#57 Designing an Organization with Kate Thatcher, CEO of A+I, Architecture Plus Information
Release Date: 04/07/2021
#80 Evolutions of Landscape and Practice with Sarah Warto
Design Voice Podcast
Sarah Warto is a landscape architect and founder of . Influenced by her mother and grandmother, fellow landscape designers and passionate botanical enthusiasts, Sarah was exposed at a young age to many aspects of the field; igniting her passion for design and its intersection with the natural world. Sarah is a proud New York native who earned her landscape architecture degree from Cornell University, where she learned how to apply rigorous technical skill to a growing appreciation for innovative and humanistic landscapes. Her career began at HOK, working on large-scale and...
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#79 Curating a Career and Spaces that Resonate with Madelynn Ringo
Design Voice Podcast
Madelynn Ringo is an architectural designer specializing in experiential spaces that resound with purposeful beauty. With an insatiable passion for problem-solving and high regard for heartbeat moments, Ringo creates storied environments expressed within a formidable architectural framework. Simply, Ringo scales brand identities to life with a commitment to feel-good originality. Ringo received her Architecture Master’s degree from Yale University and employs her classical training through an intuitive lens that celebrates beauty and architecture as an experiential artform. Her sculptural...
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#78 Passion and Purpose with Deryl McKissack, President and CEO of McKissack & McKissack
Design Voice Podcast
Deryl McKissack is the founder, chairwoman and chief executive officer of , a national architecture, engineering, program- and construction-management firm currently working on over $15 billion in projects nationwide. Under her leadership, McKissack has worked for public and private clients in the civic, culture, energy, education, entertainment, healthcare, hospitality, housing, infrastructure, mixed-use and office sectors and grown to over 150 employees with offices in Austin, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami and Washington, D.C. Deryl is a licensed engineer and the fifth...
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#77 Paths to Leadership with Liz Leber, Managing Partner, Beyer Blinder Belle
Design Voice Podcast
Liz Leber is the Managing Partner at in New York City. Liz is dedicated to advancing mission-based institutions through forward-looking architecture and planning projects. Guided by her astute and inquisitive nature, Liz excels at extracting the core objectives of her clients and their stakeholders and translating the collective needs and mission of institutions into creative architectural solutions. Both within and outside the firm, she is recognized for her ability to approach every challenge with a balance of creativity, pragmatism, and unfailing optimism. In this episode, Liz talks...
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#76 Productive Collisions with Latoya Nelson Kamdang, Director of NY Operations, Moody Nolan
Design Voice Podcast
Latoya Nelson Kamdang is the Director of New York Operations for . She is also a U.S. Fulbright Senior Scholar, Registered Architect, Certified Interior Designer, and LEED AP BD+C. Her experience spans architecture, planning, exhibit design, industrial and interior design. She has experience in hospitality, retail, museums, workplace, education, and institutional. Latoya was on the design team for the Smithsonian Institute National Museum of African American History and Culture. While practicing, Latoya has been simultaneously working as a Visiting Associate Professor at Pratt Institute. She...
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#75 Elevating The Role of Architects Through Technology with Anamika Goyal
Design Voice Podcast
Anamika Goyal is a biologist-turned-architect solving for scale in a complex industry with high human impact. She is Head of Design at , a San Francisco based start-up that helps homeowners build Accessory Dwelling Units. Anamika is committed to bringing fresh ideas, pace, and processes to the AEC industry, and made the leap into residential architecture from her former experience in commercial design & construction at WeWork. She has devoted her career to experiments on smarter ways of working within the AEC industry. In this episode, Anamika talks about her journey from being a pre-med...
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#74 Becoming CEO with Wendy Rogers, FAIA, CEO of LPA Design Studios
Design Voice Podcast
Wendy Rogers is CEO and Chief Talent Officer of , an integrated design firm dedicated to creating projects that innovate, inspire and improve people’s lives. Wendy leads a team of more than 400 architects, engineers, landscape architects and interior designers in California and Texas. As CEO, she handles the day-to-day operations of the firm, with a special focus on increasing the role of LPA's proprietary research unit, LPAred, and expanding LPA's unique informed design approach. As Chief Talent Officer, she is also responsible for developing the culture and lifestyle at the firm to...
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#73 Building an Architecture Practice with Marilyn Moedinger, Runcible Studios
Design Voice Podcast
Marilyn Moedinger is the founding principal of . Like the runcible spoon she is happiest operating at the seams between practicality and whimsy, utility and beauty, the esoteric and the mundane. Deeply passionate about the capacity for design to affect positive change in the world, Marilyn’s interest in all aspects of housing, the connections between urban and rural life, the construction process, justice in the built environment, and the overlaps among disciplines, methodologies, and practices fuels Runcible Studios’ mission to be nimble, rigorous, curious, fun, and meaningful....
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#72 Equity in Architecture with Kavitha Mathew, Global Diversity Officer, KPF
Design Voice Podcast
Kavitha Mathew is the Global Diversity Officer at , and leads the firm’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, as well as the development and implementation of the firm’s global Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) commitment. Mathew oversees KPF’s many internal Communities such as KPF Public, KPF Pride, and KPF+, helps guide KPF’s recruitment and resourcing, as well as its philanthropic and volunteer efforts. Leveraging her experience as an architect, Mathew’s work at KPF has a project-focused component, advising on engagement and communication with the community. Kavitha is...
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#71 Pivoting from Architecture to Tech with Kat Dovjenko
Design Voice Podcast
Kat Dovjenko is the Senior Creative Director at . Inspired by the dynamic energy around architecture and urban planning, Kat believes that the more complex, ambitious, and unsolvable the problem, the better. She drives talented teams to unite and achieve outcomes they would not be able to do individually—at multiple scales and in multiple stages of the design process. She most recently worked at where she oversaw workplace innovation projects. Kat loves navigating speculative pockets of the future and weaving together how they might impact our built spaces. She never shies away...
info_outlineKate Thatcher is the Chief Executive Officer of Architecture + Information (A+I), a strategy-led architecture and experience design agency based in New York.
As CEO, Thatcher drives the acceleration of innovation, collaboration between teams and subject areas, and further development of culture and inclusion initiatives within A+I.
Kate first began her career at A+I in 2004, returning again in 2011 upon completion of her Masters in Architecture degree from Yale University. At A+I, Kate has led design teams creating spaces for world-class companies like Equinox, Chanel, and Horizon Media. She became a principal at A+I in 2018 and was named the agency’s first CEO in 2020. Her innovative project experience and unique perspective having worked up the ranks of the organization inform her leadership style.
A tireless advocate for equity within the architecture and design professions, Kate is responsible for the launch, in 2020, of the firm's +IMPACT initiative, a platform for A+I’s employees to leverage their talents and expertise on opportunities at the intersection of design and social impact.
In this episode we talk about:
- How Kate became the first ever CEO of A+I, what she did to prepare for the role, and her advice for younger professionals on how to develop their leadership skills
- Challenging the status quo narrative of the lone starchitect
- Nonlinear career paths, and not regretting the forks in the road
- Why it can be difficult to leave things behind as you advance in your career, but not being afraid of the new opportunities it may bring
- How her role as CEO is like a design exercise
- What a strategy-led integrated design agency is, and how A+I is different from traditional architecture firms
- The alignment of an institution’s vision, the space they occupy, and the people that inhabit that space
- What a strategist does, and how they are equal parts data scientist and spatial storyteller
- Kate’s experience as a parent during the pandemic, and her hope for what the future post-pandemic work-life might be like
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