Some photos

Atlanta Airport in the cold!!

The Team outside the Business College following the Communication workshop

Campus tour

Sooners stadium

Competition day - 16 hour lockdown

TEXO Head quarters Dallas for the team presentation briefing

The preparations continue

Will Rogers International Airport (Wednesday 9^th February 2011)

We finally make Oklahoma city.

Thursday 10^th February 2011

After the overnight delay in Atlanta the DIT students finally got the opportunity to meet up with their Oklahoma University counterparts. A 9 am team meeting at the College of Architecture campus on Main Street was scheduled to plan the agenda for the pre competition practice. The team organized the presentation details for the workshop with Professor Williams.

Communication session with Professor David Williams from the Business College.

Dan (in red tee shirt) with Peter and Simon listen intently to Professor Williams advise.

The communication workshop focused on presentation skills with a ‘hands on approach’ where each student made a presentation on an aspect of the practice project. Elements like physical presence and pre presentation preparations received attention.

If you like to get some information about presentation tips and in particular some of the insightful tips offered by Professor Williams please do contact me at Lloyd.sccott@dit.ie

After the workshop in the Business College the students headed for lunch that was swiftly followed by a tour of the college campus.

The redeveloped campus accommodation scheduled for completion by mid May when the College of Architecture's four divisions aim to move in at the end of that month.

New College accommodation from the construction site entrance.

After the tour the students returned to the College of Architecture campus for more preparations.

Later that evening the team were invited to dinner with Dean Graham at Ray’s Diner for traditional barbeque fare. Dean Graham. Dean Graham was very keen to welcome the students and offer his encouragement for this collaborative adventure.

Final preparations Friday 11th February 2011

All day Friday the final preparations for the ’16 hour lockdown’ on Saturday was the focus of the team. They worked extremely hard on trying to anticipate and plan for that unknown RFP (request for proposal)!!

From the sideline the team were gaining momentum where a very strong and positive ‘team spirit’ was developing.

The team hard at work with final preparations.

A late practice presentation to the coaches Lloyd and Ken along with DIT Dublin School of Architecture lecturer (faculty) Malachy Matthews who have arrived in Oklahoma directly from Chicago that evening to observe the competition.

Competition day looms.

We finally touchdown in Oklahoma

Tuesday 8th February 2011

The flight to Atlanta from Dublin went without a hitch and we arrived on the 8^th about 17 minutes ahead of schedule. The scheduled two-hour stopover turned out to be longer as the Will Rogers Airport in Oklahoma City closed early in the afternoon due to a severe weather storm forecast.

Downtown Atlanta

With the flight cancelled Delta Airlines booked us on a flight to travel on Wednesday from Atlanta through Memphis and onto to Oklahoma City.

Wednesday 9^th February 2011

When we arrived at the airport we attempted to check in to be told that the flight to Memphis was cancelled and that we had now been booked on an itinerary through Denver onto Salt Lake City with the final destination as Oklahoma City.

We sought a change and we then changed to travel on a direct flight to Oklahoma City a journey time of some 2 hours and twenty minutes.

We arrived at the Sooners Suites on the Oklahoma University campus in Norman late afternoon to be met by team member Molly Lyons with a warm Oklahoma welcome.

Sooners Suites at OU campus

After check-in we went out to dinner in Norman where we met up with all the international team members and Leigh & Ken Robson (Construction Science Head).

L-R Dan, Brandon, Simon, Brendan, Peter and Molly

That’s it for now, check back tomorrow for more updates on final preparations before 'lockdown' on Saturday.

The DIT DB team.

DIT/ OU Design Build team 2011

Welcome to the 2011 edition of the DIT School of Construction blog on the ASC Region V Design Build Competition.

Representing DIT this year are:
Peter Whoriskey Final year DT117 Construction Management
Brendan Towey Final year DT117 Construction Management
Simon Harrington Year 4 DT101 Architecture

L-R Peter, Simon and Brendan

Representing Oklahoma University this year are:
Molly Lyons Construction Science
Dan Grisham Construction Science
Brandon Coates Architecture

The 'lockdown' element of the competition will take place on Saturday 12th February between 8am and midnight (OU time).

We plan to keep you updated with the event happenings.