Rachel Preston Prinz is an architecturally-trained American designer, and founder of the Santa Fe based consulting agency Archinia. She works at the intersection of architecture and design, placemaking, cultural and historic preservation, and community engagement. Rachel promotes the craft of architecture and the Genius Loci, or Spirit of Place, as told through photography, publishing, marketing, and design.
Read More#19 Successful Mentor-Mentee Relationships with Carrie Moore and Jennifer Grosso
In this special episode of Design Voice Podcast, I’m joined by Carrie Moore and Jennifer Grosso of SOM’s New York office to discuss mentor-mentee relationships. Carrie and Jen talk about the mentorship programs at SOM, and share their insights on why mentorship is so valuable from both the mentor and mentee perspectives.
Read More#18 On Grit, Vulnerability, and Telling your Story with Bianca Koutsakos
Bianca Koutsakos is a Business Development Manager at Neoscape, a creative agency that specializes in branding and visual storytelling of the built environment. Neoscape uses strategy, design, and technology as fuel for their storytelling engine–whether that story is a daring real estate play, a bold corporate venture, or the next consumer innovation. Bianca represents the agency’s San Francisco office, and spearheads the market growth, business development and marketing strategy for their West Coast market.
Read More#17 The State of the Practice with Wanda Lau
Wanda Lau, LEED AP, is the editor of tech, practice, and products for ARCHITECT and Architectural Lighting. Her writing covers a wide range of topics including architecture, technology, business, sustainability, and energy performance, and has appeared in Architect, Architectural Lighting, Eco-Structure, Men’s Health, ASID Icon, University Business, Urban Land, The Syracuse Post-Standard, among others. You can also hear her interviewing leaders in design and technology on Architect's podcast, ArchitectChats.
Read More#16 Pushing Boundaries with Margaret Cavenagh
Margaret Cavenagh is a Principal at Studio Gang, and leads the firm’s interior architecture practice, working closely with Jeanne Gang on all interior, renovation, and architectural projects. Margaret has experience designing a wide range of project types and scales including multi-family, mixed-use projects; work space design; and custom residential design. Guided by expert observations of how people use space, Margaret consistently delivers award-winning interior designs while attaining some of the highest sustainability ratings.
Read More#15 Practicing with Intent with Anthia Wong
Anthia Wong is a Team Lead and Project Manager with the San Francisco-based interior and architecture firm FORGE, where she works on a wide range of commercial, interior, and tenant improvement projects. She focuses much of her time on relationship building and fostering the lines of communication externally with clients, as well as internally within the firm.
Read More#14 Making Connections with Angie Sommer
Angie Sommer, S.E. is an Associate at ZFA Structural Engineers in San Francisco. She’s currently a project manager and engineer for a wide variety of projects around the Bay Area and California, with a focus on the educational and senior living sectors. Angie is also the co-founder of Vow Muse which helps people craft unique wedding toasts, speeches, and vows.
Read More#13 Advocacy By Design with Pascale Sablan
Pascale Sablan, AIA is an award winning architect and mentor in New York City. Pascale seeks excellence and humanity in all of her projects while providing a resounding voice for the issues facing women architects and architects of color. She’s also only the 315th black female architect to obtain licensure in the US - and she wants you to know it.
Read More#12 Madame Architect with Julia Gamolina
Julia Gamolina is the founder and editor of Madame Architect, an online platform celebrating women in architecture from different generations, countries, and corners of the industry. Her goal for Madame Architect is that readers will be able to find encouragement and guidance for their own pursuits, and empathy and understanding for the pursuits of others.
Read More#11 Engaging Communities with Sandra Vivanco
Sandra Vivanco is a Professor of Architecture and Diversity studies at California College of the Arts, co-director of the CCA BuildLab, as well as the founding principal of A+D, Architecture + Design, in San Francisco. Based on the premise that inclusiveness and design excellence can and should co-exist, the work of A+D is globally recognized and operates at multiple scales. As one of a few of Latina-owned architecture firms in the country, A+D explores cultural identity representation as design inspiration for new and invigorated public spaces.
Read More#10 Speculative Futures with Jennifer Wolch
Jennifer Wolch is the William W. Wurster Dean and Professor of City and Regional Planning in the College of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley. She is a scholar of urban analysis and planning, and her past work focused on, among many things, urban homelessness, urban environmental justice and political ecology, and the delivery of affordable housing and human services.
Read More#9 Leap of Faith with Angeles Garcia
Angeles Garcia is a Project Executive at McCarthy Building Companies. Originally from Ensenada, Mexico, Angeles has a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the Tijuana Institute of Technology. Angeles started out at McCarthy over 20 years ago by answering a newspaper ad for a Project Admin position. Since then she has slowly worked her way up to an executive role, breaking down barriers all along the way.
Read More#8 What Makes Your Heart Sing with Anne Torney
Anne Torney is a partner at Mithun Solomon, and leads their San Francisco office. For more than 20 years, she has made affordable multi-family housing and transit-oriented urban infill the focus of her work. She believes that the two biggest challenges of our time are income inequality and climate change, but design has the power to address both.
#7 Finding the Balance with Mary Wurst
Mary Wurst is a lighting designer and electrical engineer at the Omaha office of my own firm, DLR Group. A chance encounter with a cadaver arm ended up steering her toward getting an engineering degree, and she’s now a Senior Associate at DLR Group. We discuss the importance of exposing high school students to different careers, the challenges that mid-level professionals face, and why firms should be less focused on the rigidity of the 9-5.
Read More#6 Work-Life Success! with Nishita Lakhani
Nishita Lakhani grew up in India, was one of four women in a class of 64 in her Construction Engineering Management program at Purdue University, and is a now Senior Project Engineer at the national construction company McCarthy.
Read More#5 Sticking With It with Sandra Biddulph
Sandra Biddulph is a structural engineer and a principal at the firm DCI Engineers. Before settling down in Irving, Sandra worked in both Los Angeles and Seattle and has had a really interesting career journey. She's worked at small firms, co-founded her own practice, and worked on the general contractor side before becoming principal at DCI. She appreciates the art of structural design; watching a project come together, with a tangible finished product that becomes part of our built environment.
Read More#4 On Crafting a Practice with Irina Schneid
Irina Schneid is an architect, educator, and principal of an interdisciplinary design lab: SCH+ARC Studio LLC. Her research, teaching, and practice are focused on activating drawing as a generative tool in the production of spatial relations. She is currently teaching undergraduate design and theory courses at Pratt Institute and Columbia University.
Read More#3 Raising Your Hand with Laura Guzman
Laura Guzman is the National Director of Marketing and Business Development at the global engineering firm WSP. Prior to that, she was the Chief Operating Officer at Microdesk, a design technology consultancy, so she really has her finger on the pulse of the AEC industries.
Read More#2 The SE3 Project with Rose McClure
Rose McClure is a structural engineer at Simpson Gumpertz & Heger. Rose specializes in the analysis and design of foundation systems, and the repair and rehabilitation of existing structures. Rose is also a co-founder of the Structural Engineering Engagement and Equity Committee (SE3), which was established in 2015 with the mission to study and work to improve engagement and equity in the structural engineering profession.
Read More#1 Forging New Territory with Jill Lerner, FAIA
In this inaugural episode of Design Voice Podcast, I speak with Jill Lerner, FAIA. Jill is an architect and Principal at Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, a global architectural design and planning firm, where she leads their the academic, healthcare, and research practices.
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