In this episode, we catch up with #archimoms Anta Miranda AIA, NOMA, ARB (UK) and Veronica Elizalde-Molina on balancing architecture and parenting in the pandemic.
Listen to the original Season 1 episode on our website here or on your favorite podcast app.
Nakita Reed, AIA, CPHC, LEED AP BD+C, NOMA, is an Associate at Quinn Evans. Her career has focused on the preservation and revitalization of historic buildings, restoring them to new purpose and economic vitality while also incorporating cutting-edge design strategies for sustainability.
Barry Farms and Hillsdale community is one of Washington, DC’s most historic black communities. Originally founded after emancipation by the Freedmen’s Bureau, the legacy of this community included the development of public housing. Designated as a historic landmark, an advisory committee was formed to integrate the original architecture and preserve residents’ stories. In this episode, Sabiyha Prince (a visual artist, cultural anthropologist and founding director of AnthroDocs) and Sarah Jane Shoenfeld (co-founder of the digital public history project Mapping Segregation in Washington DC) talks about the upcoming documentary and history of this community.
Kelly Beamon has spent 18 years producing architecture and design content, with focuses on historic house styles, building materials, and kitchen and bath trends for Architectural Record, This Old House, Interior Design, Surface and HD magazine. An additional area of constant research and curiosity has been the impact of the A&D community on such issues as affordable housing, building decarbonization, design education, and the schools-to-practice pipeline.
Reverend Christopher Tobias is the Executive Director of Hands Up Outreach Ministry (HUOM), a faith-base organization, meeting the needs of individuals living in underserved communities. Guided by a servant’s heart, HUOM seeks to empower, strength and improve the lives of individuals in their journey towards an improved quality of life. Hands Up Outreach Ministry has worked extensively with Tyler House through social engagement as well as hosting holiday meals and provide financial literacy programs for the Northwest One neighborhood.
“What if Black neighborhoods were defined by the beauty of the architecture that represents Black culture?” This question is on the ‘About’ page of the OffTop Design website. In this episode, we explore answers to this question with Demar Matthews, a Los Angeles based architectural designer, founder/Principal of OffTop Design, as well as the benefits and challenges of running a design firm.
Earlier this year, Architecture is Political Podcast had the opportunity to present at Pyatok's Skull Session, a weekly meet-up where various guests come to discuss topics related to architectural practices, emerging innovations, and everything in between.
Gabriela Gonjon and Nicole Bass are undergraduate B. Arch students and NOMAS (National Organization of Minority Architecture Students) chapter members at City College of New York. Together, they are host/producer of Talks at NOMAS CCNY, a podcast about architecture school, professionalism and entrepreneurship.
Christina Schaller is a passionate and ambitious project designer currently pursuing licensure in the state of Massachusetts. At her role at Flansburgh Architects, her work focuses on designing K-12 schools that encourage a desire for learning as well as address the needs of the greater community. Rosalie Shen is a visual storyteller. She has a passion for creative marketing and media, telling stories through imagery & design. Her interests lie at the intersection of art, commerce, and culture. Rosalie currently works as a Marketing Manager for Flansburgh Architects, headquartered in Boston.
The Reclaiming Indiana Avenue Planning Initiative goal is to bring residents and stakeholders together to design a community-driven future, one that prioritizes people over projects and seeks to address past harms. Reclaiming Indiana Avenue is an important and rare opportunity to lay the framework to collaboratively chart a new course for the Indiana Avenue and MLK Corridors.
Designing in Color (DCo), a collective of architects and designers of culture. Their mission aims to diversify the way architecture is taught and practiced to amplify marginalized communities who’ve been historically silenced and erased throughout the design process.
In the context of multifamily and affordable housing, does the architecture aesthetic represent the culture or the historical context of the neighborhood? Melissa explores this topic with two articles: A city within a city and Architecture and Racism: A Conversation.
