ACE Mentoring: Final Presentation

Team 8 presented their design of the Pac Mama coffee shop this evening. Great work to the students and mentors.

Hour 37 - Habitat for Humanity - N. Michigan Duplex

Leo & Maria, future owners of one of the units, help with the construction

This morning was my 2^nd time around with Habitat for Humanity here in Portland. Click here to read about my first time with the organization, and a bit about how they operate. I enjoy working with these guys because of the hands on construction element, but also because of the project leaders. The work reminds me of my time volunteering with Pisco Sin Fronteras in Peru. Today I was helping construct a duplex in North Portland, an up-and-coming neighborhood (only a block off of the bar and cafe packed Mississippi Ave). A blue sky this Saturday morning left the project with only 4 volunteers (2 of which were members of the family that will live in the house once complete)…bummer. But today was a great day. I was given carpentry tasks, and happy to use power tools and a hammer. I constructed and mounted exterior vent blocks (um, what are those?) and mounted blocks for dry wall in the upstairs unit. Also reminding me of my work in Peru, was the diversity of the volunteers helping today: Mexico, Holland, China and the Upper Mid-west were all represented on site.

Megan helps H4H before heading out to volunteer with the Human Society. You go, girl.

Hour 35 - ACE Mentoring: Final Touches on the Design & Prep for Final Presentation

This week’s meeting was a team focus on completing the project’s  final presentation. Next Thursday (May 24^th) Team 8 will present their coffee shop to the other ACE teams and mentors. The floor plan, bubble diagram, structural plan, roof plan, HVAC plan and elevations have all been scanned into pdf and power point slides have been created.  The team put the finishing touches on the construction cost estimate, making sure that we came in below the budget. This was an iterative process of checking the overall construction cost and lowering/raising the quality and quantity of such features as the café’s furniture, or the kitchen and bean roaster. The students debated on where to trim expenses and in the end the team came in just below the $1.2M budget.

Our Construction Schedule

Once the cost estimate was finalized, we developed the construction project schedule for our coffee shop. With guidance from the mentors, the students created a list of major construction tasks; recalling topics discussed throughout the last 13 meetings of the ACE season. Earthwork, foundations, structures, HVAC/electrical, and interior finishing: all construction elements which the team had learned about at some point this year. The mentors took this time to explain the concept of scheduling, and how certain activities could occur concurrently, but others were dependent on the completion of subsequent activities (the foundations could not be poured until the earthwork has been completed). An 11 month construction schedule was developed for the coffee shop. The presentation was completed and slides were divided amongst the students for presentation.  Now that the design of the coffee shop has been finished, the students have a week to practice the presentation.

Did I Mention the Coffee Shop has a Pac Man theme?

Final presentations for the 2012 ACE Mentor program will be held on Tuesday (May 22) and Thursday (May 24). Click here or more information on the events.