This is Part 3 of a special three-part mini series about the housing crisis in the Bay Area and the architects, designers, activists, developers, and innovators that are doing something about it. This final installment features individuals and organizations working toward three vastly different housing solutions, their design processes, and visions for the future. Guests featured in this episode are: Deanna Van Buren, Co-Founder and Design Director of Designing Justice + Designing Spaces ...

This is Part 2 of a special three-part mini series about the housing crisis in the Bay Area and the architects, designers, activists, developers, and innovators that are doing something about it. Part 2 explores how people are currently navigating building housing in the Bay Area and features conversations with Caroline Souza, principal at David Baker Architects, and Mauren Sedonaen, CEO at Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco. This series is sponsored by AIA San Francisco and DLR Group.

There’s a massive housing crisis across the United States - what can architects do to help address it? In this special three-part mini series, we’ll be digging deeper into the housing crisis in the Bay Area and hear from the architects, designers, activists, developers, and innovators that are doing something about it. This series is sponsored by AIA San Francisco and DLR Group.

Sarah Warto is a landscape architect and founder of Boxleaf Design.  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 a proud New York native who earned her landscape architecture degree from Cornell University, where she learned how to apply rigorous technical skill to a growing...

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, Ringo creates storied environments expressed within a formidable architectural framework. Simply, Ringo scales brand identities to life with a commitment to feel-good originality. Ringo received her Architecture Master’s degree from Yale University and employs her classical training through...

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, McKissack has worked for public and private clients in the civic, culture, energy, education, entertainment, healthcare, hospitality, housing, infrastructure, mixed-use and office sectors and grown to over 150 employees with offices...

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...

Latoya Nelson Kamdang is the Director of New York Operations for Moody Nolan. She is also a U.S. Fulbright Senior Scholar, Registered Architect, Certified Interior Designer, and LEED AP BD+C. Her experience spans architecture, planning, exhibit design, industrial and interior design. She has experience in hospitality, retail, museums, workplace, education, and institutional. Latoya was on the design team for the Smithsonian Institute National Museum of African American History and Culture....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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’s considerable design and construction experience began 26 years ago with the Yale Building Project's design-build of a single-family residence in New Haven. Ever since, she has been involved in educational, commercial and residential work across the United States. Stacie brings expertise in leading strategic...

Angelica Trevino Baccon is a principal at SHoP Architects in New York City. 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...

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. She speaks regularly at conferences and industry events and has published articles and papers on a variety of topics...

This episode features three women who all left architecture for the real estate world! 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...

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 attended the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned her BA in Environmental Design and graduated with honors. After completing her studies, Lilian worked at architecture firms around the Bay Area, including Stanley...

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.   Cecilia has managed hospitality openings and brand launches for companies like Hyatt Hotels & Resorts all over North & South...

It’s a special podcast crossover episode, featuring Practice Disrupted!  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,...

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. She collaborated to develop the design for One Jackson Square, a national AIA award-winning residential...

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...

Saakshi Terway is a Designer at Wiencek + Associates in Washington DC. In this episode, we talk about job search advice for recent grads, finding a mentor (and why you need multiple mentors), figuring out what you want to do, and advocating for yourself. Saakshi also talks about the challenges and biases many immigrants face in the AEC profession, and why speaking out and sharing your story is so important.

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 also 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.     In this episode, Christine and I talk about how building...