Greetings Olin community; the Shop has very exciting news! The Wood Shop is migrating from MAC 129 to MAC 113! The moving process will occur over the Summer of 2025 and the space will be open for use in the Fall of 2025. This change will provide space for more Wood Shop users, tools, and accessibility. Additionally, there will be an office between MAC 109 and MAC 113, and two of the Shop Instructors (Shop Adults) will work there: supervising the two rooms. This will mean increased access to the Wood Shop and the CNC Shop, so students can work there in a similar manner to the main shops (Welding, Spinning Metal, and Laser) during the weekdays.
The Wood Shop is relatively new. It seems like it has always been a part of Olin’s campus, but Robin Graham-Hayes, a 2022 graduate, helped create it. Robin used to begin every Wood Shop Orientation with the phrase: “Welcome to the Wood Shop; it is the youngest Shop space at Olin!” That line has been revised since then, as the Proto room and the CNC Shop have opened more recently. Since its creation, the Wood Shop has obtained additional tools, shop assistants to hold open hours, and a suite of trainings to ensure that everyone knows how to use the tools safely.
The Wood Shop is now used for a variety of class projects. Courses that use the space regularly include: DesNat, MechProto, PIE, MechDes, and Form, Space, Grain: Wood as a Sculptural Medium, but many other classes have cases where students make use of the Wood Shop. While the capabilities of the Wood Shop partly overlap with the Green Shop, more specialized tools allow for students to foray into more advanced techniques. This space is perfect for prototyping and revising, but it is also used for precise cutting and thorough finishing.
The Wood Shop receives a lot of traffic for personal projects, passionate pursuits, and non-class related matters as well. Cutting boards, rolling pins, chairs, spoons, shelves, and much more, can all be made in this space.
The Wood Shop has been integral to my time at Olin. It is a place to develop my technical skills, but it is also a place where I can create more than just functional pieces. I’m a maker by nature and came to engineering for a profession. The confluence of these two is most evident here at Olin and in the shops. In high school, I woodworked by experimentation. I carried that drive to create here, learning so much more than I ever could on my own.
As a Shop Assistant, I have seen the community that the Shop builds around it. People who are shy and self conscious about their lack of experience realizing that they don’t need to know everything. They just need to be kind, curious, and ready to grow. In my Shop Assistant interview, Jordan asked, “Why do you want to be a Shop Assistant?” And I answered, “The Shop makes me feel like I belong at Olin. It quiets imposter syndrome voices, and I want to help others feel this way as well.” One of my greatest accomplishments at Olin is contributing to the Shop’s accessibility.
The new Wood Shop is an amazing development for everyone who works there and people who use the space, but it will also help to draw more people who haven’t used it in the past, and who may not have used it in its current state. It will serve as a space where more people can create great things and grow their confidence. While I’ll be graduating in a couple of weeks, I’m confident it will contribute to the Olin experience of many students to come.
