Q. What motivated you to choose the field of architecture?
A. I have always loved space and space making. My strongest childhood memories are about atmospheres. I don’t think I consciously understood that when I ‘chose’ architecture but looking back it makes sense.
Q. What type of work are you most interested in?
A. Right now most of my work is residential and with the right projects it is really fulfilling to make space for people to use, love, and be happy in. I would like to expand from that typology, but it is a good place to be right now
Q. What has been your biggest challenge since obtaining your architecture degree?
A. This is cliche but getting work. Since having my own practice the stress of getting new work and the effort needed to get it, seems to outweigh some of the other challenges in the profession for me.
Q. What did you like about architecture school?
A. I loved the freedom. To explore what I wanted and to push into topics that were not prescribed.
Q. Any criticisms of the architecture education experience?
A. From my current vantage it is the overemphasis on list checking from a curricular standpoint (NAAB) and the over reliance on adjunct faculty.
Q. What are your professional goals?
A. I have had my own practice now for the last +12 years and honestly that feels like a great goal in itself. But I would love to grow my practice now and have the opportunity to take on more public facing work.
Q. Who do you consider to be some of your favorite architects?
A. As an architect of a certain generation it is hard to overstate that amount that OMA impacted my design thinking. But for true favorites that I feel inspired every time I look at their work I would list Kazuo Shinohara and Sigurd Lewerentz. And so many others.
Q. Do you have a favorite building or city?
A. These questions feel harder than I think they should. Outside of NYC I find myself always looking to Tokyo. It feels like the urban experience there has both the dial turned up and down simultaneously in a way that is refreshing. And I’ll hedge by answering both questions in one, in NYC it has got to be the old Whitney (Breuer).
Q. What do you hope to get out of your AIA Brooklyn Chapter membership?
A. To be more engaged with the practice itself here in Brooklyn.
