We have our first design team meeting. It’s very rewarding to see everyone around the same table for the first time, and while I still have no idea what I’m doing, I know that I can trust each one of these people, that we have a team of such strong character, we’re well equipped to meet any challenge.

To start, the building gets measured– every inch of it! It takes a few days, and then every dimension of the entire building is loaded into a computer program to provide ‘as-built- drawings. This is the starting canvass for all the architects and engineers.

We discuss the ‘program’ of the project, which refers to the future uses of the various spaces in the building, and the needs of these future occupants. Then we begin drawing boxes on paper, creating rudimentary floor plans.

Since the Kitchen Incubator in this building is its centerpiece, and the most heavily mechanical, the first step will be for Jeff Carlin and I to work out the layout of the kitchen. While this goes on, Jeff Pribyl and Jean Dufrense begin working on structural issues. Until we finalize a kitchen design, the mechanical engineers wait on us. I begin to see the time it takes to turn around a design revision at this stage, and the Kitchen begins to teach me that the pace of the building renovation is not something I control. I’m just another passenger on this train, fulfilling my role to keep it rolling.