Brian Campbell

Retrospect of an Amazing Internship

URPN 494-550

11/27/12

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Introduction

This semester, I completed an internship with the City of Fort Worth’s Planning &

Development Department. Specifically, I worked in the Preservation and Design

Division and my supervisor was Mr. Randy Hutcheson. I first began seeking out an

internship during the fall of 2011. During this time, I attended the Conference of the

Texas Chapter of the American Planning Association in Austin with fellow members of

Future Leaders in Urban Planning. There, I came into contact with Mr. Dan Boren, who

worked for the city’s Planning Department. When I inquired about internships, he

suggested I speak to Ms. Dana Burghdoff. After a few email communications and an in-

person meeting, she helped put me in contact with Mr. Hutcheson. After an in-person

meeting with him, I had been hired. Little did I know, I was in for the experience of a

lifetime!

Through the course of this internship, I would be given several big projects to work on

as well as some smaller tasks. Even though Mr. Hutcheson was my supervisor, I spent a

great amount of my time working with other planners in my division, especially Liz

Casso and Sevanne Steiner. My primary role was to assist all of them in any way I could.

They opened up their world to me and I learned quite a bit of new things while having

things I learned in previous coursework being supplemented and reinforced. I also got to

demonstrate my proficiency with Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. In addition,

Mr. Hutcheson assigned me two interesting books by William H. Whyte, a man I would

come to admire. Overall, I got the opportunity to do a wide variety of things and I never

imagined my internship encompassing such a broad range!

What I Did During My Internship

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One of the main projects I took on was direct observation of three of Downtown Fort

Worth’s busiest places: the plaza of the A.D. Marshall Municipal Court Plaza, Bennett

Park, and the plaza of the Trinity River Campus of Tarrant County College. It was my

job to observe and make notes about the people in this area: where they were walking to

and from, where they would stop to socialize, how many people were in the area at a

particular time, and the like. I would record all of my observations in a journal.

Afterwards, I would input this data into an Excel spreadsheet and type up some

comments about my visit in a Word document. Mr. Hutcheson explained to me the

reason for this was because he felt it was an important step in improving the overall look

of the downtown area. He was a firm believer in the teachings of William Whyte, who

worked for New York City’s Planning Commission and spent much of his life watching

people in urban settings and studying their behavior. Mr. Hutcheson wished to have time

to do this himself, but larger projects always occupied his attention. Over the course of

these visits, I would make some interesting observations. For example, I noticed that the

traffic light situated by the crosswalk connecting the TCC campus to downtown was

broken (It was not lit at all). The city might want to consider fixing this so pedestrians

will have an easier time crossing the crosswalk. Hopefully, my research will have proven

valuable in the future development and betterment of Downtown Fort Worth.

Mr. Hutcheson also assigned me with reading two books by William Whyte. Before

he began working in planning, he worked at Fortune magazine. It was there that he

would write several articles on the phenomenon of working in the corporate world during

the 1950s, a phenomenon that alarmed him. The culmination of all of these articles

would be the 1956 book, The Organization Man, which I read. In this book, he describes

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to a great extent how working in a corporate setting caused one to lose his or her

individuality. He felt that people here became completely engrossed in this world and

that careful planning and lack of outside-of-the-box thinking became a way of life for

these people. Basically, he felt everybody working for a corporation was the same in that

they were all married, owned a car, owned a house, had children, and other similar

characteristics. On the surface, it may not have felt like this book was very relatable to

urban planning, or the workforce in general given that today has shown that things have

changed drastically. However, this book got me to thinking about how I view planning.

Specifically, that it is an ever evolving field that should always welcome new ideas. One

chapter in particular was a perfect example of what I do not think planning should

become. This was Chapter 16, titled The Fight Against Genius. In this chapter, Whyte

explains that corporations at this time were known for discouraging creative ideas. The

heads of these companies were primarily interested in a healthy bottom line and they felt

a structure in which day to day operations were always the same was the best way to

achieve this. I was surprised that the Montesano Chemical Corporation had actually put

out a documentary with the message that Industrial Chemistry was described this way:

“No geniuses here; just a bunch of average Americans working together” (Whyte, 1956).

