Environmental Design

ENVD’s Davis Velte Discovers Real World Design at Mosaic Architects + Interiors

Regan Widergren — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 20:11:56 +0000

ENVD’s Davis Velte Discovers Real World Design at Mosaic Architects + Interiors Regan Widergren Tue, 06/17/2025 - 14:11

Davis Velte is a third-year architecture student from Evergreen, Colorado, who has been balancing school and an internship at Mosaic Architects + Interiors since November 2021. Mosaic is a Boulder-based firm that specializes in custom residential architecture and interior design.

Velte landed the internship after his environmental design (ENVD) studio instructor, Jade Polizzi, suggested that he apply. Through the fall 2021 and spring 2022 semesters, Velte worked 16-20 hours a week at Mosaic while handling the responsibilities of being a full-time student. This transition into such a sizable work commitment during the school year was possible due to Mosaic’s insistence that he prioritizes his studies and his ability to manage his time at work and school effectively. During this experience, Velte was able to earn academic credit for his work with Mosaic through the ENVD Internship for Credit Program.

Velte began the internship by doing a lot of behind-the-scenes office work, like organizing closets and creating magazine ads. Eventually, he transitioned into assisting with Revit renderings, going on-site visits and playing a larger role in the company.

ENVD students are often curious about what computer programs are important and how their schoolwork will apply to future careers in design. Velte referenced Revit as the predominant program he uses at Mosaic. By taking a Revit course during his first year in ENVD, he credits that experience with giving him a leg up when searching for and applying to internships. Analog design skills are also valued at Mosaic. While the firm does a lot of digital work, many of its early conceptual designs are still done by hand.

From Velte’s perspective, one of the biggest differences between doing a school project and a project in the real world is that everything isn’t as hypothetical and the architects really understand the significance of what they are designing. He has enjoyed his time with Mosaic and understands how the skills and concepts he has learned in ENVD apply to real-world contexts.

Velte’s experience at Mosaic has been so successful that the firm has asked him to take a full-time role upon his graduation from ENVD.

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From schools to streets: How the pandemic is helping us reimagine built environments

Regan Widergren — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 20:10:54 +0000

From schools to streets: How the pandemic is helping us reimagine built environments Regan Widergren Tue, 06/17/2025 - 14:10

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Architecture student creates clothing company to spread positive message

Regan Widergren — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 20:03:29 +0000

Architecture student creates clothing company to spread positive message Regan Widergren Tue, 06/17/2025 - 14:03

Environmental Design students may know Travis Weis as a classmate in their studio and lecture courses, others may interact with him regularly in the Digital Media Center, where he takes on the role of lead tech assistant. In addition to being both a full-time student and student leader, he manages an apparel business. Weis, a third-year architecture major from Denver, created Release The Mind to help spread positivity through clothing that aims to simultaneously support the community and environment.

Learn more about Weis’s fashion concept and how he hopes to spark inspiration with his audience.

Tell us more about Release The Mind.
"Release The Mind" refers to letting go. Often during periods of stress or hardship in life, my feelings and thoughts made whatever I was dealing with worse. Leading my actions to change from how I would normally face problems. I realized that feelings and thoughts can be manipulated by the world around us, but it also helped me understand they don't have to be.

My mind consciously or unconsciously holds on to expectations I have for myself and the world, but life became a whole lot easier to manage when I began to let go of these expectations. Releasing the mind comes down to individuals learning about how and why they think and using that to become less attached to the things that they see around them. It's learning to not get caught up in the words on a page because it is easy to forget it's only paper.

Not to learn to stop feeling. But to have enough control in mind to be able to take a step back and observe feelings, perceive what it affects. Never trying to outwit or fight what can't be controlled, it's the understanding that everything I perceived has influenced me to become the person I am today. So instead of being haunted by the pain and struggle of this world, it's knowing the hardships I face and overcome that truly define my character.

The understanding that feelings of want and sadness give more significance to feelings like selflessness and love. I couldn't keep looking for happiness in the things I saw around me because I would never truly find it. I needed to find happiness in the one place I didn't look. In myself. That’s what inspires the clothing. The idea of letting go resonated with me so much I wanted to use symbolism and imagery to get people aware of what I think releasing the mind means. The best part, just the words “Release The Mind" can inspire something different for everyone. I hope to spread a message in order to help out anyone who is struggling like me. If I can manage to do that, all of the work I put into this brand becomes worth it.

