In the latest episode of the Getting Back Into Place Podcast, I spoke with Evelyn Lee, FAIA. In our conversation, we talk about the nature of hard work and fulfillment in career development, architects who pursue nontraditional paths, leadership, and a bunch more.

Evelyn is Global Head of Workplace Strategy and Innovation at Slack Technologies, Founder of the Practice of Architecture, and Co-Host of the podcast, Practice Disrupted. At Slack, she integrates her business and architecture background to build better experiences for the organization's employees, clients, and guests.

For over three years, Evelyn wrote a monthly column for Contract Magazine. She has contributed frequently to Architect Magazine and is currently working with Architizer to develop recurring content on the business of architecture. Evelyn has received several industry awards, including the 2016 40 Under 40 award for Building Design + Construction and the 2014 AIA National Young Architects Award. She recently served as Treasurer to the AIA National Board in 2020-2021.

Show links and notes:

• Follow Evelyn on LinkedIn here 
• Follow Evelyn on Instagram @evelynmlee  
• How the Future Works: Leading Flexible Teams To Do The Best Work of Their Lives by Brian Elliott, Sheela Subramanian, and Helen Kupp
• Subscribe to the Practice Disrupted podcast
• You can learn more about Evelyn at her website, evelynlee.com

In this episode, I spoke with poet, journalist, and educator Mike Sonksen a.k.a Mike the Poet. In our conversation, we talk about how Mike got into writing, the importance of poetry in self expression and in connecting with place, learning how to feel, how to develop and grow in a craft, and much more.

Mike is a 3rd-generation Los Angeles native. He teaches at Woodbury University and serves as the Program Coordinator of the school’s First Year Experience Program. He has published over 500 essays and poems with publications like Academy of American Poets, Alta, KCET, Poets & Writers Magazine, PBS, BOOM, Wax Poetics, Southern California Quarterly, LA Weekly, OC Weekly, Lana Turner, Metropolis, The Architect’s Newspaper, LA Alternative Press, Los Angeles Review of Books, Angel City Review, LA Taco, LAist, LA Parent and more. One of his KCET essays received an Award from the Los Angeles Press Club.

Over the last two decades, Sonksen has delivered more than 2,000 poetry readings across the country in a wide range of venues including bookstores, museums, galleries, secondary schools, and literary festivals. He's been a guest speaker at over 100 universities and high schools and presented his poetry on public radio stations KCRW, KPFK and KPCC and TV stations like Spectrum News. In 2013, the Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center honored Sonksen for "Distinguished Service to the Los Angeles Poetry Community." 

Show links:

• Follow Mike on Instagram @mikethepoetla
• Follow Mike on Twitter @mikethepoetla
• Be sure to purchase Mike's book Letters To My City
• Here is a link to Mike's Linktree, which includes links to his many author pages and latest writings.

In this episode, I spoke with architect and writer Melvin Mitchell, FAIA, NCARB, NOMA. In our conversation, we talk about Melvin’s HBCU perspective on Blackness in architecture, several ideas in reforming architectural education, entrepreneurship and wealth creation, and much more.

Melvin has been a practicing architect in Washington, DC, for 45 years. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, a past president of the DC Board of Architecture, and former director of the School of Architecture & Planning at Morgan State University in Baltimore. He was a professor at the University of the District of Columbia and Howard University, where he was the James E. Silcott Professor of Architecture from 2016 to 2018. His architecture degrees are from Howard University and the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Melvin is the President and CEO of Bryant Mitchell Architects, Developers & Construction Managers and is the author of two books, The Crisis of the African American Architect, published in 2002, and African American Architects: Embracing Culture and Building Urban Communities, published in 2020. He is currently working on his third book.

