Talisha Sainvil Principal, 40 Six Four Architecture

Talisha Sainvil is the Principal of her own Brooklyn-Based Architecture and Design Firm and a Registered Architect in New York and New Jersey. The AIA Brooklyn Chapter President. A Graduate of the University of Miami School of Architecture. A lover of all things sun and sand. As passionate about design as she is about being of service to the community. A bibliographic reference on Wikipedia. An aficionado of pens & pencils. Enthusiast of long drives, deep conversations and French fries.

Through her service work, Talisha has built alliances with many people, organizations and her community by contributing her time and efforts to things that matter to her. At the top of 2021, Talisha was elected as the President-Elect of the New York Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects. She was also appointed to Community Board 14 by then Brooklyn Borough President (and current NYC Mayor) Eric Adams, where she serves as a Co-Chair of the Housing and Land Use Committee and closed out the year having been voted in as the first Black AIA Brooklyn President in its 128 year history.   

www.40sixfourarchitects.com

Defining Professional Behavior

The architecture profession has been known for keeping in line with many traditional elements, including being white- male dominated. Over the course of her two-decade career, Talisha has navigated being a Black woman with a definitive point of view and outspoken personality. In this conversation, Talisha will talk about her journey in architecture and how she hopes to continue to forge a path with other people who envision a profession where anyone can feel like they fit in.

Nina Kinoti-Metz Founder, Studio Parallel

Nina Kinoti-Metz was raised in numerous countries in Africa. One of her favorite past times of visiting the open air markets exposed her to the concept of color and pattern which gave rise to a keen interest in painting and birthed her love for art and design.  She undertook a bachelor's degree in Fine Arts from Binghamton University with specialization in Printmaking and Drawing and later she went for a master's degree in Interior Architecture from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn NY. With tenures at some design giants such as FXFOWLE Architects, Clodagh Design and then Dattner Architects, she honed her design skills and quickly worked her way up to project manager while working on many different project types from commercial interiors to high end residential,  civic/educational projects to luxury hotels and retail.

In 2004, along with her life and work partner Christopher Metz, AIA, founded Studio Parallel which is a Brooklyn based full-service Architecture and Interior Design. The firm developed a distinct work methodology that involves a project-by-project ramp up or down in team size, which enables SP to keep overhead generally lower and thus can meet very specific and tight budgetary, schedule or phasing requirements through different scales of project. This feature has been of particular benefit in the post pandemic normalcy of remote working, ever tightening budgets, travel, and supply chain restrictions. Plus the ability to bring different expertise to the table specific to each project.

With their collective and extensive experience in hospitality, commercial, residential, and educational building types, together with clients they often work from business conceptualization to real estate selection, branding, architectural design, construction and to the opening party!  The design is done along a narrative with one main concept and just like in any good story, the space, its characters, and visuals support this vision. With that in mind, Studio Parallel leverages their diverse experience to stimulate exchange of ideas that translate clients’ needs and culture into unique environments that are thoughtful, expressive, and timeless.

www.studioparallel.com

Creating Your Own Opportunities and Path to Success

 As young female designers and architects the trajectory of our career is often not clear. We are taught and trained as a professional that if we put in our time and gain experience we’ll naturally progress and eventually take over the reins ourselves. But unfortunately, that often isn’t the case. 

Female professionals often have to shape our careers and make our own opportunities in a way our male colleagues do not.  But what are the best paths and experiences to help us get there?  How do we know we are ready to start out on our own?

In this seminar, we will discuss experiences and opportunities that Nina has found are common with young female designers and architects, that led her to push past what was happening around her and became more effective on her projects while she worked at firms, and later when she started her own practice. 

Julie Nelson AIA, LEED AP BD+C, GRP, Partner, BKSK Architects

Julie Nelson possesses a keen interest in uncovering the potential of existing conditions, revitalizing neglected spaces, and designing places where the built and the natural coexist. On all projects, which range from institutional to residential to commercial, she promotes design and construction approaches that give back more than they take.

