it can!
12:30pm: It’s finally time for lunch! Today I eat Buffalo Spaghetti Squash Casserole that my fiance, Ashcon, and I meal-prepped over the weekend. So good! After I’m done eating, I wrap up my shift at the lab and head to the Hinman Building for studio.
1:30pm: I’ve arrive in studio. This year I am taking an Urban Design focused studio that is revitalizing the Atlanta Industrial Park located on the Chattahoochee River. We research and design stormwater strategies for the site and review them with our Professor, Richard Dagenhart. It’s been a very “real world” studio because it is an actual local site that has enormous potential for development in the future.
3:30pm: Today is a short day in studio. Usually I attend the weekly architecture lecture on campus at 4pm, but today I have a scheduled meeting with a principal at Lord Aeck Sargent. My classmate Maria and I are interviewing her for our Flourishing Communities class with Professor Julie Kim, where we are helping a church in College Park (GA) reprogram their church campus. LAS has done similar projects, and has graciously agreed to meet with us to share some invaluable knowledge!
6:00pm: After Maria and I wrap up a successful meeting at LAS, I run home to change and then head to the gym for a quick sweat sesh. I run around 4 miles on the treadmill and have a nice stretch routine after. Whenever I can fit in about an hour of exercise, I am overall a happier human. It’s all about ~balance~
7:00pm: After getting home from the gym, I shower and eat dinner with Ashcon. We catch up on each other’s days as well as do some light wedding planning (we are getting married next July!) Today at dinner, we discuss some potential DJs.
8:00pm: After dinner, I dive into different school assignments. Today I am working on diagramming stormwater management strategies for studio, and then begin designing precedent slides for an upcoming presentation for the Flourishing Communities class.
11:15pm: I stop “production” work as I can feel my brain mentally shutting down. I shut the laptop and read How Firms Succeed for my Making Money in Architecture class with Professor James Cramer.
12:00am: After a hectic day, finally lights out! I’m knocked out before my head hits the pillow :)
Thanks for following along!!