Sketch Portfolio

Sketches

Vivian Gruendel

Vivian Gruendel

Vivian Gruendel

Skills

Digital Literacy

AutoCAD

Rhino 6 + Grasshopper

SketchUp

Revit

Bluebeam

Representation

Adobe Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Lightroom & Premiere)

Enscape

Digital Fabrication (LaserCAMM, 3D Printing & CNC)

Manual Model-Making

Photography

Sketching

Post-Occupancy Evaluations

Written & Verbal Communication

Python & Java (Introductory)

Microsoft 365

Experience

Email vivian.gruendel@gmail.com

Phone (703) 980 - 1204

Languages

English (Fluent, native bilingual)

Spanish (Fluent, native bilingual)

French (Proficient)

Clubs + Activities

Honors College Student Council

Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society

VT AIAS

Ceramics Independent Study`

LinkedIn

Summer Intern - Perkins&Will, Washington, D.C.

Jun 2023 - Aug 2023

• Developed materials for SD & DD packages for a multi-story, two-tenant lab/office space. Assisted development & delivery of presentation materials for weekly client & consultant meetings. (10 weeks)

• Collected & organized data for NIH Sustainability & Resilience Assessment publication. Designed graphic content & coordinated feedback & contributions from Perkins&Will, CFR Engineering & Client. Assisted on-site POE & resilience workshops with NIH employees. (4 weeks)

• Contributed to punch visits, model-making, design studies & community-engagement documentation for multiple projects. Facilitated office-wide transition of digital content alongside marketing team.

Service Desk Associate - The Home Depot

May 2021 - Aug 2021

• Quickly & accurately answered customer questions, suggested effective solutions & resolved conflicts to increase customer satisfaction.

• Enhanced team’s productivity by anticipating coworkers’ needs & delivering support.

• Organized & developed retrieval processes for large-format online-order inventory & reduced order retrieval time by 50%.

Tiny House Build - Gap Year Experience

Aug 2018 - Jul 2019

• Crowdfunded, designed, built & donated a grid-connected mobile tiny house.

• Managed a $20,000 budget, developed materials lists & coordinated special orders. Coordinated consultations with industry professionals including contractors, plumbers & electricians.

• Learned & applied relevant skills & codes online using YouTube, Google & Reddit.

Education

Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University

Aug 2019 - May 2024

Bachelor of Architecture; Minors in Sociology & Landscape Architecture; GPA: 3.86

• Awards Harold Hill Memorial Award (1st Year Competition), Deans List (2019 - Pres.)

Published Works ‘Breaks: A Post-Colonial Mural’ (in collaboration with Room One Thousand, Cruz Garcia, Nathalie Frankowski & 10 students at Virginia Tech); ‘How Will We Live Together,’ 17th Venice Architecture Biennale Italian Virtual Pavilion Sezione del Padiglione Italia (15 teams including Workshops for Other Worlds at VT)

• Research & Thesis Architecture of a Stitch: Sewing & embroidery as lens & rehabilitative design tool for Virginia’s fading rail towns.

Europe Travel Program Aug 2022 - Oct 2022

Architecture; Fall Semester, Western Europe

• Collected photographs, sketches & notes to include in research papers & graphic materials

• Assisted organization of lobby exhibitions & student publications

Research ‘Empathetic Functionalism: A Study of Alvar Aalto’s House & Studio’ analyzed how light, material simplicity & spatial organization reinforce relationships with nature & improve quality of life

Design Studies of the Built Environment

Landscape Architecture + Industrial Design; Summer Semester, Western Europe May 2022 - Jul 2022

Research ‘Fragmentation, Layering & Weaving: A Study of Organizational Design Methods at Three Scales (Urban Fabric, Building & Material)’

Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology

2014 - 2018

Prototyping Research Laboratory Graduate; GPA: 4.2

Research ‘Hybrid Production & Construction of an Electric Ukulele’ year-long thesis employing manual woodworking & digital fabrication techniques

1 Forgotten Virginia

Thesis Research & Site Studies

Project Type

Studio Date

Location

Skills

Sketching, Research McGrath Fall 2023

Southwestern Virginia Sketching in place, Graphic Design

Vivian

These sketch studies embody the research I conducted of old and largely-forgotten sites in Central and Southwest Virginia. Brown’s Farm, now located within Heritage Community Park and Natural Area in Blacksburg, Virginia, was the first and nearest site.

The beginnings of my thesis research explored joinery, forgotten objects and architecture, and how those forgotten elements are joined, unjoined, and modified over time. Brown’s Farm, a local precedent, had over time been absorbed by the surrounding vegetation in a manner I described at the time as a series of natural joints and supports.

This phenomenon raised questions like ‘How do the vegetation and surrounding landscapes become the scaffolding and supporting structures for otherwise decaying architecture?’ And although the focus of the thesis evolved, many key elements from these intitial studies remained, such as regional Virginia histories, lost or decaying communities, and the act of somehow rejoining them to the present fabric .

Though Pamplin City has become the thesis’ primary site, it began as a site-study of former railroad boom towns in Virginia; how they were born out of the rail-lines extending to resource-rich West Virginia; how they died when resources ran dry and tracks, much like the seams of a patchwork piece, were torn out, amputating towns like Pamplin from the rail network; and how they were slowly revived when

patched together with roads and highways.

This is a collection of the remaining buildings on Pamplin City’s one-sided Main Street. They face the tracks, formerly Norfolk Southern’s Pamplin-Burkeville Beltline, now the Appommatox High Bridge Trail.

2 Column Studies

Adaptive Reuse Precedent Study: Ulmer Brewery

Project Type

Studio Date Location

New Skills

Sketching, Photography

McGrath

Fall 2023

Brooklyn, New York

Sketching in place, Graphic Design

Vivian

Vivian

3 Study Abroad

Personal Collection

Project Type

Studio Date

Location

New Skills

Sketching, Photography

Becker, Vorster, de Hahn, McGrath, Jones, Tew

Summer & Fall 2022

Western Europe Lightroom, Sketching in place, Post Occupancy Evaluations (POEs)

Vivian Gruendel

Vivian Gruendel

Sketch Studies: Ronchamp, Kusisaari House & Casa Vicens

Sketch Portfolio