Crossroads News

Student Builds Skills at Frederick Fisher Internship

Eli Offer’s summer at a local architecture firm has been filled with hands-on experience.               
For Eli Offer, the learning didn’t stop when classes at Crossroads did. This summer, he’s been interning at Frederick Fisher and Partners, where he has immersed himself in the ins and outs of architecture.
 
“I’ve always admired architecture and really enjoyed it, but now actually seeing how it functions in the planning and development stages through a more hands-on experience, everything makes a lot more sense,” he said.
 
Eli’s relationship with the firm began when he contacted David Ross, partner-in-charge at Frederick Fisher and Partners, for a history research paper about the Case Study House program, which was an experiment that invited major architects in the mid-1940s to the ’60s to design and build inexpensive but efficient model homes for the U.S. housing boom at the time. The firm has an interesting connection with the project in that most of the built houses were completed in Los Angeles by renowned architects like Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Saarinen and A. Quincy Jones. 
 
The Frederick Fisher and Partners office building is the original architectural office of Jones and Frederick Emmons. The firm has successfully renovated several of Jones’ projects, including his home-studio on Santa Monica Boulevard, known as “The Barn,” and collaborated with the Hammer Museum on a retrospective about the architect.
 
Readers may recognize Frederick Fisher and Partners as the local architecture firm that designed the Science Education & Research Facility, which opened on the 21st Street Campus at the start of the 2015-16 school year. 
 
Eli was in Middle School during the early phases of the science building project. He sat in on some of the planning meetings with representatives from the firm and toured the facility during construction. The brightly sunlit rooms, large windows and high ceilings are some of Eli’s favorite components of the space.
 
“I love the building. I think it’s really awesome,” said Eli, who will enter his senior year at Crossroads next month. “It’s really exciting to be in the building taking classes after watching the construction every day from the Alley. It feels really good to learn in such a nice building.”
 
Having taken classes in the facility, Eli feels proud to be interning at the firm that was responsible for creating the space. The Crossroads lifer has gotten a breadth of real-world experience during his internship. 
 
Eli is currently working on a renovation and restoration of The Barn and building a model for the Santa Monica City Services Building, an extension of the Santa Monica City Hall structure.
 
“That’s a pretty special building because it’s the first building of its type in California to meet the Living Building Challenge Net Zero Energy Building certification. This certification exceeds LEED platinum standards. It uses as much as it puts out, so it doesn’t really have a carbon footprint,” he explained.
 
Other projects Eli has completed at Frederick Fisher and Partners include working on new project proposals, designing furniture, and filming and editing a short video for the Science Education & Research Facility.
 
Alumni Lucas Kirby ’15, who now attends Yale University, also interned with Frederick Fisher and Partners during the summers of 2014 and ’15.
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