Summer Intern: Nick Dufau
At Tatsumi and Partners, we have an annual goal of hiring a student intern during the summer. These interns are not necessarily students of landscape architecture but from all fields of study. These interns work side by side with our professional staff in various tasks ranging from design to photography to production in the digital media.
This quarter we are proud to feature one of our former summer interns, Nick Dufau, in our “News” section.
Each person that interns with us is assigned one major project to complete. Nick’s assignment was to produce a video about our award-winning Metro “Orange Line” (San Fernando Valley Bus Rapid Transit System) for which we were the Landscape Architects.
The Orange Line was one of the major transportation landscape improvement projects of its time. This 13-mile transportation project winds through dense urban communities in the San Fernando Valley. It now transports bus passengers through colorfully landscaped corridors that highlight strands of mature existing trees, drought tolerant and native California plantings, and landscape artwork.
The Orange Line, which had a $154 million budget, won both the California Transportation Foundation’s “2006 Transportation Project of the Year Award” and the “2006 Project of the Year Award.”
Nick was responsible for the video from its inception to its completion. His first step was to research the project to understand the design process utilized by our design team. He interviewed members of the design staff to learn the roles for which each individual was responsible. He quickly discovered the power of team work and partnering with other engineering/design firms and construction-related organizations. Nick’s goal was to convey this methodology in the video.
In an effort to add a musical soundtrack to the video, Nick quickly found out the restrictions imposed by copyright laws and intellectual property. While originally wanting to use the 1970’s “The Magic Bus” by The Who, he instead coordinated the purchase of commercially available music from the internet. Nick successfully filmed and edited the video, put the final product on CDs and distributed them to our clients.
After interning at our office, Nick attended U.C. Berkeley where he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. He graduated from the University of Chicago Law School and served as a law clerk for Justice Goodwin Liu in the California Supreme Court. He is now a lawyer in private practice in Los Angeles.
Nick Dufau, an excellent example of Tatsumi and Partners summer interns.
Great work Nick!