Nina Gotlieb Principal, Otherworld

Nina Gotlieb is an interior designer working primarily in hospitality, wellness, and product development. Her collaborative and empathetic approach places emotional curation on par with beautiful solutions to complex puzzles. 15+ years of experience in hospitality have built on her belief that good design should be engaging, thoughtful, smart, and democratic. She understands that hospitality is a form of care, and design plays an essential role in supporting a holistic vision of service. Nina started her career working for world-renowned firms AvroKO and Roman and Williams and built upon what she learned overseeing design for Starwood Hotels. Later, Nina leveraged her experience to build two new commercial businesses for West Elm, earning her the coveted Wave of the Future award from Hospitality Design Magazine, which recognizes game changing designers who are young enough to be considered visionary, but tested enough to be accomplished. A desire to get back to her roots in experience-driven design led Nina to found her own studio in 2020. Along with her growing team, she is currently working on hotel, wellness, and F&B projects around the world. Her solo work has been nominated for numerous awards, and has been featured in publications such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, Travel and Leisure, Surface, The Wall Street Journal and Hospitality Design among others.

Otherworld Creative | Interior Design & Advisory

Parallel paths and the power of friendship: a journey through architecture and design

Nina and Julia will discuss their parallel career paths through careers in architecture and design and the power of friendship to help light the way.  Starting at the same place and time, these long-time friends have built very different careers that are enriched through strong professional and personal relationships. 

Julia Murphy AIA, LEED AP, Partner, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP

Julia Murphy has built a career around two main goals: to solve large-scale architectural problems, and to help move the design and real estate industries toward equality for women and minorities. She is an expert in solving the physical, financial, and administrative challenges of building in New York City, and has founded multiple career development programs for women.

As an architect and project manager, Julia thrives on complexity. She has taken the helm of some of the largest projects in the city, including Manhattan West, a 7-million-square-foot development built over active railroad tracks. Her work includes adaptive reuse, hospitality, higher education buildings, residential towers, and commercial offices for major companies including Citigroup and The Walt Disney Company. She has a diverse range of project responsibilities, from day-to-day interaction with clients and consultants to maintaining staffing, schedules, and budgets.

Her growing list of contributions to equity began when she co-founded the SOM Women’s Initiative in 2011 to cultivate and promote the development and success of women at SOM and within the design disciplines. She also founded the SOM Shadowship program, served as chair of the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation—where she currently serves on the Board of Trustees as Chair of the Nominating Committee—and represents the design profession on the WX New York Women Executives in Real Estate events committee. She is the Chair of the New York ULI Mixed Use Green Local Product Council.

www.som.com

Parallel paths and the power of friendship: a journey through architecture and design

Nina and Julia will discuss their parallel career paths through careers in architecture and design and the power of friendship to help light the way.  Starting at the same place and time, these long-time friends have built very different careers that are enriched through strong professional and personal relationships. 

Bolanle Williams-Olley CFO & Owner, Mancini Duffy

Bolanle Williams-Olley is the CFO and co-owner of Mancini Duffy, a national design firm with over 100 years of history and a tech-forward approach based in New York City, where she oversees the firm's financial and operational performance. She has over 16 years of experience working in the AEC industry with a strong background in financial analysis and strategic initiatives. She is also the founder of four impact organizations serving children in low-income communities in Nigeria, women, small firms and creating awareness about NGOs across Nigeria.

As the author of Build Boldly: Chart Your Unique Career Path and Lead with Courage, she is passionate about helping individuals lean into their full potential at each step of their career, from applying to the first job to becoming a leader who empowers others. She urges leaders to challenge the status quo of what the corporate world should look like, introducing new methods to foster space for open voices, collective growth, and meaningful connections.

She is married with two kids, passionate about service and is obsessed with throwing really fun themed parties.

www.manciniduffy.com

Unlocking Career Potential: A B.O.L.D. Approach for Women

 Join Bolanle as she shares her personal journey and the B.O.L.D. framework for women to unlock their career potential.  Discover how to shift your mindset, harness your potential, and take control of your future career journey.  Gain insights into overcoming barriers and crafting a roadmap to success.

Laura Gressin Registered Architect & MBA Candidate, Zicklin School of Business

Laura Gressin is a Registered Architect, and an MBA student at the Zicklin School of Business, where she is focusing her studies on Finance and Strategy. Before pursuing her MBA, she was a Project Architect for religious, educational, and hospitality clients located across the USA, and a Project Manager for high-end homes and estates, overseeing complex renovation and new construction projects on the east coast. 

