Sarah Warto is a landscape architect and founder of Boxleaf Design, a full service landscape architectural firm, focusing on high end residential and commercial work in the Bay Area. Influenced by her mother and grandmother, fellow landscape designers and passionate botanical enthusiasts, Sarah was exposed at a young age to many aspects of the field; igniting her passion for design and its intersection with the natural world. Sarah is continually seeking insight and creative rejuvenation from the Bay Area's native and diverse environment, in its purest and most rugged form.
#79 Curating a Career and Spaces that Resonate with Madelynn Ringo
Madelynn Ringo is an architectural designer specializing in experiential spaces that resound with purposeful beauty. With an insatiable passion for problem-solving and high regard for heartbeat moments, Madelynn creates storied environments expressed within a formidable architectural framework. She scales brand identities to life with a commitment to feel-good originality.
#78 Passion and Purpose with Deryl McKissack
Deryl McKissack is the founder, chairwoman and chief executive officer of McKissack & McKissack, a national architecture, engineering, program- and construction-management firm currently working on over $15 billion in projects nationwide. Under her leadership, the firm has over 30 years of experience working with clients to envision and deliver building and infrastructure projects that enrich people’s lives and empower communities to flourish.
Read More#77 Paths to Leadership with Liz Leber
Liz Leber is the Managing Partner at Beyer Blinder Belle in New York City. Liz is dedicated to advancing mission-based institutions through forward-looking architecture and planning projects. Guided by her astute and inquisitive nature, Liz excels at extracting the core objectives of her clients and their stakeholders and translating the collective needs and mission of institutions into creative architectural solutions. Both within and outside the firm, she is recognized for her ability to approach every challenge with a balance of creativity, pragmatism, and unfailing optimism
Read More#76 Productive Collisions with Latoya Nelson Kamdang
Latoya Nelson Kamdang is the Director of Operations of the New York Studio of Moody Nolan and a U.S. Fulbright Senior Scholar. At Moody Nolan, she leads the NY studio in the practice areas of Aviation, Healthcare, Housing, Cultural, Hospitality, and Retail. Latoya has also been a Visiting Associate Professor at Pratt Institute for over ten years, where she educates students on interdisciplinary design approaches. She has a research focus on participatory design processes, impacts of displacement on authentic communities, passive sustainable technologies, and indigenous architecture.
Read More#75 Elevating The Role of Architects Through Technology with Anamika Goyal
Anamika Goyal is a biologist-turned-architect solving for scale in a complex industry with high human impact. She is Head of Design at Cottage, a San Francisco based start-up that helps homeowners build Accessory Dwelling Units. Anamika is committed to bringing fresh ideas, pace, and processes to the AEC industry, and made the leap into residential architecture from her former experience in commercial design & construction at WeWork. She has devoted her career to experiments on smarter ways of working within the AEC industry.
Read More#74 Becoming CEO with Wendy Rogers
Wendy Rogers is CEO and Chief Talent Officer of LPA Design Studios, an integrated design firm dedicated to creating projects that innovate, inspire and improve people’s lives. Wendy leads a team of more than 400 architects, engineers, landscape architects and interior designers in California and Texas. As CEO, she handles the day-to-day operations of the firm, with a special focus on increasing the role of LPA's proprietary research unit, LPAred, and expanding LPA's unique informed design approach. As Chief Talent Officer, she is also responsible for developing the culture and lifestyle at the firm to retain and attract people who want to grow and make a difference in the built environment.
Read More#73 Building an Architecture Practice with Marilyn Moedinger
Marilyn Moedinger is the founding principal of Runcible Studios. Like the runcible spoon she is happiest operating at the seams between practicality and whimsy, utility and beauty, the esoteric and the mundane. Deeply passionate about the capacity for design to affect positive change in the world, Marilyn’s interest in all aspects of housing, the connections between urban and rural life, the construction process, justice in the built environment, and the overlaps among disciplines, methodologies, and practices fuels Runcible Studios’ mission to be nimble, rigorous, curious, fun, and meaningful.
Read More#72 Equity in Architecture with Kavitha Mathew
Kavitha Mathew is the Global Diversity Officer at KPF, and leads the firm’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, as well as the development and implementation of the firm’s global Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) commitment. Mathew oversees KPF’s many internal Communities such as KPF Public, KPF Pride, and KPF+, helps guide KPF’s recruitment and resourcing, as well as its philanthropic and volunteer efforts. Leveraging her experience as an architect, Mathew’s work at KPF has a project-focused component, advising on engagement and communication with the community. Kavitha is also the Founder and President of Equity Co:LAB, and the Special Projects Director of the American Institute of the AIANY.
Read More#71 Pivoting from Architecture to Tech with Kat Dovjenko
Kat Dovjenko is the Senior Creative Director at Muse & Company. Inspired by the dynamic energy around architecture and urban planning, Kat believes that the more complex, ambitious, and unsolvable the problem, the better. She drives talented teams to unite and achieve outcomes they would not be able to do individually—at multiple scales and in multiple stages of the design process. She most recently worked at Google's R&D for the Built Environment where she oversaw workplace innovation projects. Kat loves navigating speculative pockets of the future and weaving together how they might impact our built spaces. She never shies away from ambiguity, and is skilled at using foresight and storytelling to propel leading edge technologies into real products for the built world and beyond.