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Through her first love, Architecture, Dominican-born and raised designer and entrepreneur Ellen Abraham aims to push the needle forward. This MBA graduate and Senior Project Technical Lead at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, nurtures her passions through leading various community-building initiatives, design-based philanthropy and high impact social justice & design advocacy projects. She co-founded and co-leads a new initiative at SOM called the Equity Design Lab.
Ellen currently serves on the NYCOBA NOMA Board focused on finance management for the NY chapter, the Architexx Board focused on gender equity and the historic & landmarked Ephesus Church campus Board in NYC, as Building Committee Chairwoman, where she leads a 15-member committee.
She is the Founder of Architect Pins & Elle Abōd, two companies focused on the celebration of diverse design identities and the promotion of BIPOC Architect and Designer Guest Editors, respectively.
Links:
Architect Pins
Website: https://www.architectpins.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/architectpins/
Elle Abod
IG: https://www.instagram.com/elleabod/
Professional Contact
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellenabraham/
Become an insider by supporting the show at https://glow.fm/archispolly where you can support the show on a recurring or one-time basis!
Carolyn Swope MPH, Well AP, is a doctoral student at Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Her research interests focus on the relationship between housing and health disparities, with particular attention to historical housing policies producing present-day housing inequities. Prior to pursuing doctoral studies, Carolyn worked at various organizations promoting healthy housing and communities, spanning the private, nonprofit, and local government sectors. Carolyn received her MPH in Sociomedical Sciences from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, and BA in Anthropology and International Studies from Washington University in St. Louis.
‘Decolonise Architecture’ is a collective of students and alumni from the University of Bath driven to tackle institutional racism within architecture and its education.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/decolonisearchitecture/?hl=en
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/decolonise-architecture-uk/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DecoloniseArch
TANYARADZWA CHIGANZE (@Tanya.etc_) Background: Zimbabwean and Welsh. Architectural education needs to acknowledge its role in shaping society and the barriers students may face as a result of it being an exclusive profession. In order to give our global student population a holistic and empowering format of education, it must challenge the consequences of white privilege and shift away from eurocentricism.
JASMINE LAWRENCE (@Luceaalawrence) Background: British and Caribbean. Throughout my time in architectural education, it has become increasingly apparent that architecture is far from a level playing field. I feel ever more fortunate to have studied it in a top university as a minority ethnic and want to help make this change so that this is not such a special circumstance in education or in practice.
MOHIT BUCH (@Mohitbuch) Background: Indian and British. Learning about the ways in which different cultures have adapted to their conditions and climates will only make you a better architect and your designs more responsive.
HARSHA GORE (@harshag_) Background: Indian and Swiss. Much of the world today faces the lasting repercussions of dominating Western practices and media. We cannot change what we look like or where we come from - so it is our responsibility to make the world a more equal place, one reflective of our ethnic and traditional cultures.
Not on the call
KYALE MAKAU MWENDWA Background: Kenyan. Architecture education can be seen as particularly isolating for minority ethnic students, even when compared to the already skewed number for higher education in general. I believe that by celebrating POC architects, we can give minority students the courage and confidence that is indeed possible to break through the glass ceiling.
FLORA JING LIN NG (@atelier.fn) Background: Singaporean and Chinese. Providing a platform for underrepresented groups to share knowledge and discuss their architecture in a very crowded Eurocentric room. The architectural culture is changing, and we have a chance here to do the right thing.
Tenille Bettenhausen is a business developer serving the Los Angeles market for the American Institute of Steel Construction. She earned her BS degree in Architecture from Arizona State University. After graduation, Tenille started her career in architecture with Callison Architecture, where she worked on a wide variety of projects including design rollout projects for Nordstrom and Washington Mutual Bank. She has 18 years of previous experience as an architectural project designer, project engineer in construction, and for the last four years, has been the Business Development Manager for a local architecture firm. She is heavily involved in her local chapter of the AIA and is currently the co-chair for the Women in Architecture committee. Tenille is also a podcaster for her new show Death By Architecture. Her passion is marketing and building design, and she finds business development and relationship building of the utmost importance.
