Lowell — It’s no surprise that Sutton Alexander clearly remembers Cherry Creek Elementary, Lowell Middle School and Lowell High School buildings as a student, from the lockers to the exit doors to the painted handprint she left on a hallway wall in fifth grade.
“From a very young age I was drawing floor plans,” said Sutton, a summer intern at Grand Rapids-based architecture and engineering firm TowerPinkster.
She is tying those school memories into her involvement with TowerPinkster’s renovation projects at LAS buildings this summer, including a complete redo of Cherry Creek Elementary and work at the high school.
Sutton graduated from Lowell High School in 2024 and is beginning her junior year this fall at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, where she is majoring in architecture.
During her internship, she has been able to share her knowledge of Lowell’s school buildings with the architects to give them a student’s perspective.
“It’s been super exciting to see the progress, how everything has turned out and being able to give my experience in those buildings to the people here at TowerPinkster. It’s hopefully helped with the design,” she said.
‘It’s amazing to be able to know that you are designing and working on a space for the next generation of people.’
– Lowell High School graduate Sutton Alexander
On Site in Her Hometown
The internship is giving her a taste of what day-to-day work in the architecture field entails, she said. She’s going on site visits, putting together sets of drawings and models, attending meetings with general contractors, and getting to know the industry and how TowerPinkster fits into it.
“There’s a lot of things that are exciting. The biggest thing to me is that every day looks completely different,” she said. “One day you could be out on site and the next day meeting with a new client or something like that.”
Along with her work on school projects in Lowell and other districts, Sutton has helped with projects at the Grand Rapids Public Museum and spent time shadowing and working alongside experienced architects.
Her goal is to become a licensed architect and “just to try to have as big of an impact as possible on the world around me,” she said. “I think this is a good stepping stone into doing that. This is showing me what I want from a workplace and co-workers and all those kinds of things.”
Sutton, who took architecture classes at Lowell High School, said she used to be most interested in residential architecture, but now is shifting to the commercial side of things.
“I love the look of modern architecture but I love the craft of the older architecture. That is something that TowerPinkster is trying to blend together,” she said.
She also sees the big picture when it comes to the impact of good design, she said.
“I’ve loved working on schools,” she said. “It’s amazing to be able to know that you are designing and working on a space for the next generation of people.”
Read more from Lowell:
• Coaches offer ongoing support for preschool teachers
• CAD Olympics put engineering skills to test before exam