Read More#70 Architect Led Design Build with Stacie Wong
Stacie Wong is a Principal at GLUCK+. Named by Fast Company as a top 10 most innovative companies in architecture, the firm is recognized for Architect Led Design Build. Stacie brings expertise in leading strategic planning, research, programming, and community stakeholder engagement with private and public institutional clients, as well as stewarding the design and construction for the successful completion of many technically complex projects. She has been an advocate for architects’ involvement in construction to increase their agency in the building process and impact on the design of the physical environment.
Read More#69 Striving for the Extraordinary with Angelica Trevino Baccon
Angelica Trevino Baccon is a principal at SHoP Architects. She leverages deep expertise in and a passion for evolving technology to create inspiring, sustainable spaces for people, often in next-generation workplaces. She led the SHoP teams for the new Uber Headquarters in San Francisco and the Atlassian Headquarters in Sydney, as well as several other large-scale projects for major global tech companies. Angelica has great success in meeting fast-paced and far-reaching design and delivery challenges and finding consensus with multi-layered stakeholder groups—in the interest of spatial vitality and community connection—for some of the firm’s most complex projects.
Read More#68 Designing for Dementia Environments with Jennifer Sodo
Jennifer Sodo is a leading expert in the design and planning of dementia living environments. A senior associate with Perkins Eastman’s senior living practice in New York City, Jennifer translates her own and others’ research on biophilic design and whole-person wellness into thoughtful designs to create healthy and meaningful places for older adults living with dementia. Jennifer is also co-host of Perkins Eastman’s new Shaping Dementia Environments podcast, a show that explores uncommon thinking in design for dementia through interviews with industry leaders.
Read More#67 On Pivoting from Architecture to Real Estate
Chi-Chi Lin, Danlu Li, and Yi Li all studied architecture and practiced for a few years before realizing that they wanted to do something else. After leaving the profession and getting MSRED degrees, they now all work in different areas of the real estate industry in New York City. In our conversation, Chi Chi, Danlu and Yi Li share when each of them realized they didn’t want to practice architecture anymore, how they transitioned to their new careers, what they miss about architecture, but what they love about their new work. They also give great advice for people who want to pivot from architecture to something else.
Read More#66 Designing for Inclusion with Lilian Asperin
Lilian Asperin is a partner at WRNS Studio, where she helps lead the design process and build teams that deliver aspirational outcomes. Lilian values a firm culture that embraces collaboration, connection to the community, risk taking, and fostering talent. Lilian utilizes her experience as a practice leader and licensed architect to develop synergistic relationships with leaders throughout the architectural and educational communities. Lilian acts as a Board Director of AIA San Francisco and is the Co-Chair of the Equity by Design Committee, a call to action for everyone to realize the goal of equitable practice and communicate the value of design to society.
Read More#65 Artistry and Magic with Cecilia Cuff
Cecilia Cuff is a 20-year veteran of the hospitality scene and the Founder and Managing Principal of The Nascent Group, a hospitality design and project management agency. Cecilia has established herself as a pacemaker in the hospitality design industry, focusing on art and efficiency-inspired design, inclusivity, community development and sustainability. She is always guided by using community development, food sustainability and minority inclusion as a moral compass. She considers her greatest successes those students she has mentored and shares their enthusiasm as they advance through their careers around the globe.
Read More#64 Practice Disrupted with Evelyn Lee and Je'Nen Chastain
The evolution of architectural practice has been relatively slow towards change, yet modern shifts in business and design management have prompted today’s leading architects to rethink how they work. The Practice Disrupted podcast addresses how technology, cultural shifts, and emerging best practices in business are prompting industry disruption and transformation. The series features thought leaders on business, innovation, entrepreneurship, and/or architecture.
Read More#63 Lessons in Leadership with Lauren Schmidt
Lauren Schmidt is a Principal at KPF in New York City. The youngest woman in KPF’s history to be named Principal, Lauren is invaluable to projects of all types, coordinating with multiple stakeholders, consultants and design teams, and overseeing projects through all phases. Lauren has served as designer and manager for some of KPF’s most notable and complex New York City projects, such as One Jackson Square and 55 Hudson Yards. Lauren also plays an integral role in the operations of the firm itself overseeing recruitment, staffing, and mentorship alongside KPF’s senior leadership.
#62 Heroic Imaginations of the Future with J. Meejin Yoon
J. Meejin Yoon, AIA FAAR, is the Gale and Ira Drukier Dean at the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning (AAP) at Cornell University and cofounder of Höweler + Yoon, an award-winning design studio engaged in projects across the U.S. and around the world. An architect, designer, and educator, Meejin is committed to advancing pedagogy, research, and practice to expand new knowledge across fields and disciplines, and to bringing deep expertise to the urgent environmental and social challenges facing our cities and communities.
Read More#61 Mentorship, Inclusion, and Self-Advocacy with Saakshi Terway
Saakshi Terway is a Designer at Wiencek + Associates in Washington DC. Saakshi is especially interested in responsible and sustainable architecture that has a social impact on local and global communities. She seeks to produce work that allows architecture and design to become a tool in empowering marginalized groups, encouraging them to appreciate and relate with the built environments around them. When she is not working, Saakshi spends a lot of her energy volunteering with the local architecture community, and serves as the current chair for the AIA DC Urban Design Committee.
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