Julie’s connection to nature is clearly seen in the LEED Platinum Queens Botanical Garden Visitor and Administration Center, winner of an AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) Top Ten Award and a NY State AIA Award of Excellence. In Washington Heights, Julie’s project for the Community of the Holy Spirit also promotes stewardship to the earth and society, through two rooftop gardens among other strategies. Herself  an avid gardener who implements sustainable strategies at home, Julie recently worked with her husband to convert a 19th century Scottish church into an energy-efficient residence.

A committed educator and advocate, Julie regularly speaks and writes about sustainability and has been featured in the New York Times and the Washington Post, in addition to previously serving on AIANY’s COTE Policy Committee and as Sustainable Design Critic at City College. She holds Bachelor of Science and Master’s degrees in Architecture from the University of Virginia.

bkskarch.com

Things My Students Taught Me

Julie started teaching at City College Spitzer School of Architecture in the Spring semester of 2020.  In the Design studios that she has led, the projects have shadowed BKSK projects and Julie has worked to integrate the studio into the office and foster office involvement with the studio.  Coming from an architectural education in the late ‘80s, which was very top down, she has been energized by having a more collaborative working relationship with her students.  This experience has provided a mid-career spark and provided a new perspective, which was particularly needed during the pandemic.

Karin Payson AIA, LEED AP Principal, Karin Payson Architecture + Design (KPa+d)

Karin Payson is the principal architect of Karin Payson Architecture + Design (KPa+d), a design-oriented, San Francisco-based firm with projects completed throughout Northern California as well as Wyoming and New York.

At KPa+d, Karin has been engaged as an architect and interior designer in a wide variety of new buildings and substantial renovation projects for homeowners, public libraries, and various commercial and institutional clients. She brings a rich set of skills and interests to her work. Drawing, clothing design and fabrication as well as frequent travel in search of fresh experiences are essential to her practice as an architect and inform her continuing study of the characteristics of natural light and materials.

Before founding KPa+d in 1992, Karin’s professional experience included several years in the New York office of Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates where, as a Project Architect, her work focused on the planning, programming and design of large-scale commercial buildings and adaptive re-use of historically significant buildings.

Karin holds degrees from Columbia University and UC Berkeley, and is a licensed architect in California and New York. Her work has appeared in several exhibitions and publications, including California Homes; Science & Spirit; Architectural Digest; San Francisco Chronicle Sunday Magazine; Sunset Magazine; The Sacramento Bee; The San Francisco Examiner Sunday Magazine; and The New York Times.

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Ensuring a Creatively Fulfilling Career

A healthy work-life balance is key to preserving one’s creative energy while building and sustaining a successful – and creatively satisfying practice.  Karin will share how she has organized her life and work around that goal since the very beginning of her career and has been sustaining it within her eponymous and diverse practice for the last 30 years.

Suchi Reddy Founder, Reddymade Architecture and Design

Suchi Reddy founded Reddymade Architecture and Design in 2002 with a human-centric approach to design. The guiding principle of the practice is “form follows feeling,” a design ethos informed by neuroaesthetics, the study of how the brain responds to the design of our surroundings. The strong belief that good design, calibrated carefully to the human, positively influences wellbeing, creativity, and productivity informs all projects from conception to details. Reddy is the Fall 2022 Walton Critic at the Catholic University of America and she was the Plym Distinguished Professor at the University of Illinois School of Architecture, Champaign–Urbana for the Fall 2019 semester. Reddy has presented and lectured on the firm’s work at numerous venues including The Salk Institute for the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture’s annual conference, the WSJ Future of Everything Conference, the AWS Summit, the University of Illinois, and the University of Wisconsin. She sits on the board of the Design Trust for Public Space, Storefront for Art and Architecture, and Madame Architect; and she is a member of the Dean’s Board of Advisors at Detroit Mercy School of Architecture.

rmdny.com

Confidence in Curiosity

Architecture is not just a container of culture, but a catalyst of culture. For architects to be vital leaders in this way, we need to exercise a boundaryless way of thinking that can offer transdisciplinary solutions to the complex problems we face. Hear from Suchi Reddy as she speaks about her start in the profession and its evolution over twenty years of practice to include works that define an “outside the box” approach to architecture. She will speak to the inspirations, life lessons, and course corrections that guide her as she grows the breadth of her practice.