Website: http://deathbyarchitecturepod.com/
Instagram: @deathbyarchitecturepod • Instagram photos and videos
Anzilla Gilmore's passion for architecture manifests itself through service. When she graduated from Prairie View A&M University in the late 90’s, she entered a profession where very few people looked like her. She felt the lack of representation acutely and decided to take action to ensure that no black female that came after her would want for lack of representation. Gilmore has dedicated herself to professional mentorship, community outreach and professional service through leadership in professional organizations for over 15 years. She is a founder and the current treasurer of the Houston chapter of NOMA, sits on the National NOMA finance committee and is the founder and current advisor to the Architects Foundation Diversity Advancement Scholars Mentorship Program. Gilmore was the 2019 chair of the AIA’s National Ethics Council and was elevated to the AIA College of Fellows in February 2019. In her community, Gilmore serves as the Vice President of the board of Municipal Utility District 23 in Fort Bend County and is a Lifetime member of the PVAMU National Alumni Association.
Gilmore received a Bachelor of Architecture from the School of Architecture at Prairie View A&M University and a Master of Architecture from the University of Texas at Arlington. She became only the fifth female registered architect in the state of Texas and the first in the city of Houston in 2004. She worked in traditional architectural practice in Waco and Houston before transitioning to project management. Gilmore has worked as an owner’s representative in Higher Education for 16 years; first at the University of Houston and currently at Rice University where she is the Assistant Director for Project Management and Engineering.
Gilmore is married and has three children.
Desiree was one of my dearest friends until she tragically passed away a couple of years ago. 2021 will be the fourth year of the Desiree V. Cooper (DVC) Memorial Scholarship offering assistance to those taking the architect registration exam. It seeks to honor the life and legacy of Desiree V. Cooper by championing the things she was passionate about in her professional career and personal endeavors: providing continual service to her communities and encouraging minorities and women in the advancement of their careers in architecture. To that end, the Foundation awards Scholarships for the architectural registration exam in the following categories: The Black Women in Architecture Award, The Harrisburg Memorial Award, The DC Memorial Award, and the NOMA award (new 2021).
For more information about this scholarship: http://bwa-network.com/dvc-memorial-scholarship/ Submission responses must be received no later than 11:59pm on January 11, 2021
https://www.facebook.com/desireesvictorycrew/
Sharlita Olaleye won the 2020 DVC Black Women in Architecture award.
Tya Winn won the 2019 DVC Black Women in Architecture award. She is an advocate for affordable housing and community development in Philadelphia. Winn is the Director of Project Planning for Habitat for Humanity in Philadelphia where she serves as project manager for acquisition, design, and permitting phases of their projects. She also works on affordable housing policies with local civic organizations.
Jennifer T. Matthews won the 2019 DVC DC Memorial Award. She is an Architectural Designer at Sherlock, Smith & Adams. With six years of healthcare design experience, Jennifer has worked on projects with multiple DC Metro healthcare providers. She was awarded the 2018 Healthcare Design Magazine's Educator Honor Award for creating Array Architects' annual Mind the Gap event. Her recent outreach efforts include professional practice seminars, design studio critiques, and managing her professional development platform, Creative's XP.
Katherine Williams, AIA, NOMA, LEED AP is co-founder of DVC Memorial Scholarship. She is a licensed architect in Northern Virginia and currently a Senior Project Manager at a DC university. Katherine has written extensively about the architecture profession, diversity in the industry, and community development. She has served as editor for multiple publications and was the NOMA magazine editor from 2009-2014. She writes at katherinerw.com and is publisher/editor for archstories.com.