Laura is passionate about using her architectural skills to solve complex business problems and using the design process to break down a problem into digestible pieces to identify areas of inefficiency, opportunity, or risk, and develop solutions with lasting positive impact. Last summer she did this as a Leadership Associate for Citibank, where she was part of the Strategy team for the Costco Credit Card. 

Outside work, she is an avid figure skater working on her spins and jumps, and an interpreter for Safe Passage Project, an organization that provides free lawyers to refugee children. 

Applying Design Thinking in Business

Architects are uniquely positioned to think strategically in defining what must get done.  They know how to focus on key drivers to get impactful results, all while being creative even in ambiguous circumstances. In her experience as a licensed architect, an associate in financial services, and an MBA graduate student, Laura will discuss how Architects are uniquely equipped to solve complex business problems.

Amanda Nicole Bridges AIA, NOMA, LEED AP

Amanda Nicole Bridges, AIA, NOMA, LEED AP is an undergraduate studio instructor and licensed architect in California. She is currently a Senior Architect at Siol Stuidos in San Francisco, an integrated architecture, interiors, and landscape design practice, and an Adjunct Lecturer at Stanford University and the University of California Berkeley
Amanda has worked on a range of large scale urban projects, commercial buildings, snd custom homes throughout the US, including projects with Skidmore Owings and Merrill, KieranTimberlake, and Woods Dangaran. Her work as a Board Member of the Architectural Foundation of SF and committee member of NOMA and NAACP's CESBS focuses on mentorship and instilling sustainable projects with a specific sense of community, dignity, and place. Amanda has been speaker at the NetZero Conference, BuildingGreen, Yale Women in Architecture, and on other organizational panels. She earned her B.A. at Harvard University and her M.Arch at Yale University's School of Architecture, where she received the Yen and Dolly Liang academic award. On weekends, Amanda enjoys running, hiking, and live music. 

ced.berkeley.edu/people/amanda-bridges

working toward a cultural shift

As we each continue to navigate architecture’s firm, academic, and non-profit spheres, how can we balance mixing, acquiescing to, confronting, and reimagining our culture together toward meaningful change? In an era defined by rapid growth and change, the field of architecture is ripe for the industry disruption that we have seen shift other fields in recent decades. Our industry is defined by looking ahead; how are we culturally a century behind?

Christine Woodward Founder, CEO, 19th & CO

With a rich tapestry of over 15 years as an interior designer, Christine holds a master's degree in architecture and has fortified her expertise through studies in management at Harvard. Currently pursuing an MBA at Johns Hopkins University, Christine stands as the Founder/CEO and Principal Consultant known for her specialization in recruiting, leadership and management coaching, and the seamless implementation of growth strategies.

A catalyst for change and an unwavering accountability partner, Christine ignites transformative shifts within organizations, driving a culture of continuous improvement. Her forte lies in motivating and orchestrating enhancements in team organization and nurturing an environment primed for future success. Passionate about aligning businesses with their future goals, Christine navigates strategic implementations that are aligned with Clients’ personal and professional needs.

Before establishing 19th&CO, Christine made impactful contributions at leading design firms within the design industry, including interior design powerhouse Gensler and the world-renowned advertising agency McCann Global in New York.

19thandco.com

From working IN the creative industry to working ON the creative industry. One firm at a time. 

With a first career in advertising in NYC at one of the largest agencies in the world, Christine sought an alternative creative outlet in the built environment. After completing an M.ARCH including all IDP hours, Christine parlayed 15 years in interior design to become the go-to premier business consultancy to interior designers and architects throughout the country. 

Margie Lavender Partner, Kligerman Architecture & Design

Margie Lavender is an architect and partner at Kligerman Architecture & Design (KAD). The firm’s residential and boutique commercial projects are known for their distinctive design that is rooted in tradition, but modern in its sculptural forms, taut detailing, glass expanses, and often a touch of whimsy. To their complex projects in NYC and throughout the United States, Margie brings an expert eye for detail, honed over 24 years as an architect, as well by her studies and travels in Japan. Her appreciation of craft in architecture, and its interplay with nature and light coalesced there, and continues to influence her thoughts about beauty, and flourishes in her architecture practice at KAD. Her office is set in midtown Manhattan on the 45th floor overlooking the Empire State Building and Bryant Park. 