Planning may not be in danger of such bland generality now, but I felt that this chapter

helped motivated me to do everything I can to keep this from happening. I believe that

creative ideas will continue to solve the problems cities face.

The other book I read by Mr. Whyte was The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. This

book was the result of the years and years Whyte spent directly observing and studying

people in urban areas. It served as a guide for the kinds of things I was to watch out for

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and study during my own field trips. Through this book, Whyte says that more appealing

urban spaces can be developed by observing what the people like. To quote him: “What

attracts people, it would appear, is other people” (Whyte, 1980). He uses Seagram’s

Plaza in New York City to illustrate his examples on the specific elements that should be

part of any urban area including walkability, food, places to sit down, and environmental

consciousness. I came to appreciate his views very much, especially after getting to

perform research very similar to his own. I believe any city could benefit from

implementation of his ideas because cities are supposed to be designed for the people

who inhabit them. I felt he did a very nice job of illustrating the importance of the

environment in a person’s enjoyment of urban space in Chapter 3: Sun, Wind, Trees,

Water. Here he observes that, in general, people enjoy the warmth of the sun, the

comfort and protection provided by trees, view wind as an adverse condition and like the

coolness of water. Whyte’s approach to urban planning is like giving people what they

want without actually having to ask every single person in a city what they would like.

That is definitely an idea I hope to champion in my career as a planner.

There were a couple of other books I enjoyed very much this semester. One was

Great Streets by Alan B. Jacobs. I found this to be a wonderfully awesome book all

about streets. Jacobs goes into great detail about what goes into making good streets. He

reinforces his views with wonderful illustrations of his own accompanied by notes. A

wide variety of specific streets from all around the world are discussed, including Market

Street in San Francisco and the Grand Canal in Venice. This is a book I read for pleasure

and one from Mr. Hutcheson’s own collection that he was gracious enough to let me

borrow whenever I pleased. The other book was American Architecture: An Illustrated

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Encyclopedia by Cyril M. Harris. This was a really great guide about architectural terms

and came in very handy for a project I had involving expanding the list of definitions to

be part of a new guide for the Fairmount Historical District. I really enjoyed how many

of the words had both definitions and illustrations to show how they were applied in the

real world. I would highly recommend this book for anyone looking for a better

understanding of architectural terms.

In addition to all of these books, I had the opportunity to enhance my scholarly

experience even further in this internship through reading very intriguing articles and

watching videos about planning and architecture in general on the Internet. One

interesting article I read came from the website The Atlantic Cities and was titled These

Nifty Solar Panels Can Transmit Sunlight Underground to the Lowline. This piece was

about two friends named James Ramsey and Dan Barasch, creators of the company

Lowline. Their main goal was to someday create an underground park for the residents

of New York City. Their prototype for a special solar panel that could reach plant life

underground and help them to thrive would help achieve this goal. I really liked this

idea! Anytime the greenery of a city can be enhanced was a great thing. That coupled

with the development of a new park with limited environmental impact that would relieve

the pressure of the vast amount of people using New York’s above ground parks was

something truly extraordinary! I watched a great video about architectural design and

planning from the educational website Ted. The video was called Why architects need to

use their ears. In it, Julian Treasure, who advises businesses worldwide on how they

should use sound, discusses why architects need to learn to design and build not just with

their eyes, but with their ears as well. His use of hospitals and schools demonstrated this

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message very effectively. He explained that hospitals are often very noisy and that this

could lead to mistakes by the staff with regards to dispersion of medication and hindered

a patient’s ability to effectively rest and recover. With respect to schools, Treasure

explained that the acoustics in a classroom often made it difficult for students to pick up

on everything a professor was saying. He played two audio clips to demonstrate the

difference between a classroom with bad acoustics and one with good acoustics. I was

very intrigued when he asked why there were no urban sound planners and went on to say

that many people lost sleep from the noise within city. I agree with this point very much

and feel planners should also use their ears. People would surely benefit from reduced

city noises. A city itself could be improved through building some of its more important

structures in areas with reduced noise levels or even pleasant sounds.

