Architect Alvin Huang just figured he’d give it a try. The Synthesis Design + Architecture founder and USC School of Architecture professor had been impressed by what Jenny Sabin’s #OperationPPE at Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning had already accomplished. So this past Sunday, Huang created a Google spreadsheet to gauge interest among his USC colleagues and students in marshaling 3D-printing resources to make emergency backup personal protective equipment. Huang was uniquely well positioned to do so: His wife works at USC Medical Center and heard about pseudo-N95-mask production that was taking place internally at Keck Medicine of USC, using available 3D printers. So Huang made sure to connect with other entities within the university, notably Keck, Viterbi School of Engineering, and the USC Iovine and Young Academy.
The next day Huang sent the document, which contains open-source files for 3d-printing a protective face shield and a pseudo-N95 mask that have both been tested and approved by Keck, to a handful of architecture and design firms. Not long after, the City of Los Angeles’ chief design officer Christopher Hawthorne contacted Huang, and by Wednesday afternoon Mayor Eric Garcetti incorporated the undertaking into his public address about the wider #LAProtects campaign. When Huang spoke with AD PRO from his home studio on Thursday afternoon, the architect shared that the efforts already encompassed 134 people. The aforementioned Google spreadsheet, a dedicated Slack channel, and a recent Zoom meeting have all helped build momentum.
Get the essentials to grow a sustainable business at our member-only event.
The AIA California and AIA Los Angeles chapters, as well as students from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, have also become partners. L.A.-area architecture, design, and engineering firms involved include KAA Design Group, Michael Maltzan Architecture, Arup, CO Architects, HOK, Tighe Architecture, HGA, Brooks + Scarpa, RCH Studios, and Gruen Associates.
“Everybody’s printers are going around the clock now,” Huang notes, since each piece takes a minimum of three hours to make. “We’re a network of muscle that extends as far south as San Diego, and as far north as Seattle.” And yet, there are specific limits and parameters. “This is what we call wartime medicine. The ideal situation is that our gear never gets touched,” he clarified. “It’s not to replace the actual face shields and N95 masks that are true medical grade,” since air can potentially flow through microscopic cavities with the printed materials.
Huang also emphatically explained that the project is not about creativity and ingenuity. “With designers, the natural inclination is the second they receive something they say, ‘I can make it better.’” Instead, it’s about production. What’s been dubbed USC Architecture Operation PPE is also associated with the national #OperationPPE campaign, which Huang points out is “part of a larger movement.” USC Architecture Operation PPE is directly coordinating with four L.A.-area hospitals, but “obviously, we don’t care where they go,” Huang says—as long as the equipment ends up in the right hands. “These are for the medical professionals because if they’re not safe, we’re not safe.”
AD PRO is currently offering free access to all news stories about the coronavirus outbreak.