In 2021, Margie launched an 8-week summer internship program in partnership with the NYC institution, Prep for Prep, whose mission is to develop future leaders by creating access for young people of color to first-rate educational and professional advancement opportunities. Margie is also passionate about gardening and our human relationship to nature. She channels this into her own garden, as well as acting as the Garden Club of Irvington’s Conservation Committee co-chair, and their GCA National Affairs and Legislation delegate. She is co-founder and lead of the Hastings Pollinator Pathway, a volunteer project focused on gardening for biodiversity.

the cream will always rise to the top 

Margie Lavender grew up in Dallas, the youngest of three sisters, all uniquely ambitious and fiercely independent. This was in no small part to their single mother’s influence, who often told her daughters, “The cream will always rise to the top;” Margie saw this more as a directive than an adage. Her talk will touch on those years, her years in Austin, and those in which she tread her own path in the mountains of Colorado which led her to the world of high end residential architecture, and ultimately to her practice in New York City. Margie will talk about her path from employee to partner, her mentors along the way, and the resultant shifts in her life and thinking.

Astrid Lipka AIA, LEED AP, Principal, Rice+Lipka Architects

Astrid Lipka is a principal of Rice+Lipka Architects, a New York based studio with an iterative design approach that actively teases out potential latent within practical constraint. Together with her partner Lyn Rice, Lipka seeks to engage the public with works that inspire by bringing a resourceful civic-mindedness to a range of building, planning, art, and cultural research projects.

Lipka’s work has been published widely and recognized both internationally and domestically with numerous awards, including a dozen American Institute of Architects Design Awards, such as a National Honor and a New York State Award of Excellence, as well as an International Architecture Award, an International ALA/IIDA Library Design Award, National AIA/ALA Library Building Award, and the Architectural Review Future Projects Award among others. NYC’s Public Design Commission recognized Lipka as part of Women-Designed NYC publication. ARCHITECT Magazine ranked Rice+Lipka Architects #4 in the nation in their 2018 list of Top 50 Firms in Design.

Lipka grew up in Germany and trained in Germany, Switzerland, and Spain before moving to New York. She is a LEED Accredited Professional and a registered architect in New York State. She holds a Masters Degree in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University and is an Assistant Professor at Parsons the New School for Design, where she has been an advisor for the Graduate Architecture Thesis since 2008.

Current projects include the Philmont Community Center, NYPL Hamilton Fish Park Library, the QPL Arverne Library, NYPD Bomb Squad Building, as well as the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.

to be determined - embedded opportunities 

In a broad sense, “to be determined” reflects a state of openness and flexibility. In life, practice, planning and design, it stands for an approach of actively teasing out and shaping the opportunities embedded that are yet to be uncovered.  At the same time, it is a reminder to question and redefine, whether personal or work trajectory, a program brief or a project, and allow for it to adapt and evolve over time. In this conversation, Astrid will share from her personal story, professional experiences, and through her work at Rice+Lipka Architects.

Francine Monaco Principal, D’Aquino Monaco

Francine Monaco, a registered architect for more than 25 years, her work includes a mixture of residential and nonresidential work projects in the United States and Europe in architecture and interior design. Her early work as a project architect for a highly respected architectural firm designing homes and apartments was followed in 1989 as project architect for the in-house design department of the Guggenheim Museum, where her focus was in orchestrating several design projects of the museum’s expansion in New York City. Francine designed and supervised the creation of administrative office space within newly excavated space at the original Frank Lloyd Wright Museum building.

Francine’s increasing focus on the intersection between architecture and interior design lead her to establish D’Aquino Monaco in 1997 with Carl D’Aquino to allow and create more opportunity for the dialogue between “the container” and the “contained”. Her focus on the intersection of architecture and interior design led to a uniquely balanced practice and holistic approach. Francine has created a diverse career combining the practical with the magical to create memorable timeless spaces. Francine was inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame in 2007 and is a professor at Pratt Institute's Interior Design department.

You are here 

A conversation in acknowledgement of our individual journeys - to encourage exploration of our diverse paths. In reflecting upon her path, which led Francine to creating an interdisciplinary design studio, she will lead a conversation about understanding the role of choice and understanding that the place we are in, holds our unique direction.