Madame Architect

How did studying at Mount Holyoke and Harvard shape your approach to the built world and to your writing and poetry? As an undergraduate at Mount Holyoke, I took courses in literature, creative writing, art history, and studio art. A distinguished poet and translator, Robert Fitzgerald, taught a lively versification seminar.

Amy Mielke and Caitlin Taylor by Juliana Sherburne. By Julia Gamolina Midcourse Design & Development is an interdisciplinary architecture studio focused on the buildings, infrastructure, and networks needed to rebuild resilient regional food systems.

By Julia Gamolina McKenzie Wilhelm, PLA, is a Partner and owner at Coen + Partners, where she leads the firm’s Regeneration Studio and advances land-based work at the intersection of ecology, culture, hospitality, wellness, and public life. She serves on the ASLA Foundation Board and is focused on expanding the role of landscape architecture in shaping regenerative, culturally grounded, and deeply human places.

By Julia Gamolina Betty is the Founder of COLLECTIVE, a RIBA Chartered architecture office practicing Architecture, Interiors and Exhibition Design, headquartered in Hong Kong, with team members in London, Madrid, and Perth. Betty is a Registered Architect in the Netherlands, a RIBA Chartered Architect in the United Kingdom and an International Associate member of AIA, United States.

By Julia Gamolina Liz Leber is dedicated to advancing mission-based institutions through forward-looking architecture and planning projects. Liz's clients include the New York Public Library, 92NY, and Harvard University. She is recognized for her ability to approach every challenge with a balance of creativity, pragmatism, and unfailing optimism. Liz applies these skills and energy to her role as Managing Partner of Beyer Blinder Belle.

What should all of us know about the state of maternal and newborn health these days, and what isn’t being talked about enough? Despite enormous progress over the last couple decades, far too many mothers and babies are still dying from causes we know how to prevent. Much of the work ahead isn't about waiting for a breakthrough but about follow-through: making sure the knowledge, tools, and models of care we already have actually reach the people who need them.

How did the opportunity at Becca come about for you? Leaving Wallpaper* wasn’t an easy decision but I did want to try something new after seventeen years. I had, of course, worked with Becca and her team while I was US Editor but really made a connection with her after I wrote about her brother Patrick Parrish, an IYKYK visionary and force in the New York design scene.

Jesse Lazar by Samuel Lahoz. By Julia Gamolina Jesse Lazar, Assoc. AIA, is the Executive Director of the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter (AIANY) and the Center for Architecture. Prior to his appointment as Executive Director, Lazar managed all fundraising and development activities for both AIA New York and the Center for Architecture, along with the organizations’ communications and marketing team and the Center for Architecture programs and exhibitions team.

What was some of the best advice you got early on that has informed your approach to your work and career? This might sound a little hackneyed, but the best advice I ever got was from my mom. She always said, “Just do what you love,” and I believed her, because when I was growing up she went back to school and did what she loved. I remember being  a teenager and watching her study on a Sunday with a ton of text books out on the dining room table…I got to see her get her degree.

8:00am: Over the course of the day I could be on a construction site, at office meetings, teaching at Yale, or having drinks with a colleague at Pebble Bar, so I aim for a polished yet versatile look. Jeans, a white t-shirt and an oversized Attersee blazer tend to do the trick. My great-grandmother, Antonia, for whom I am named, was a seamstress in the 1920s and I wear her old monocle as a necklace.