Sharing Skills

The management and staff of Ordiz-Melby enjoy sharing our enthusiasm for the profession and encouraging young people to pursue their passions for Architecture, Engineering or other design fields.  We routinely participate in career days, office tours, events like STEMposium and other activities aimed toward school aged children.  The firm is also involved in externship and partnering opportunities with the Kern High School District Career Technical Education programs and the Technical Advisory Committee at Bakersfield College.  We believe by sharing our stories and our experience with the next generations, we will ensure a vibrant future for the profession we love so much.  

In 2010, the Kern County Builders’ Exchange partnered with Bakersfield
Memorial Hospital to construct a facility that would house the families of critically ill adult patients while they were in Memorial Hospital.  The facility would operate in parallel to the Ronald McDonald house which offered a similar facility for the families of ill children

Builders’ Exchange members contributed both the labor and materials to make this facility a reality.   The planning, design, and construction documents portion of this project was a pro bono gift from Ordiz-Melby and their staff to the community.

Several OMA staff members have spent the time required to train and test to be certified as Safety Assessment Professionals with the California Office of Emergency Management.  Certified OMA staff members have deployed as volunteers to help after both the Northridge Earthquake and in New Orleans after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

In 2014, firm principal, Danny Ordiz, was asked to share his leadership skills with the community as the President of the Greater Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce.

OMA staff has helped Habitat for Humanity by volunteering on builds and by designing a playhouse that was auctioned off at the Kern County Fair.

OMA staff has volunteered along with other AIA firms to facilitate several local planning charrettes including Wall Street Alley, East Bakersfield, Downtown, Arts District and 24th street alignment.

OMA staff volunteer as mentors, board members, volunteers for numerous community organizations and charities and routinely speaks to school children about architecture as a career.