I attended quite a few meetings and events throughout my internship. I really enjoyed

the meetings of the Historical and Cultural Landmarks Commission, the major

commission under the division within which I worked. One of the other major projects I

was tasked with doing was to create the PowerPoint presentations to be used in these

meetings and it was very satisfying to see something I created being used publicly in

front of an audience that for once was not my fellow classmates and my professor. This

was a public meeting held once a month between the commission and City Council to

discuss various cases within the historical districts around Fort Worth. Many of these

cases involved either approving or verifying renovations or other work that had been

done on a home in one of these districts that warranted a break on the taxes owed on the

house. Many other cases involved approving the work someone in a historical district

wanted to do to their home or business, as there were certain guidelines that had to be

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followed so that the district would retain its character. I had a more participative role in

one of the meetings when I got to call for approval of the tax cases from the City Council.

These meetings reinforced many of the concepts I learned about historical preservation in

my Planning Law course I took last semester.

Other meetings and events I went to include some City Council meetings, which were

very informative about what was going on in the city. I attended a meeting of the Zoning

Commission, which played out in a very similar fashion to one in College Station/Bryan

that I wrote about for an assignment for Planning Law. Right before it, I went to the

preliminary meeting where I got to hear an update on the Trinity River Project, a major

undertaking that will eventually connect Downtown Dallas with Downtown Fort Worth

and see a wealth of new businesses in the Dallas area. I was very excited to hear to hear

that it was closer to completion! A webinar on solar energy proved to be very fascinating

as I had not realized it was such a complicated area involving several competing interests.

I also truly felt like part of the team by getting to take part in our staff meetings. I

learned more about the Commercial Board of Adjustment through attending one of their

meetings. Finally, I participated in our annual GIS Day. Having had minimal experience

in this area, I found this to be especially fascinating as I had always wanted to learn more

about GIS and see some real world examples of how it was being implemented right here

in Fort Worth. Two of my favorites were the program created just this year to track cases

of the West Nile Virus and its use in monitoring sources of stormwater.

In addition to all of this, there were several other things I did during my time here.

While some of it was menial office work, such as filing papers and scanning photos,

others were more stimulating and exciting. I went on a few site visits with Liz and

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Sevanne and they showed me around several of Fort Worth’s historical districts while

also teaching me about historical preservation and how its different facets specifically

apply to the city. I helped Sevanne with revising the guidelines for the Fairmount

Historical District in two ways. The first consisted of researching and writing a short

piece on the transition from large front yards to large backyards for the American home

that took place at the start of World War II. Second, I expanded on the glossary that was

to be included in the guidelines by defining architectural terms that may have seemed

obscure to the average person and doing the same for other terms that seemed important.

It was great being able to expand on my knowledge of architecture in general through

both of these projects. Finally, I took on one more project related to Fairmount. I

reviewed both an older and a newer list of contributing structures (ones that add to the

qualities of a historical district) to see which addresses did not appear on both lists. It

was then my job to research why these addresses were not on both lists through looking

at photos, paper files, and electronic files. I really felt I got to know my hometown a

little better while working on this big project. It was really awesome to have been able to

do such a large array of things!

Supplementation of Knowledge from Previous Classes & New Things I

Learned

I found it amazing that pretty much all of my experiences reinforced and expanded on

my knowledge about planning that I had acquired from previous coursework. Going in, I

knew there was still a lot I had to learn, but I surprised myself by just how much

knowledge I had already gained. This occurred the most often with Historical

Preservation. I learned quite a bit about Historical Preservation in my Planning Law

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class. We spent a whole unit discussing it and several cases related to this area. The

meetings of the Historical and Cultural Landmarks Commission retouched on a lot of

what I knew, such as criteria for contributing structures, how preservation can improve

property values, and tax easement for up keeping a historic structure. I was familiar with

several of the concepts I would discuss with Liz and Sevanne during site visits. Tax

Increment Finance and Tax Increment Reinvestment Zones was a subject brought up

during the Zoning Commission meeting I attended, a topic that was covered in depth in

Infrastructure Funding with Dr. Saginor. In that meeting, we discussed that the Trinity

River project was both a publicly and privately funded one. The Zoning meeting also

brought up many of the concepts I learned about zoning from my introductory Urban and

Regional Sciences class as well as Planning Law and Policy Implementation. Zoning

concepts also came up in the Commercial Board of Adjustment meeting. In our

discussions in Planning Law, Dr. Pugh deemed it very important that we understood the

role of signs related to a structure, what variances were and when they could be granted

and specific zoning disputes that are commonly argued publicly such as wanting to

expand the size of a site. Cases involving all three of these concepts came up and it

helped me appreciate why Dr. Pugh had felt these were very important as they all can

have vital implications on the character of a neighborhood.