Nikolas Hill is a juror and member of the DVC Memorial Scholarship. Nikolas X. Hill, Assoc. AIA, NOMA, is a juror and member of the DVC Memorial Scholarship Committee. He is a Project Designer/Project Manager at an A/E firm in the Baltimore/Washington, DC region, recently passing his three-year anniversary. His early career saw him gain undergradate & Master's degrees in Champaign-Urbana and Cincinnati, respectively, while gaining professional practice experience in Chicago, Cincinnati, Washington, DC, and London, England. Living in Baltimore since 2012, some of his completed projects are the renovated & expanded Stanton Elementary School in Washington, DC; exterior improvements to the Metro Points Hotel in New Carrollton, MD; renovated Capital One branches throughout Maryland & Virginia; and the under-construction Purple Line Light Rail Maryland, a $5.6bn P3 design-build project. He is currently working on multiple projects in the aviation, transit infrastructure, & municipal government sectors. One of the people involved in restarting the Baltimore NOMA chapter, he also previously served on the NOMA National Board as Midwest University Liaison. He spends his free time falling asleep on TV shows with his wife, Lauren; having his four-year-old son, Nixon, tell him nonsensical "Knock, Knock" jokes; and sourcing the most glorious quince, Champagne vinegar, & lemon thyme to use in shrubs.
Primaverarch is a grassroots organization committed to stimulating change for the recognition of women in architecture and related fields. Inspired by the renaissance era and the symbolic idea of spring, Primaverarch is a movement of rebirth, revival, and renewal. Primaverarch is created by four 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. Without anyone to share similar values in regards to their diverse backgrounds, Primaverarch becomes a catalyst movement dedicated to creating a seat at the table for all women in the field. Blooming into future architects, the team is leading the next movement. With everything they do – from a set of interviews, creative series, mentorships, and interactive workshops, they are focused on one goal: How can they support the future generation of architects?
Social Media and Website:
Instagram: instagram.com/primaverarch
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/primaverarch
Website: primaverarch.org
Nadeen Hassan
Nadeen Hassan is an architectural designer and activist who is committed to making a space for herself and others in the architectural profession. As a first-generation Egyptian-American, Nadeen recognized the unrelenting atmosphere in many parts of the world. She believes that an architect is a problem-solver that attends to the need of not one, but every group of people. Throughout her studies, Nadeen tackles subjects of inclusivity, activism, and social change within her design projects and research. Not having support at the beginning of Nadeen's academic journey motivated her to become that network of support for the next generation. Nadeen is a co-founder and the Director of Primaverarch, a platform that offers a space for women to amplify their voice, seek advice, share their stories, or celebrate themselves and their peers. Nadeen believes the world needs people who come from diverse backgrounds to be a part of new design revolutions; to give a voice to smaller groups who otherwise would not be heard. Through Primaverarch, Nadeen begins to initiate this change.
Chaerin Kim
Chaerin (she/her) is a recent B.Arch graduate and Senior Editor of Primaverarch based in New York. Passionate about the built environment, she is adamant in creating spaces that are inclusive and reflective of the cultures we design for. During her studies at Spitzer School of Architecture, Chaerin engaged in courses focusing on social justice, activism in NYC, and key housing and urban issues in Latin American cities. She is also committed and actively empowering womxn of color pursuing architecture by giving them a platform to share their stories. With the launch of Primaverarch, Chaerin hopes to continue the growth of a platform where womxn can seek advice, support, and a community where their voices are heard.
Soany Marquez
Soany is a designer, artist, and activist who is interested in architecture as a form of activism and artistic expression. Born in Honduras, she is constantly pushing boundaries in her education focusing on diversity and inclusivity for women. She is aware that architecture can be a powerful tool to pave the way for social reform. As a first-generation architecture graduate, she is dedicated to changing the narrative around minority women in design and construction. She understands the importance of discovering your own potential and hopes that this platform becomes a space of mentorship for future generations.
Martha Zambrano
Martha was born and raised in NYC by Venezuelan immigrant parents. She obtained her associate's degree in business administration in 2014 and later her bachelor's degree in architecture in 2020. Both fields have opened her eyes to how unrepresented young women are in predominantly male careers. Teaming up with her classmates and longtime friends, she wants young women in the architecture field to have a platform for support, and encouragement. She hopes young women use this platform to its fullest advantage.
