At the age of ten I decided to become an architect. One day my fourth grade teacher asked us to write down what we wanted to be when we grew up, it was an architect from that day on. When I was growing up my father was a contractor and some of my earliest memories were watching him build my grandparents’ house. Seeing it come out of the ground as sticks of wood was a really cool experience for a kid. My dad specialized in custom residential, and taught me to read floor plans at an early age as I would study the plans in the evenings. Buildings always fascinated me, but I had no desire to be a contractor. The summers were hot where I grew up. My father woke up too early and worked too hard in the heat, so architecture seemed more palatable to me.
Growing up influenced by residential architecture, I wanted to do something different when I graduated college. My first job out of school was working on commercial projects, which I did for several years before heading off to graduate school. During grad school at USC I worked on a multi-family housing project located in the downtown LA Arts District, and by the end of that semester it clicked. I enjoyed the project, and found it interesting to come at residential design from a larger scale and a more commercial approach. I liked thinking about how people live and the importance of the spaces they inhabit.
KFA had a booth at the USC career fair when I was looking for a job between my years in grad school. They did the work I was becoming interested in, and I was already an expert in PowerCad, the software KFA was using at the time, so I had an in. I worked at KFA that summer and by the end of it, Barbara asked me if I would consider coming back, and I did.
I’ve now been at KFA for 12 years and have worked on a wide variety of mixed-use projects. Currently I’m excited to be involved with the new Anita May Rosenstein Campus for the Los Angeles LGBT Center, a mixed-use, affordable housing and commercial office project unlike any other we’ve done, at the largest LGBT center in the world. It’s a significant achievement for the LGBT community as a whole, and as a member of the community it’s an honor to be contributing to it’s creation. From the beginning, it was important to create something that would be architecturally significant. It brings a new, iconic place to the community with an importance that extends beyond the people who are serviced there every day. It speaks to the pride that the larger LGBT community will take in this unique and visionary place.
In addition to this work, I’m working with WS communities, one of KFA’s oldest clients on the addition of over 800 housing units to downtown Santa Monica and West LA. With a team of architects and designers, we’re working toward the reshaping of the downtown through unique and thoughtful design. With over a dozen mixed-use projects under development in the downtown area, we are working hard to address the severe housing shortage in the city, as well as contributing to a more walk able and livable city through the addition of neighborhood serving retail, and residential units in the pedestrian friendly downtown; creating density where density is most beneficial and effective.
Throughout my career, one of my proudest moments was attending the grand opening of the first affordable housing project I designed at KFA. Paloma Terrace is a 59-unit family housing community, which took 8 years from beginning to end. On the day that seemed like it would never arrive, the new residents spoke at the opening ceremony about their hopes and ambitions now that had arrived at their new home. They told stories about the difficult circumstances they had endured and what moving into permanent housing meant to them. Their lives will be forever changed by the opportunity to live in that community. It was a strong reminder of how important the work is that we do.
