Christine Williamson is the founder of the Building Science Fight Club, an Instagram community dedicated to teaching building science and construction to architects and other building professionals. She provides technical design consulting services to architects, developers, and contractors, assisting with design development and reviewing details and specifications to improve durability, comfort, and energy efficiency. She also has an online course that teaches architects, architects in training, and other building industry professionals about building science and construction.
Read More#59 Looking Inward and Outward with Janet Tam, FAIA
Janet Tam is a founder and Principal of Noll and Tam Architects. Janet and her business partner, Chris Noll, founded their firm in 1992, to establish a talented studio of architects that pursued the ideal of active community involvement and environmentally responsive design. Since its founding, the Berkeley-based firm has become a leader in Bay Area public architecture, and is noted for championing women in leadership roles. Janet’s work, and that of the firm, is regarded for its emphasis on recognizing and articulating shared community values with projects that bind people together in a common vision for the future.
Read More#58 Supporting the Next Generation of Architects with Primaverarch
Primaverarch is an organization dedicated to stimulating change for the recognition of women in the architectural profession. Primaverarch was created by Nadeen Hassan, Chaerin Kim, and Soany Marquez, three minority-women who recently graduated from the Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York. Throughout their studies, they experienced a lack of professional support, mentorship, and recognition, and so decided to start Primavera. Primaverarch is a catalyst movement that is dedicated to creating a seat at the table for all women in the field.
Read More#57 Designing an Organization with Kate Thatcher
Kate Thatcher is the Chief Executive Officer of Architecture + Information (A+I), a strategy-led architecture and experience design agency based in New York. As CEO, Thatcher drives the acceleration of innovation, collaboration between teams and subject areas, and further development of culture and inclusion initiatives within A+I. A tireless advocate for equity within the architecture and design professions, Kate is responsible for the launch, in 2020, of the firm's +IMPACT initiative, a platform for A+I’s employees to leverage their talents and expertise on opportunities at the intersection of design and social impact.
Read More#56 A Career of Joy, Fearlessness, and Serendipity with Sylvia Kwan
Sylvia Kwan is a principal based out of DLR Group’s San Francisco office. She has practiced in San Francisco for more than 40 years and her past and present designs continue to impact the built environment in the Bay Area. She has a broad portfolio of building type experience and a focused expertise in the Transportation and Higher Education markets. Sylvia takes great pride in building relationships with clients and exceeding their expectations.
Read More#55 This is What an Engineer Looks Like with Liz Brack
Liz Brack is a structural engineer based out of DLR Group’s Phoenix office, where she is actively involved in a diverse range of building types with a focus on K through 12 projects. Liz is active in the community through the organization and participation of multiple STEM outreach with the local schools. She is also the active Philanthropy chair of the Structural Engineers of Arizona Young Member Group. In addition to her work with DLR Group, Liz teaches an intro to structural engineering course at Arizona State University.
Read More#54 Always Moving Forward with Elaine Molinar
Elaine Molinar is a Partner and Managing Director at Snohetta. She began her career as a designer of the Alexandria Library in Egypt after participating in the initial conception for Snøhetta’s winning competition entry. Throughout her time with the firm, Elaine has held key positions in major cultural projects and competitions around the world including the award-winning Norwegian National Opera & Ballet. In 2005, she helped found Snøhetta’s New York office after the firm was awarded the National September 11th Memorial Museum Pavilion at the World Trade Center. Elaine currently leads the general management of Snøhetta’s US practice.
#53 Inspiring Change in Justice Architecture with Erica Loynd, FAIA
Erica Loynd, FAIA is a Principal based out of DLR Group’s Seattle office, and is a Justice and Civic Studio Sector Leader. Erica is particularly passionate about sustainability, restorative justice, and the impact of the built environment on human wellness. She is an expert at leading teams to elevate conditions for disenfranchised people, and setting innovative justice standards that support wellness, equity, and transformative programs to successfully return people to their communities.
#52 Building a Career With Heart with Qeturah Williams
Qeturah Williams is a Senior Architect based out of DLR Group’s Houston office. As a Project Manager and architect with 16 years of design and construction experience, her broad range of work includes diverse commercial projects across multiple market sectors. She’s especially drawn to the technical aspect of architecture and finds that there's nothing more satisfying than seeing a well-drawn detail implemented by a skilled tradesperson. She believes that through design, architects are the stewards of the future, entrusted by the clients as partners to meet and exceed their goals.
#51 Building a Collaborative Design Practice with Natasha Espada
Natasha Espada, AIA, NOMA, LEED AP BD+C is the founder and Principal of STUDIO ENÉE Architects. She has over 25 years of design and construction expertise in both renovation and new construction for institutional, civic, and commercial clients. Natasha served as the 2020 President of the Boston Society for Architecture. Her platform focused on equity, diversity, inclusion, and social justice in the profession, as well as working to make Boston a Design City.