Show notes:

• Spring 2021 USC Virtual Lecture with Melvin Mitchell
• Morgan State University Spring 2020 Lecture with Melvin Mitchell
• The Crisis of the African-American Architect: Conflicting Cultures of Architecture and (Black) Power by Melvin Mitchell
• African American Architects: Embracing Culture and Building Urban Communities by Melvin Mitchell
• Melvin's essays on Archinect
• Follow Melvin on LinkedIn
• Follow Melvin on Twitter @MelArch3

Germane Barnes is the Principal of Studio Barnes, and Associate Professor and the Director of the Community Housing & Identity Lab (CHIL) at the University of Miami School of Architecture. Barnes’ practice investigates the connection between architecture and identity, examining architecture’s social and political agency through historical research and design speculation. Believing strongly in design as a process, he approaches each condition imposed on a project as an opportunity for transformation. 

Born in Chicago, IL, Germane Barnes received a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Master of Architecture from Woodbury University, where he was awarded the Thesis Prize for his project Symbiotic Territories: Architectural Investigations of Race, Identity, and Community.

His work has recently been exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art’s groundbreaking 2021 exhibition, Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America, and the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial. He was a winner of the 2021 Architectural League Prize for Young Architects and Designers, and is a 2021-2022 Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Rome. His work has also been featured and added to the permanent collections of international institutions, most notably MAS Context, Milan Design Week, San Francisco MoMA, LACMA, The Art Institute of Chicago, The New York Times, Architect Magazine, and The National Museum of African American History and Culture where he was identified as one of the future designers on the rise.

Additional Links:

• Vigilantism, edited by Germane Barnes and Shawhin Roudbari for MAS Context
• Check out Germane's website at germanebarnes.com
• Follow Germane on Instagram @gmane16
• Follow Germane on Twitter @UncleRemusChkn

In this episode, I spoke with Los Angeles-based architect Barbara Bestor, FAIA. In our conversation, we talk about exhibition design, architectural photography, cultural contribution, and much more.

Barbara is the Principal and founder of Bestor Architecture, which was established in 1995, currently has a staff of 30 people, and is recognized for consistently pursuing experimental architecture that engages the city through design, art, and urbanism. Barbara explores the architectural form through experiments in spatial arrangements, graphics, and color. Her varied and progressive body of work connects with people on many levels, often outside the boundaries traditionally delineated for architecture.

Recent projects by Barbara include Ashes & Diamonds Winery in Napa, multiple offices for Snap in Los Angeles, and the Scandinavian Design and the United States exhibit at LACMA. Barbara is also the author of Bohemian Modern, Living in Silver Lake (Harper Collins, 2006), a book dedicated to the suppressed narrative of informal and eccentric modernism found in Silver Lake’s rich domestic architectural history. Barbara received her undergraduate degree from Harvard University and her Master of Architecture from SCI-Arc and is currently the Executive Director of Woodbury University’s Julius Shulman Institute.

You can learn more about Barbara and her work at bestorarchitecture.com

Show links and notes:

• Follow Barbara on Instagram @barbarabestor
• Follow Bestor Architecture on Instagram @bestorarchitecture  
• Scandinavian Design & the United States, 1890-1980 by Bobbye Tigerman and Monica Obniski
• Architect’s Newspaper article on Barbara’s LACMA exhibit
• ‘Hood Century’: How One Man Is Redefining Midcentury Modern Architecture | NY Times article on Jerald Cooper
• Follow Jerald Cooper on Instagram @hoodcenturymodern
• Barbara’s Archinect Interview on the Julius Shulman Institute

In this episode, I spoke with Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Madame Architect, Julia Gamolina. Julia is dedicated to the built environment and to the visibility and advancement of the women who shape it, a mission manifested through the incredible work she is doing with Madame Architect. She is an Associate Principal and Business Development Director at Ennead, where she focuses on the educational, cultural, and healthcare markets. She is also a Visiting Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute, where she teaches a graduate level Professional Practice Seminar on the history and practices of the profession. 