Ilana Judah AIA, OAQ, LEED AP BD+C, CPHC Leadership, Associate Principal, Arup

Ilana Judah is an Associate Principal at Arup, a global collective of designers, engineering and sustainability consultants, advisors and experts dedicated to sustainable development. She serves as Arup’s East Resilience Leader and Climate and Sustainability Discipline Team Leader, taking an integrative, systems thinking-based yet pragmatic approach to translating climate objectives into viable solutions.

Ilana was previously co-chair of AIANY COTE and currently serves on the board of AIANY. She previously served on AIA National’s Resilience and Adaptation Advisory Group, multiple New York City sustainability task forces under Mayors Bloomberg and DeBlasio, and was a board member of NY Passive House.

Prior to Arup, Ilana was a Principal and Director of Sustainability at FXCollaborative Architects in New York, founder of ACORN Resilience & Sustainability in Vancouver, and a practicing architect in Montreal. She holds a B.Arch from McGill University and an MSc. in Resources, Environment and Sustainability from the University of British Columbia. Ilana is a frequent lecturer on sustainable and resilient design and has taught at Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania.

arup.com

the value & power of purpose-driven Leadership

As architects and designers, we have the opportunity to serve as leaders within our organizations, our profession, and our communities. Effective leadership can be elusive and difficult, given all the demands and competing interests that we face. However, accessing our core values enables us to define our unique purpose and strengthen our leadership path. Ilana Judah shares her story of reconnecting with her environmentalist upbringing after becoming an architect – and how forging her design interests with these values have empowered her to become a better leader.

In Cho RA, CPHD, Founder, ChoShields Studio

In Cho, co-founder of ChoShields Studio, is an internationally-certified Passive House Designer, an industry leader in sustainable architecture and education, and a registered architect.  She is also co-founder of ‘Passive House for Everyone’ (PHFE), an education nonprofit and recognized partner with the NYC DOE Office of Sustainability that provides Passive House knowledge for K-12 schools and post-secondary architecture institutions to shape the next generation of leaders in climate action.

In Cho’s dedication to strengthening all communities through environmental and social resiliency engages her in a wide-ranging practice, encompassing the architectural design and technical aspects of energy-efficient construction, policy support, and the creation and teaching of educational initiatives that convey Passive House knowledge to a broad audience – from youth to AEC industry professionals.  She lectures internationally and locally on Passive House projects and has served as an industry expert advisor for the recent update of the NYC Energy Conservation Code.   

Through her education nonprofit, ‘Passive House For Everyone’(PHFE), In Cho popularizes Passive House concepts through fun, hands-on, creative explorations, thereby increasing environmental literacy to empower everyone to take concrete action toward climate solutions.  Through her architectural practice, In Cho works to further a multi-disciplinary layered and focused exploration of the built environment, developing designs to foster the creation of beautiful, healthy, and resilient architecture that serves people and the environment most productively and equitably.

choshields.com

what does it mean to be an architect for you?

Our architectural profession has so many facets, parameters, and layers of specialization.  How do we choose among so many areas of architectural exploration?  Harnessing the power of self-reflection, compassion, and open heart provides us with a framework through which we can help define the type of architect we want to be.  In Cho shares her experience embracing her role as an architect who serves to improve the well-being of everyone’s lives through environmentally and socially sustainable architecture and education.

Ishwariya Rajamohan

Ishwariya Rajamohan is a former architect, now certified coach practicing in London, UK and working with clients all across the globe. She supports female leaders in the industry in rising above challenges that range from confidence in the workplace to work life balance. Her work as a coach arms what she has always known - that even though a coachee brings a very human issue to work on during a session, she is invariably shown glimpses of their unique brilliance.

Ishwariya is accredited as a Foundation Coach with the Association for Coaching (UK) and is also a Mental Health First Aider. She trained as an architect in India before completing a Master’s degree in Environmental Design in the UK and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts.

