Olson Kundig is a Seattle-based design practice founded on the idea that buildings can serve as a bridge between nature, culture, and people, and that inspiring surroundings have a positive effect on people’s lives. Led by five owners, the firm’s work can be found across the globe, with projects as wide-ranging as huts to high rises, homes—often for art collectors—to academic, hospitality, cultural, and civic projects, museums and exhibition design, places of worship, creative production, urban design, and interior design.
Under the direction of the Building Performance team, the Building Performance Intern performs basic building performance studies to support early project designs. This is an on-site, paid, full-time internship lasting six months.
Primary Responsibilities

• Conducts climate analysis for projects, studying the sun, wind patterns, temperature, and humidity.
• Produces graphic reports summarizing key findings and potential design opportunities based on climate analysis findings.
• Performs basic solar and daylight building studies to support early project design studies.
• Meets with design teams to relay findings and provide other building performance guidance.
• Contributes toward the development of strategies to achieve net-zero energy and carbon for projects teams.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Exhibits high attention to detail and takes responsibility for delivering accurate, high-quality work.
• Demonstrates a strong sense of urgency and effectively prioritizes multiple activities with little guidance in a fast-paced, creative and dynamic work environment.
• Able to produce visually compelling presentations and graphics.
• Communicates effectively verbally and in writing, demonstrating the ability to communicate effectively with all levels of internal and external “clients” and vendors.
• Demonstrates a growth mindset and an aptitude for learning new software and systems.

Desired Qualifications & Experience

• Education: A bachelor’s degree in building science, architecture, or engineering.
• Experience: 0-1 years of experience
• Demonstrated competency with Adobe Creative Cloud software, Microsoft Office Suite, with a proficiency in Excel.
• Preference will be given to candidates with demonstrated experience with Rhino and Revit software.
• Preference will be given to candidates with demonstrated grasshopper plugin experience such as Climate Studio, Ladybug, and Honeybee.

Preference will be given to candidates with demonstrated building performance modeling experience (daylighting, radiation, energy modeling, or embodied carbon).
Subject to meeting the primary responsibilities of the role, there may be opportunities for applicants to focus on a particular area of building performance of their choice—such as embodied carbon or energy modeling. Python or other coding experience is not required, but there are opportunities to make use of and further develop such skills within the Building Performance team.
Please note: Our recruiting system limits portfolios up to 9MB. If you try several times and the system does not send you a confirmation email, your resume and portfolio is not entered into our system.
What can you expect from us?

• A creative work environment and colleagues who are collaborative, creative, and challenging.
• Opportunity to grow professionally with excellent projects.
• Check our culture page to learn about life at Olson Kundig.

As a firm, we are committed to pay practices that are fair, competitive, and reflect internal pay equity. At the time of posting this job, the hiring range for this position in Seattle is $25.75/hour. Final salary decisions are made based upon the extent and relatedness of the candidate’s education and experience and considering internal equity and external market factors.
In addition to a dynamic and creative culture, Olson Kundig offers our interns healthcare benefits, PTO, bonuses, and a monthly travel subsidy for public transportation.
All applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship and must already possess long-term work authorization.
All applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship and must already possess long-term work authorization.