Architecture for a Week: Student Designed Softball Field
A Mentor school student's summer experience shadowing our design team and making an impact on her high school for years to come.

ThenDesign Architecture has a longstanding relationship with the Mentor School District. We understand their vision for the future of education in their region and continue to support them through a variety of construction projects over sixty years. One such project was the completion of a new softball field adjacent to the Mentor high school in 2020. This was a part of a larger project in revitalizing the high school campus, in 2015.

Recognizing the need to train the next generation of architectural designers, TDA seeks to provide internships and other opportunities for students to work with us and see the challenges and opportunities presented in a design firm. Anselma Panic was a Mentor High School student and experienced the new additions developed by the school district and TDA.

Being impressed by the collaborative nature of the spaces and how they transformed her educational environment, Anselma reached out to us and inquire about additional learning opportunities. At that time, TDA was in the process of designing new softball fields for her former school and we thought it would be an excellent project for this recent graduate!

Anselma is now attending Notre Dame University to study architecture and she reflects on her first experiences in a professional design environment.

TDA: How did you come in contact with ThenDesign Architecture (TDA) and what was your initial experience like?

Anselma: TDA does a lot of work with Mentor high school, I knew they did the renovation when we were designing more modern work. So that’s how I heard about TDA and I just thought it’d be really interesting to work with them since they worked on my high school and I liked the things they did. They really made our environment much nicer. I came into contact with Angie [Staedt] and I emailed her asking if there were any senior projects and she got back to me. At the time, the only thing I really knew about, TDA was what they had done at my school. They built this thing called “The Paradigm,” [a professional development center] and “the Hub” [a renovated media center inside the high school] and it changed the whole dynamic of our high school, which I thought was really interesting. Before we always had old desks, old seating and kind of boring old classrooms, but once they started to work on my school, they utilized simple things like rolling chairs and just those made it a lot easier to be more collaborative, it changed the whole dynamic to be more collaborative. The ball field project was just beginning when I started working with TDA. They just threw that idea at me and I ran with it.

"Before we always had old desks, old seating and kind of boring old classrooms, but once they started to work on my school...it changed the whole dynamic to be more collaborative."
-Anselma Panic

TDA: Tell me about the Mentor Schools Softball Field design project you worked on. What was that project specifically and as a high school student how did you feed into the design process?

Anselma: I’ve always wanted to be an architect. Art is a passion of mine and I’m really good at math, so I felt like the two just combined for me and that’s why I wanted to study architecture, and I love ThenDesign’s work. All I knew coming into it was that I would be working on a design project and would be shadowing an architect. When I came in, I learned about this softball project for my high school. The first day, I researched what goes into a field, like the materials, necessary dimensions, and I calculated how much everything would cost. Then I started using AutoCAD for the first time to design the layout for the field. I learned to communicate with people around the office about different parts of a project. Even with something as simple as a fence–I had to talk to someone that had specialized knowledge of that! There’s a lot behind it and everything has to be considered. They gave me workspace with a computer and everything. Every once in a while, I would check in with the project architect and everyone was super friendly. It was really great. I even saw their little office dog Casey! She was always around. It was so nice.

Ryan Schmit showed me how to help design the whole project. He showed me how to do program research, and explained what went into that, as well as what the client wants to see, and how to exactly lay out the whole field. I would be at my desk and he would come around to check up on me, which was good because I was usually confused with AutoCAD. He would help me out, but I was working very independently, this was really unique. Every day I had a different focus but feel I really was able to experience the firm and work.

Ryan really encouraged me to talk to the other people who were knowledgeable about the project and I was considering their opinions while making my design. He was really helpful I learned a lot about program research.

"You have to become a master at everything in order to make the best product."
-Anselma Panic

TDA: In what ways did this experience change your perception of working in the architecture field?

Anselma: It was actually similar to the architectural studio environment at college where I am in my first year of architecture school at Notre Dame University. It was where everyone is working together, and you can always go to the person next to you and they could help you. It’s great!

I remember I was surprised with how much of the day that you just spend sitting down [laughs]. Seriously though, I really loved the office environment. Everyone at TDA was easy to talk to and were willing to discuss what they were working on. I learned a lot about the design process and drafting with AutoCAD. I was really surprised with just how much time you spend familiarizing yourself with everything that goes into a project. You have to become a master at everything in order to make the best product.

TDA: You helped with the design of this project for five days in the summer, then were off to college. What was it like returning to Mentor High School and seeing the finished project?

Anselma: I just drove past it one day and I’m like, “That’s my field.” It was a great feeling to see it all there. Before that, it was just an AutoCAD drawing and on these [cost] spreadsheets. Seeing it there, I took a bunch of pictures and said to myself: “Look at it!” It was really cool, and I felt so blessed to be a part of it and to see it come together.

"I just drove past it one day and I'm like, "That's my field."
It was a great feeling to see it all there."
-Anselma Panic

TDA is always on the lookout for talent and for those who are as passionate as we are about designing 21st century educational spaces. If you are interested in connecting to see if there are opportunities for you, please reach out to Angie Staedt at AStaedt@thendesign.com

Let’s work together to make education better. Interested in speaking with us? Get in touch!

Ryan Caswell

Ryan Caswell

Communications

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Ryan Caswell

Ryan Caswell

Ryan is a communications specialist who is passionate about using digital media to further the goals of organizations and communities in Northeast Ohio. With a background in construction and a degree in architecture, he spent over a decade in corporate video production and brings this mindset to videography, editing, photography and content marketing. He is passionate about supporting the arts, and can be found hiking in the parks system.