March 3, 2022
Alexandra Cuber AIA, LEED AP
Alexandra Cuber has lived in Germany and Spain and has spent most of her 20-year career in New York City. Her career began as an exterior architect for many high-rise projects and museums including the Perez Art Museum. In 2011, she joined Fogarty Finger, where she leads the hospitality interiors studio. She conveys her strong design sensibility to projects including The Brooklyn Navy Yard’s public and amenity spaces, a new commercial amenity campus, headquarter build-outs and a boutique hotel in downtown Manhattan.
Alexandra holds a Diploma in Architecture from University of Applied Science of Cologne, Germany and a Master of Architecture from Universidad Politecnica de Catalunya, Spain. She is a Registered Architect, AIA member and LEED AP. She is an advocate for women and minorities and a passionate mentor for young talent.
The benefits of having a Plan B
During her career as an Architect, Alexandra always maintained an expansive and flexible vision of the path ahead. She has generally stayed open in the pursuit of her goals, checking in along the way about whether what she was doing was fulfilling or making her happy at any given moment. Alexandra never allowed herself to become so focused on a goal that she lost herself or her happiness in the process, and that has contributed greatly to her career.
Alexandra is a strong believer that if you love doing something you produce your best work, which inevitably leads to success. Anytime she decided to make a change or pursue something throughout her career, she always had both a plan A and a plan B. If plan A didn’t work out, she moved to plan B, which often turned out to be the better option.
Keeping an open mind and staying flexible allowed her to encounter opportunities she would have never thought possible. Having a plan B mixed with following your heart has proven the recipe to success for Alexandra and makes the career ride an interesting adventure. The unknown can be scary, and many feel this pressure to figure everything out ahead of time, but there is also opportunity and excitement in the unknown.
Angelique Pierre RA, NOMA
Angelique Pierre is a Senior Project Architect at Anik Pearson Architect P.C. Following various apprenticeships in the worlds of residential architecture, construction, and even museum installation, Angelique joined Anik Pearson Architect in 2011.
Angelique has managed many of the firm’s largest residential projects, including some of the most complex apartment and townhouse renovations. She enjoys collaborating directly with clients to help them realize their visions of a home enhanced to meet their specific needs, with a keen eye for refining the details that make each project unique. Her extensive experience at the firm, combined with her focus, precision and attention to detail, have made her an invaluable asset; both to thoroughly train incoming junior staff and to ensure the highest standards of quality to every project.
Angelique completed her Bachelor of Architecture at the Cooper Union School of Architecture, where she was a William Cooper Mack Thesis Fellow.
Letting Growth Lead
There are many factors that influence how we move through the world - personality, upbringing, race, gender, culture. These factors shape who we are as people as well as professionals. We operate with multiple identities that are constantly shifting in and out of the foreground as needed, competing for attention, or demanding reconciliation with others. First generation American women, like most women, are often tormented by perfectionism to seamlessly juggle these identities, without compromising excellence in our work and in our lives. When perfectionism is paralyzing, that numbness stifles the sensitivity, awareness and creativity that allows us to show up as our best selves and as the best architects.
In her talk, Angelique explains how looking up from the work in front of us to learn as much about ourselves as we do the details of every project reveals what is propelling us forward as much as what may be holding us back from showing up as our best selves, be that perfectionism or anything else. This allows us to see ourselves, our goals, failures, and achievements clearly and embrace their roles in our excellence. Angelique will share the introspective questions and answers that help her continue to resolve her personal and professional identities. She will also share how growth over time, eagerness to learn, eagerness to help, and champions in her orbit developed her confidence to trust in her knowledge, trust in her voice and trust her vision to reimagine her career as an architect.