Truthfully, I don't like industry, especially a super wasteful and unethical one like fashion. My vision is for my friends and me to be some of the pioneers in a new type of thinking. Developing people, community, and environment as the new role for industries. The power of business comes from the people, so why shouldn't businesses give back to people too. That's why all of the shirts we sell are guaranteed to be ethically sourced and use materials that reduce their impact on the environment. Extensive research goes into who makes our clothing and how they are treated because we want to be proud of where it comes from. But that is only the beginning, since I am still in school, I am constantly researching how I can help the community and environment through this concept of Release The Mind. Hopefully, with the help of others, it will grow into something that can create real change, but for now, I'll just keep giving out stickers.

What went into making it a reality?
Making this company took months of hard work and constant failure. Through days, sometimes weeks of creative burnout, countless bus rides to and back from Denver, and even using my skateboard to deliver orders it took months to just create this idea in the first place. Sometimes I had to take three steps back before I could take another step forward. I had to start from scratch so many times that I got used to it. On top of that, the fashion industry is oversaturated with cheap, poorly made and unsustainable shirts. More sustainable shirts made from plastic water bottles, organic cotton, Tencel modal, or recycled polyester are starting to come into the market, but often have shortages and are more expensive. Yet with my background in ENVD, I realized how important it was to use more sustainable options so, in addition to using sustainable shirts, our newest [product] drop was hand pressed in my dad's garage.

How do you balance managing Release The Mind, working in the DMC, and coursework?
Balancing my ENVD coursework, clothing brand and student lead position at the Digital Media Center was a challenge getting used to, but eventually, I realized work doing each of these things often inspires work for another. For example, if I learn a tool on Adobe illustrator while I am making shirts I can use that same tool to help students at the DMC or in my own studio projects.

What’s something unique about Release The Mind you want everyone to know?
Release the mind wasn't started to make money, it was never and will never be the purpose for the work we do. Release The Mind is just my dream to give back, spread a message through fashion, and design to change the world.

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Agency

Regan Widergren — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 18:44:01 +0000

Agency Regan Widergren Fri, 06/13/2025 - 12:44

agency (n.): action or intervention, especially such as to produce a particular effect.

Well-designed actions promote agency and protect your time and energy allowing you to achieve classroom success while also developing your own interests. A well-designed action meets the following criteria. You state it in the positive. You are responsible for starting and completing the action. You are excited about the action, but not overwhelmed. You can measure the action.

To practice this strategy or explore others, contact Ashley Chadwick, ENVD academic coach.

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FYE Program partners with Creative Labs Center to introduce First-Year Students to Woodworking Tools

Regan Widergren — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 18:38:47 +0000

FYE Program partners with Creative Labs Center to introduce First-Year Students to Woodworking Tools Regan Widergren Fri, 06/13/2025 - 12:38

Last Wednesday, ENVD First-Year Experience students spent the afternoon exploring the Creative Labs Center with Caleb Wright, manager of ENVD academic support centers, and the CLC monitors. Students used a handful of tools from the woodworking lab and made cellphone holders from spare pieces of hickory. The simple phone holders taught the processes of layout, crosscutting, drilling, sanding and finishing in about an hour.

FYE activities are a great way to learn about ENVD, CU and Boulder while socializing with your peers. The Creative Labs Center offer hands-on training on many of the tools they offer encouraging all ENVD students to maximize their creative abilities.

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Systems

Regan Widergren — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 18:36:42 +0000

Systems Regan Widergren Fri, 06/13/2025 - 12:36

systems (n.): a set of principles or procedures according to which something is done; an organized framework or method.

Mindfully designing systems supports your success in college. A system allows you to handle a bigger workload and more easily manage stress. When you feel anxious or overwhelmed, take a few minutes to assess your system. A system has three parts: raw ingredients, workflow, and outcomes. You probably have a natural workflow that you deploy to execute your work. To develop a stronger system that responds not only to your natural flow but also to the demands of ENVD coursework, consider the following:

What is your desired outcome?
What are the inputs or raw ingredients?
What is the natural flow that you want to see happen?
What structures do you need to put in place to be organized?
What are the decision points? Pain points?
What do you need to remind yourself to follow through?
What is currently working?
What is NOT currently working?

Adapted from Academic Life Coaching Workbook – College Edition

To practice this strategy or explore others, contact Ashley Chadwick, ENVD academic coach!

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Wellness

Regan Widergren — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 18:32:03 +0000

Wellness Regan Widergren Fri, 06/13/2025 - 12:32

wellness (n.): the state of being in good health, especially as an actively pursued goal.

