While many students are flipping burgers, waiting tables and folding shirts this summer, Ryan Hussey will be building houses, installing materials like brick and carpet, and ushering clients through their new homes.

And he’ll do it all on the computer.

Through an internship with Tonic Design, Hussey, a sophomore in architecture, is using Google SketchUp to do all the digital renderings. According to the Google SketchUp Web site, the program is a 3D software tool that combines a simple tool set with a drawing system, allowing users to learn it fairly easily, but still do complex design.

“Basically I take floor plans that [Tonic architects have] done already… and I draw them on the program,” Hussey said. “So when you work with clients you can actually show them the house. It helps give them a better visual of what the house looks like.”

According to Hussey, the program is pretty realistic, and the ability to add furniture and even people into the rendering really helps clients visualize their future residence.

But Hussey’s job goes beyond sitting at a computer all day. Tonic does more than just design buildings, it also constructs them.

“It’s kind of cool to see something out in the community that’s been designed that you’ve worked on,” Hussey said. “That was actually one of the things that attracted me to them was that they are a design/build firm.”

Because of this manufacturing aspect, the building in which Hussey works is split into two halves — one half full of Macintosh computers and architects and building models, and the other very industrial with saws and building materials. Hussey said he loves it, because while he does the designing, he can see the actual product being made right across the room.

And when the guys doing the manufacturing need help, they just holler across the shop. Hussey said the firm has been working on an outdoor classroom for the Museum of Art recently, and he has helped with odd jobs here and there, like cutting steel tubing. He said each piece of tubing weighs about 170 pounds, and that the job of the guys in the shop is to cut it to the right length with a special saw. Then a welder comes in and puts together the pieces that need to be attached.

“We put a ladder together today, which is one of the pieces of the framework, and it weighed around 350 pounds. We get one person on each end and we pick it up, so … good team work,” he said, laughing.

Hussey said he also enjoys the social aspect of his job, because most of the people he works with are between the ages of early to mid- twenties and late thirties, and the work environment is really comfortable and laid back.

And though his work days are long — Hussey gets to the office at 8:30 a.m. and leaves around 6 p.m. every day, if not later — he said he feels good about the work he does at the end of the day.

“It’s an instant gratification kind of thing,” he said. “I mean I’m always tired, but everyone is going to be tired after a full day of work.”

While an internship isn’t required for architecture majors in their first summer, Hussey said it is something he wanted to do for himself.

“Right now I just wanted to try and go ahead and get out there and get some experience while I could, and just kind of get my foot in the door,” he said.

He knows this experience — and having already learned Google Sketch Up — will help him later on, not only with future internships and jobs but in the remainder of his undergraduate classes.

So far he said he hasn’t done much computer based coursework for his major, because for the first year the design school likes to emphasize basic design concepts, and encourages students to learn things by hand. However, starting next year, when he begins to really delve into the architectural aspect of his degree, he said that will all change.

“That’s one of the reasons I was kind of drawn to [this internship] actually was because I knew it would be really beneficial to my future…. it will definitely give me a head start already knowing this program,” Hussey said.

He also said he looks forward to next summer’s internship, regardless of whether or not it is at the same business. However he said being at Tonic again would be ideal, because of the design and build aspect of the job, as well as the environment.

“I’d like to try this place again next summer, if there are still openings and things,” Hussey said. “You build friendships and relationships with the people you work with.”

Hussey said the experience is also helping him choose a style for his own architectural taste.

“I definitely want to go toward a more modern style, whether it be residential or commercial,” he said. “I like traditional and you always have to refer back to that for precedence, but at the same time you can take the traditional aspects and transform them into something more modern”