#50 Design is in the Details with Vanessa Kassabian
Vanessa is a Cultural+Performing Arts design leader based out of DLR Group's New York office. She works closely with teams across the firm to facilitate design discussions and provide critical guidance on considerations around site, programming, massing, aesthetics, and execution. As a strong proponent of collaboration and an integrated design approach, Vanessa works to foster client, consultant, and internal design team relationships from concept design to construction completion.
#49 Women in AEC History with the She Builds Podcast
She Builds Podcast is a show featuring the seldom told stories of women who build; women whose worth is not taught in architecture school, but who have shaped the industries of architecture, construction, and development throughout history. The podcast was started by Jessica Rogers, Lizi Roar and Norgerie Rivas, three friends who, after graduating from Syracuse University School of Architecture together, wanted to fill in the gaps in their education and share those with others.
#48 Building a Personal Brand for Architects with Joann Lui
Joann Lui is an architect and founder of the Facebook community Women Architects Collective. She’s also a personal brand strategist and helps architects and designers build an unforgettable online presence and get noticed in their careers and businesses. Her mission is to help a new generation of women architects redefine their work journeys.
#47 Design Leadership with Julia Nagele
Julia Nagele is the Director of Architectural Design at HEWITT Seattle. She believes the success of today’s projects rely on the expertise of many, and is dedicated to creating an inclusive environment that promotes participation from a broad range of diverse thinkers. Julia helps enforce these values at HEWITT, as the team strives to address complex urban conditions in a straightforward and elegant manner. She believes the art and science of making architecture, navigating agencies and understanding complex client organizations requires her to connect the dots at the right time for the right people.
#46 Design With Agency with Winka Dubbeldam
Winka Dubbeldam is the Chair and Miller Professor of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design, where she has gathered an international network of innovative research and design professionals. As the founder/principal of New York firm Archi-Tectonics, Dubbeldam is widely known for her award-winning work, recognized as much for its use of hybrid sustainable materials and smart building systems as for its elegance and innovative structures. Archi-Tectonics' work ranges from residential to commercial, from real to virtual, and is realized in urban designs, architectural designs, and installations.
#45 Declare Your Mission with Katie Swenson
Katie Swenson is a nationally recognized design leader, researcher, writer, and educator. She is a Senior Principal of MASS Design Group, an international non-profit architecture firm whose mission is to research, build, and advocate for architecture that promotes justice and human dignity. Before joining MASS in early 2020, Swenson was vice president of Design & Sustainability at Enterprise Community Partners. Katie’s work explores how critical design practice can and should promote economic and social equity, environmental sustainability, and healthy communities.
#44 Hold Your Values with Bonnie Bridges
Bonnie Bridges is the founder and Principal of Studio BBA in San Francisco. A strategic, clear thinker, perceptive listener and creative dynamo, Bonnie leads Studio BBA with adaptability, energy and fearless optimism. Drawing on deep expertise in the skilled facilitation of decisions and processes, and an intuitive, analytic nature, she guides the studio’s atelier of designers in creating beautiful, enriching, successful spaces and buildings for their clients. She brings a keen awareness of place and purpose to her work, with an approach to the design process grounded in human experience, logic and thoughtful actions.
#43 The Act of Building with June Grant
June Grant is an architect, designer and researcher committed to the craft of buildings, their potential to enhance cities and develop socially responsible solutions to complex real-world problems. June is the founding Principal of blink!LAB architecture, a boutique, research-based architecture practice focused on adaptive and transformative sustainable development. Her design approach rests on an avid belief in cultural empathy, data research, and new technologies as integral to design futures and design solutions. She is also the current President of SFNOMA.
Read More#42 Architecture, Museums, and Public Discourse with Alyssum Skjeie
Alyssum Skjeie is a museum professional focused on presenting multi-faceted stories related to architecture and history. She is currently the Director of El Pueblo History Museum in Pueblo, Colorado, where she focuses on creating collaborative exhibitions with the community to share their stories and histories. Prior to that, Alyssum worked at the Heinz Architectural Center at Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, and helped curate over 20 architecture exhibitions and countless public programs.
#41 Between is Beautiful with Mani Ardalan Farhadi
Mani Farhadi, LEEP AP, Associate AIA, is a Senior Facilities Planner at Stanford University School of Medicine in the Office of Facilities, Planning and Management. A global thinker and creative thought leader, Mani has three decades of experience in planning and architecture, and in collaborating with both public and private institutions. She enjoys combining her passion for education with her extensive planning skills to bring about stakeholder consensus and thoughtful solutions. Mani also volunteers for the AIA Silicon Valley Women in Architecture Committee, as well as for various Iranian-American cultural and advocacy groups.