There were many new things I learned over the course of this internship. A lot of

them related back to Historical Preservation again, since this was the main area dealt with

in the division I worked in. Specifically, I learned about how Historic Preservation

related to Fort Worth. One interesting fact I learned was that people living in a historic

district are not required to renovate their homes once this happens, even though many of

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them think they must. The process by which a building is eligible for a tax break was

fascinating to learn about as well and it plays out like this: People renovating their home

or business are eligible for a tax break, the renovations must add up to 30% of the cost of

the land the building sits upon, and the work must be approved by the Historic and

Cultural Landmarks Commission.

I learned the definitions to a variety of architectural terms and I always enjoy adding

new words to my vocabulary. I found it very titillating to learn about how architecture in

America became more streamlined during the 1940s and how this helped transform

suburban life, all while researching for my piece about backyards. Finally, seeing in

action other uses for Geographic Information Systems beyond 3-D modeling was very

enthralling. It was great being able to soak in all of this knowledge that I am sure will be

of great use to me in the future.

How This Internship Contributed to My Professional Experience

I felt that this internship contributed something very positive to my professional

experience. I believe it was awesome that Texas A&M University required students in

the College Architecture to seek out an internship or a study abroad program for one

semester. Both of these can provide the kind of experience prospective employers will be

looking for and I truly felt I got this out of my time here. I was hoping to be able to say

that I had some work experience upon graduation. Working for Fort Worth’s Planning

Department gave me that and so much more. I really got a feel for what it was like to

work in an actual planning office and observe firsthand what a day is like for a typical

planner. I also got to observe what it is like to work with people in the community when

they come in asking for things such as permits or how to get on the agenda of the

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commission that will approve a project. I thought it was great that Mr. Hutcheson let me

be independent and pretty much left it up to me to decide how each day would go. It was

also great getting the taste of an overall regular job with a supervisor and co-workers. I

have no doubt when it is time for me to go to work following graduation that this

internship will have proved an important step in the preparation process.

Concluding Remarks

Performing this internship was truly one of the best things I have ever done not just

during my college career, but in my life. When I first got the job, I was a little worried

that most of my time was going to be spent being an office jockey. I certainly wanted to

be helpful whenever and wherever I could, but at the same time, I really wanted

something more thrilling. It felt great knowing that my little worry had been all for not!

Never did I imagine I would get to do so many things, meet so many great people, and

take in so much knowledge. I found it especially grand that I was not treated as just an

intern, but part of the team. Mr. Hutcheson, Liz, Sevanne, and all of the other planners

and staff I worked with were all very nice and friendly people who never hesitated to

share with me some great wisdom and some great laughs. Even as I begun writing this

paper, I knew I could not wait to go back to Texas A&M to tell my friends and professors

about the truly wonderful experience I had. I know I will definitely be looking back on

this with very fond memories. I am very grateful and honored to have had the

opportunity to work for Fort Worth’s Planning Department. Doing so has helped me to

continue to grow into a very well-rounded person.

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References

1. Harris, C. (2002). American architecture: An illustrated

encyclopedia . New York, NY: W.W. Norton and Company,

Inc.

2. Jacobs, A. (1995). Great streets. Cambridge, MA: The MIT

Press.

3. Whyte, W. (1956). The organization man. (1st ed.).

Philadelphia, PA: Simon & Schuster.

4. Whyte, W. (1980). The social life of small urban spaces.

New York, NY: Project for Public Spaces.

5. Treasure, J. (2012, September). Why architects need to use

their ears. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks

6. Wells, A. (2012, September 13). These nifty solar panels can

transmit sunlight underground to the lowline. Retrieved from

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle

7. William h. whyte: Project for public spaces. (n.d.). Retrieved

from http://www.pps.org/reference/wwhyte/

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