A paper I wrote as part of my internship with the City of Fort Worth. It goes into great detail of everything I did during my internship, what I learned, and why it helped excite me even more for a career as an Urban Planner.

1. Brian Campbell
Retrospect of an Amazing Internship
URPN 494-550
11/27/12
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2. 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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3. 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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4. 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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5. 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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6. 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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7. 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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8. 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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9. 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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10. 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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11. 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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12. 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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13. 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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