Ishwariya is also the founder of Love Letters to Chefs, an educational platform supporting Hospitality professionals in creating sustainable careers - a passion project she set up in 2016 following a second career as a pastry chef.

www.ishoorajamohan.com

Coaching session on confidence

When we talk about our level of confidence, we often describe it in terms of a deficit: something that we have to gain, build or improve upon. Especially when going for a promotion, pitching for a project we would love to win or having difficult conversations with clients. What if we looked at confidence as a quality that is innate to us? Something that no doubt gets chipped away, given the challenges we encounter as women in a very male-dominated industry, but is also an endless resource, always available for us to draw upon?

In this workshop, Ishwariya will share two frameworks that you can use to help you reconnect and stay connected with your inner confidence, even in a world that might try to cut you down to size.

Judy Schoenberg and Linda Lautenberg, Co-Founders EvolveMe

Judy Schoenberg, women’s career strategist, and Linda Lautenberg, return-to-work expert, are the co-founders of EvolveMe, a career development company for women in midlife.

Judy Schoenberg, Co-Founder, is a graduate of Harvard University and a former national executive for Girl Scouts of the USA. She’s authored numerous publications on girls’ and women's leadership, and her work has been featured in White House events. Judy is a Better Not Younger Entrepreneur of the Week.

Linda Lautenberg, Co-Founder, is a Harvard Business School MBA and a Chartered Financial Analyst. Before her own professional reinvention, she led a highly successful career in real estate finance and securitization. Linda was nominated to the Forbes 50 Over 50 list.

EvolveMe works with groups of women in midlife looking to relaunch, reinvent or level up their careers and with companies invested in attracting and retaining top female talent.

Through their proprietary DARE© method of career reinvention, Judy and Linda help cohorts of high-achieving women find clarity, gain confidence, and launch the best chapter of their professional life.

Their clients land new roles, start businesses, and secure project-based work. They describe EvolveMe’s programming as “life-changing” and “the best professional investment they’ve ever made.”

EvolveMe partners with organizational leadership, teams, and Employee Resource Groups focused on building and sustaining top female talent. By curating workshops and programming for companies across industries (finance, tech, nonprofit, and more) EvolveMe helps women to engage and advance in their roles.

evolveme.work

future proof your career: unlock your potential in an ever-changing landscape

Are you ready to take charge of your career and future-proof your professional journey? Join us for an exciting and empowering workshop designed specifically for women like you who are determined to thrive in a rapidly changing work landscape.

In this interactive and supportive session, we'll dive into the strategies, insights, and practical steps you need to future-proof your career and create a path that aligns with your aspirations and values.

Led by Judy Schoenberg and Linda Lautenberg, co-founders EvolveMe, a professional development company for women committed to leveling up their careers, this dynamic workshop is designed to empower women of all professional backgrounds to be proactive – navigate challenges, seize opportunities, and build resilience for a successful and fulfilling career journey.

You’ll learn to:

● Embrace Change: Stay ahead of the curve! Let’s uncover the exciting possibilities within the changing world of work. We'll explore how to adapt and embrace new technologies through skill-building and growth mindsets.

● Love Lifelong Learning: We'll tackle the importance of continuous learning and sharpening your skills in today's fast-paced world. Get ready to unlock strategies for upskilling, reskilling, and staying relevant.

● Build a Stellar Personal Brand: You are a force to be reckoned with! You'll learn how a personal brand shines a spotlight on your transferable skills, expertise, credibility, and professional identity.

● Leverage Your Network: Networking isn't exchanging business cards; it's all about cultivating meaningful connections. We'll show you how to build a robust professional network and seek out mentors who can guide you along the way.

● Navigate Career Adventures: Whether you're considering a pivot or advancing in your current field, we've got your back. Let's explore practical tools and insightsfor navigating various career transitions with confidence and grace.

Join us for an interactive workshop where we'll create a warm and inclusive space for women to connect, learn, and support each other. Together, we'll future-proof our careers and pave the way for a bold and successful future!