PRP Now! Mary Hohlt // Selldorf Architects

September 24, 2015
PRP Now! is a series of interviews that highlight a current UTSOA Professional Residency Program student every few weeks.
UTSOA, PRP

PRP Now! aims to showcase the great experiences students encounter within the Professional Residency Program. PRP offers upper-level architecture students a unique opportunity to expand their education through work experience in the architectural profession. Over the past twenty years, our students have been linked with 260 firms in 29 countries. We will feature a handful of students within each session, graduate and undergrad, domestic and international firms. PRP staff mostly recently had the pleasure to speak with Mary Hohlt [M.Arch. '16] about her experience.

PRP: Tell us about your PRP firm. Where are you working? 
I am working at Selldorf Architects in New York City. They are known for their art galleries, but one of my favorite projects the office has done is a recycling center in on the East River that feels like an art museum that barges and dump trucks come to. Also, Selldorf makes really nice stairs and hallways. 

PRP: Do you enjoy the city you’re working in? Favorite aspects? 
I think the most surprising thing about New York is how easy it is to live here. You can walk out your door and everything is there. Manhattan feels like a campus in the same way a school does: always stimulating, always something to participate in, and you will accidentally bump into people you know quite frequently. Oh, and people love to visit you.

PRP: What is currently on your desk? What are you working on?
Currently, my desk is a lime green bistro table in Union Square Park, where I usually take my lunch. On it: a roll of trace, a scale, and a site map of rural Africa. I’m working on a schematic design of a school in Zambia. At my indoor desk I'm working on renderings of a historic mid-century restaurant interior. Holy. Materials. Consistently, I have been working on a private residence in the West Village--a renovation of an 1840s townhouse.

PRP: Describe the firm culture? The office atmosphere?  
There is a clear organization to the people and the projects. Every Friday we get a spreadsheet charting everyone's hours for the next week. The Managing Partner works with the Project Managers to assess how many hours each project will need that week, and they organize the people accordingly. It's been a good way of learning about all the projects in the office, and the teams working on each. There are around 60 employees and 60 active projects, so the spreadsheet seems necessary. We work in "pods," U-shaped arrangements of desks that feed off the main axis of the office. I work with most of the people in my pod, but I also work with Project Managers from different pods. The firm has a nice work-life balance: regular, consistent hours and Summer Fridays, baby. 

PRP: What is the first thing you'll tell your classmates upon your return to UT?  
Do residency. This experience has been amazing. 

PRP: As you’re finishing up the week, what are your plans for this weekend?
Going to a gallery and a sculpture park. And happy hour with the other Longhorns here.

PRP: Is there anything else that you would like to add?
I have learned that I love CAD.