In this edition, we are spotlighting Kevin Gardner, Design Facilitator at ORR Design Office. In his role, Kevin creates new content and pulls from the best of ODO’s last two decades of projects to help populate current project sheets. His work brings together experience, technical knowledge, and a strong eye for detail.
Before joining ORR Design Office, Kevin spent twelve years working in carpentry and contracting. Over time, the physical demands of the work became unsustainable, leading him to look for a related career path that still connected to building and construction. Drafting became that next step. He began with vocational courses and spent his first thirteen years hand drafting before transitioning into computer drafting for the next six years.
Two decades later, Kevin’s typical day starts with opening his timekeeping app, prioritizing objectives, categorizing emails, opening his oat-milk mushroom coffee latte, and launching into AutoCAD.
Known around the office for being extremely detail-oriented, Kevin traces that skill back to an unexpected moment in third grade. A quiz asked students to identify which three-dimensional forms could be created from flat shapes. Among many other school tests, this one stood out. Acing that quiz became a memorable and impactful moment that helped shape how he thinks visually and spatially.
That ability to mentally visualize geometry continues to influence his work today. For Kevin, details are where an idea becomes clear. They zoom in on assemblies and layouts, study the sequence of construction, define material relationships, and help translate design intent into something organized, recognizable, and buildable.
When reviewing a drawing set, Kevin looks for contradictions, breaks in logic, and water leaks. He believes a strong and well-coordinated construction document set follows the legacy of architectural language. When that process is followed correctly, the drawings become self-checking and begin to expose mistakes before they become larger issues.
Beyond his eye for documentation, Kevin has also developed custom AutoLISP tools to make AutoCAD work more efficiently for his workflow and office standards. His interest in automation started during a CAD drafting job interview where he was asked to recreate a drawing of a birdhouse as quickly as possible. Without preloaded tools, templates, text styles, or dimension styles, he had to set everything up manually. That experience made him realize how important it is to have the right drafting tools ready from the start.
One of his favorite tools is called TDM, short for Template Drawing Maker. It allows him to start a new drawing or sheet from a blank default template while following prompts that set up the basic drawing environment. The macro adjusts AutoCAD settings to match the way he expects to work, helping each new drawing begin with a familiar and consistent setup.
He also developed a keynote-making tool inspired by the work of one of the office’s engineers. Instead of using crossing arrow leaders, the tool allows each detail to have a list of numbered notes with numbered bubbles pointing to drawing elements, making details cleaner and easier to read.
Outside of work, Kevin enjoys propagating succulents, kayaking, walking his dog, and brewing fresh batches of kombucha tea.
Through his combination of construction experience, drafting knowledge, automation skills, and attention to detail, Kevin brings a thoughtful and technically grounded perspective to the ORR Design Office team.
