We went to the courthouse knowing of some issues and on a mission to find more before setting out to solve them. We were then able to convince them that testing out our solutions will be mutually beneficial. After seeing the results, they ended up wanting to keep the interventions indefinitely. This obviously gave us a sense of pride and reassured me of the skills I have learned over the last five years. This also gave me a sense of what it is like too see my work in the real world; actually built. There was no more bending the rules anymore, we had to design within a strict set of criteria and we did so to the "clients" liking on the first try.
While school has allowed me to test out a lot of radical ideas knowing the designs will never see the light of day, this sense of reality is very grounding and adds a tangibility to the work that flashy renderings couldn't. The idea of "...If I had two more weeks, I would continue my design in these ways..." is always more of an open ended fantasy, but seeing this work built and knowing that Kevin and Dan, along with other members of the courthouse, will be furthering the discussion has highlighted the flaws and missed opportunities and made correcting them much more exciting.