Internship Program

Internship Program Description

PROGRAM GOALS

Noll & Tam Architects is a 40+ person architectural design firm founded in 1992 and based in Berkeley, California. Our project portfolio focuses on public and institutional projects, emphasizing community engagement and collaborative design processes. Our portfolio includes a diverse range of project types—libraries, community centers, higher education, and facilities for other institutions: public, private, and non-profit. Our practice is energized by this diversity of project types and research and learning process that comes with rethinking both traditional and specialized spaces.

We have a long history of partnering with UC Berkeley and Cal Poly to provide internship experiences for their students. We seek to expand our selection pool to other institutions and individuals. As a firm, we are strongly committed to mentoring the next generation of architects, and we strive to provide an internship experience that is both substantive and engaging. We are particularly hoping to encourage applicants from communities typically underrepresented in architecture, such as BIPOC and first-generation college students.

PROGRAM LOGISTICS

• Noll & Tam’s intern program accepts students currently enrolled in an architectural degree program.
• Logistical arrangements are fully flexible in coordinating with program requirements and schedules.
• Internships are typically 8 – 12 weeks with a maximum of 30 hours/week. Duration and weekly hour expectations are coordinated with individual interns’ class schedules and requirements.
• Interns are paid per the City of Berkeley’s minimum wage of $18.67 per hour.

PROGRAM EXPERIENCE

Office Overview

• Our office intern coordinator will manage the overall internship schedule and check in weekly to ensure tasks and project activities are running smoothly.
• We assign each intern a junior staff “mentor’, who can act as an informal office and professional resource. Mentors and interns meet regularly (weekly recommended).
• Office hours: Noll & Tam’s standard office hours are 9 am to 6 pm. Intern daily hours to be arranged individually and coordinated with class requirements.
• Our office is hybrid. All staff will are in-office Tuesday-Thursday. Candidates must be available to work in office at least twice per week between Tuesday-Thursday.

Activities – General

Interns participate fully in staff and office events. We hold a monthly staff meeting and have a regular series of all-office meetings focusing on crucial design topics (Communications, project updates, sustainability). Interns have, in the past, occasionally assisted in organizing and developing content for these sessions if they are planned for an area of interest. In addition, we arrange for several intern-specific activities to supplement the daily project work and support their course requirements.

• Staff interviews: We arrange 1:1 opportunities for interns to talk with various office roles to help them understand how the practice operates. Staff interviews might include a Principal, our Accounting Manager, and Marketing Director.
• introduction and support for learning Revit: Throughout the internship, we provide time and technical support to practice using Revit and become comfortable with the software outside project deliverables.

Activities – Project

Interns will be assigned 1-2 “home” projects which they will work on more consistently throughout the internship. In selecting home projects, we seek projects that offer the potential for more substantive input and projects with larger teams. This gives interns a wider range of exposure to the different experiences and positions within an architectural practice, and, practically, provides them with support resources in the office and their mentor and intern coordinator. Specific project assignments will vary by schedule, ability, and current office workload; recent intern home projects and activities have included:

• Intensive design studies for ceilings of a new high school building (in the Design Development Phase)
• Construction of as-built Revit model and associated Revit training (in PreDesign Phase)
• Materials research and development of interiors finish palette (in Construction Documents Phase)

In addition to their primary home projects, the internship schedule will typically include several short-term (1-2 day) stints on other projects in the office. These supplemental projects give the intern a window into parts of the architectural practice they might not otherwise experience in an entry-level staff position. Additional project experience has included:

• Construction site visits and OAC meetings
• Interview strategy and prep
• Marketing proposal research

CONTACT

School program coordinators and Individual students should contact:

Jamie Handley

Office Manager

jobs@nollandtam.com

Noll & Tam Architects’ Internship Application Schedule

*To be considered for the following terms, please submit your application within the window(s) stated below. Please note: It is your responsibility to enroll yourself in a work experience course to obtain academic credit.

Summer 2026

Application deadline: March 31st                            

Internship start date:  May-June

Fall 2025

Application deadline:  August 31st

Internship start date:  September-October

Winter/Spring 2026

Application deadline:  November 30th 

Internship start date:  January-February