Ha Leem Ro | Taliesin, Architectural Documentation

Ha Leem Ro (MSHP '21) shares her summer internship experience:

"Over the summer, I worked for the Center for Architectural Conservation under the supervision of Frank Matero, John Hinchman and Evan Oskierko-Jeznacki. I had the opportunity to intern at the Taliesin estate in Spring Green, Wisconsin, particularly documenting and recording Midway Barns, one of the only Frank Lloyd Wright designed farms. Staying in a Taliesin apartment for three weeks was also one of the highlights of the internship.

The internship entailed quite heavy documentation of the whole site, from collecting/organizing archival material to photography and field recording. In the initial stages of the internship, I worked closely with Taliesin Preservation, Inc. (TPI) collecting any historic documents and photographs to establish a database for Midway. The later majority of the internship mostly involved working on site; I focused particularly on repeat photography, taking historic photos and replicating them as closely as possible. TPI also helped in taking field measurements as it involved taking dimensions of all the buildings on site as well as the roof.
After coming back to the CAC, I worked on creating a 3D point cloud model through using softwares such as Agisoft and ReCap. The point cloud data was used for capturing further measurements which was then also used in building a 3D model of Midway Barn through SketchUp.

My time at Midway Barn allowed me to see how theories, principles and ideas that we discussed in class come into play in the field. I learned that preservation is not always as clear-cut of an issue as much as I like it to be - it is about being flexible, setting up priorities and realizing what can and what cannot be done."