As we approach mid-semester, remember that there are resources available if you are experiencing imbalance, stress, anxiety, depression, trauma, or otherwise feel that you need to seek help. ENVD and ��ϳԹ� provide safe spaces of support, regardless of your gender, racial and cultural identity, sexual orientation, and religious and economic background. Your health and well-being are important to us! The following resources are available:

Meet with an ENVD academic advisor
Meet with ENVD’s academic coach
Make an appointment with Counseling and Psychiatric Services (CAPS), which assists with a wide range of personal, psychological, and behavioral counseling.
- 24-hour support is available at 303-492-2277
Meet with the Office of Victim Assistance (OVA), which provides free and confidential information, consultation, support, advocacy, and short-term counseling services to ��ϳԹ� students, graduate students, faculty, and staff who have experienced a traumatic, disturbing, or life-disruptive event. OVA is not a part of the police department or the Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance and is a confidential resource for students, staff, and faculty.
Visit Wardenburg Health Center, which offers personal health care services, health information, and wellness programs.
Visit the Basic Needs Center, which connects students to essential resources, including food and housing, and provides support for navigating local and federal resources.
Visit a Rec Center or participate in intramural sports!

Access other campus resources and more basic needs resources.

Adapted from Be Well, Be Prepared with ENVD, ��ϳԹ� Support and Resources (Oct. 9, 2018)

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Third-Year Landscape Architecture Students Design for Eco-Healing Near Marshall Mesa Site

Regan Widergren — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 18:24:19 +0000

Third-Year Landscape Architecture Students Design for Eco-Healing Near Marshall Mesa Site Regan Widergren Fri, 06/13/2025 - 12:24

In the summer of 2022, a group of collaborators from the City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks (OSMP), Growing Up Boulder, CEDaR and ENVD began meeting about the concept of eco-healing–the ways in which connecting to nature can help communities process and heal from traumatic disaster events and create educational opportunities around climate change and natural disasters.

Growing Up Boulder conducted community engagement activities with the Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) and students from Whittier Elementary school that focused on exploring emotions around climate change and the super fires of today. Within the first few weeks of the fall 2022 semester, a third-year landscape architecture studio, instructed by Teaching Assistant Professor Emily Greenwood, has expanded on the work carried over from summer.

Students began their design project with an exploration of emotion and tying that emotional connection into what is typically referred to as the initial research phase. In mid-September, representatives of the multi-agency collaboration presented at the Colorado Open Space Alliance conference on Eco-Healing with youth: Inspiring Emotional Resilience through Wildfire Interpretation and Climate Action. Third-year landscape architecture students will spend the rest of the semester designing interpretive education opportunities along the Marshall Mesa (and adjacent) trailhead that will be presented to OSMP and folded into the future designs for those trailheads.

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Mindset

Regan Widergren — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 18:20:55 +0000

Mindset Regan Widergren Fri, 06/13/2025 - 12:20

mindset (n.): the established set of attitudes held by someone.

We don’t always consider mindset when it comes to productivity, mastery, and execution, but its resonances in these spaces can determine not only how you perform but why. We tend to default to two perspectives on mindset: fixed or growth. However, we are never any one thing all the time.

It is important to leverage an agile mindset to support our immediate and long-term needs.

“An agile mindset is about creating and responding to change in uncertain and turbulent environments. It’s about thinking through how you can understand what’s going on in the environment, identify what uncertainty you’re facing and figure out how to adapt as you go along.”

How agile is your mindset? Are you growing in flexibility? How can you engage your mindset to realize certain goals?

Adapted from Smart Insights: An Introduction to the Agile Mindset (Oct. 9, 2018)

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Scaffold

Regan Widergren — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 18:17:13 +0000

Scaffold Regan Widergren Fri, 06/13/2025 - 12:17

scaffold (n.): supports that enhance learning and aid in task mastery.

As designers, the idea of scaffolding possesses relatively specific dimensions—this tool creates the opportunity to realize a two-dimensional idea in space. As you reset to finish the semester strong, consider how this analogy represents the tools you use to support your success.

These tools include your community and your time, as well as the range of resources you engage on-campus—academic coaching, mental and behavioral health support, research support and resource guides available through Norlin, the MARC, ASAP tutoring, the Josephine Jones Speaking Lab, the Writing Center and more!

Your time is precious and will be in high demand over the coming weeks. Lean on this scaffolding to maximize your opportunity to achieve your goals.

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