have a good variety of things to work on. We have some business professionals who run our office, including a wonderful studio manager, and John and I are very involved in business decisions. We also now have two partners. One of our partners has been with us for 27 years. We have one partner in Los Angeles and one in Salt Lake City. What are some of your favorite projects? My favorite project is always the one that I’m currently working on, and we’re working on really incredible projects right now. If you had asked me that question five years ago, I think I would have said the same thing: that I’m working on amazing projects. I feel really lucky that we have been able to work on extraordinary projects consistently. Anything that affects a large community is important to us. There are community centers that we’ve done, like St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church, that impact a large community. The museums, arts and cultural projects are important because they improve the quality of life for the communities we serve. The Profession: Changes, Challenges and Insights How has the profession evolved since you were in school in the ‘80s? Technology has been a positive thing. It’s made our offices more efficient, and we can produce things quickly. I think one of my jobs is to slow us down a little bit. Technology is all about speeding things up and making things fast, fast, fast. However, we also want to be thoughtful, and that means taking a more thoughtful approach to design and problem-solving. I think a balance of analog and digital is essential, and it’s something we incorporate in all of our projects. We still build physical models. I think we’re one of the few firms that still do that. We, of course, build everything in digital form as well and produce our construction documents using BIM. However, those analog starts are crucial in the way we communicate with our clients. Reading drawings can be confusing, so physical models and hand-drawn sketches remain powerful tools that architects can bring to the table. I am optimistic about what AI will bring to architecture, but I don’t think AI will ever replace architects. It might replace architects for clients that you might not want to work with anyway, if they’re just interested in reproducing things that already exist and can be copied. I think the value of an architect lies in developing something site-specific, program-specific and client-specific; you need an architect to put all those pieces together. Some women in the field feel that they entered school at a disadvantage because many men had construction experience. Does that ring true for you? I come from an aviation family. My father, his brothers and my grandfather were all pilots. My sister became a flight attendant, my brother an aircraft mechanic. I had no construction background and had no opportunities to take drafting in high school. I don’t even know if that would have been on my radar in high school, but it wasn’t even offered. I had a steep learning curve when I started school. I had a lot to learn, but I was also really interested in learning every single aspect of architecture: the design perspective, the technology, the construction, the constructability aspect and the human factors. All of it was interesting to me. I had never worked on construction sites until we started building our own projects. When I started, there were very few women in my classes. In the class I took with Eric Moss, there were 18 of us; I was one of two women and two Americans. There were people from all over the world studying there. When I started working, there were only two women in the office out of about 25 people. I think that is changing now. In school, there’s more gender parity. I think there might be slightly more women in architecture schools than men currently. However, over time, they often drop out of the field, which is unfortunate. The challenge, even to this day, is that people don’t always see me as an architect. When I go to a construction site, they talk to one of the guys I’m with. It is what it is. I think there still is an image of what an architect looks like, and it’s not a woman. I hope that changes. I think it will change. There are many great female architects in this country and around the world. I believe there are role models now that didn’t exist in the past. It’s just a slow change. I think women bring a lot to the field; they bring a different perspective. They contribute to the conversations in a different way. What would you tell a young architect today? I would tell young architects to be patient. I think people want to get out of school and immediately become a superstar, earning great commissions. Frank Gehry was the commencement speaker at my graduation from SCI-Arc. He said, “Beware of early success,” and that was a valuable message to hear, because we all want to achieve early success. We all want to make a name for ourselves in our field, but architecture is a profession that requires patience and steady progression. Every project, no matter how small, matters. Success might not happen right away, but if you’re patient and do good work, those things will pay off. Is there anything different you would tell a young female architect from a young male architect? Young men often want to get licensed immediately, which wasn’t as important to me when I was that age. But when I got licensed, I could call myself an architect. Ultimately, I do think it’s important, especially for women, to be able to say, “I’m an architect,” not “I’m an architectural designer or an intern or whatever.” Being able to say “I’m an architect” is significant. I feel so blessed that I found this field. I think it’s something that really has a lot to offer the world. It’s a wonderful way to make a living and spend your days. 11
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