Julia’s writing has been featured in Fast Company, A Women’s Thing, Metropolis Magazine, Architizer, and the Architect's Newspaper. She has lectured nationally and internationally at institutions, including Harvard, Columbia, Yale, UPenn, Pratt, the IE School of Architecture and Design, Georgia Tech and more, as well as NeueHouse, AIANY/The Center for Architecture, the Architecture & Design Film Festival, and the Women, Architecture and Sustainability Congress in Bogota, Colombia. 

She has served as a guest critic for design reviews at Cornell AAP, Columbia GSAPP, and the School of Visual Arts (SVA), and was the opening keynote speaker at AIA ‘22 in Chicago, interviewing AIA’s new CEO, Lakisha Woods. In 2021, Julia was named one of Apartment Therapy’s Design Changemakers and one of Commercial Observer's Top Young Professionals. In 2019, she also received a Special Citation from AIANY for her work with Madame Architect. 

Julia received her Bachelor of Architecture at Cornell University, graduating with the Charles Goodwin Sands Memorial Medal for exceptional merit in the thesis of architecture. 

Show Notes:

• juliagamolina.com
• madamearchitect.org
• Madame Architect’s Expanding the Conversation series
• Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World by Tyson Yunkaporta
• Machiavelli for Women: Defend Your Worth, Grow Your Ambition, and Win the Workplace by Stacey Vanek Smith

In this episode, I spoke with Los Angeles-based architect and educator Aaron Gensler. In our conversation, we talk about the evolution of architectural education, ways to be an educator, and several topics surrounding architecture school, including studio culture, all-nighters, the creative process, and final review juries.

Aaron is a Visiting Associate Professor and the Chair of the Undergraduate and Graduate Architecture Programs at Woodbury University in Los Angeles. She serves on the National Council for Madame Architect and is a member of the Board of Trustees for California College of the Arts.

Aaron is one half of GenslerClipp—an architecture, design, and research practice based in Southern California. Prior to forming GenslerClipp, she held design positions at a diverse array of firms from Los Angeles to Rwanda.

She received her Master of Architecture from Cornell University, where she was awarded the Alpha Rho Chi Medal and, more recently, was awarded a Robert James Eidlitz Travel Fellowship. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Middlebury College, where she received several accolades from the Middlebury Museum of Art, Chellis House, and the KCACTF for her work.

You can follow Aaron on Instagram @msaarongensler and on LinkedIn here. 

In this episode, I spoke with designer and educator Kevin Sherrod. In our conversation, we talk about serving the community and society at large, what it means to be a citizen architect, different perspectives on being black in architecture, and a lot more.

Kevin’s work centers on building community resilience and advancing design justice, primarily within communities of color. As a Practice Area Leader of Arts & Culture at Gensler Los Angeles, Kevin has worked on projects such as Tides Loads of Hope, Compton College student housing, and the award-winning Debbie Allen Dance Academy, among several others.

Most recently, Kevin served as the lead designer for Gallery 90220, a first-of-its-kind art gallery for Black and Brown creatives in South Los Angeles. Through these efforts, Kevin has been recognized as a Culture Champion on the inaugural For(bes) The Culture 50 Champions List. In 2022, Gallery 90220, as part of the 2022 AIA Los Angeles Design Awards, was awarded an Architectural Installation Citation Award. Kevin was a core member of the research leadership team with the Now Institute and Morphosis, working directly under the guidance of Thom Mayne on the 100 Buildings book.

Currently a faculty member at USC School of Architecture, Kevin is committed to supporting the next generation of designers through mentorship and teaching. He previously worked as an urban strategies lecturer for UCLA’s M.Arch II Program. Sherrod’s work has been featured in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Archinect, ArchDaily, LA Business Journal, and Forbes.

Be sure to learn more about Kevin at his website at www.kevinsherrod.com. And follow him on Instagram @sh3rrod.

In this episode, I spoke with philosopher and cultural critic Rossen Ventzislavov, Ph.D. In our conversation, we talk about the philosophy of architecture, aesthetics, phenomenology, ethics, culture and society, and tons more.

As a philosopher and cultural critic, Rossen focuses on aesthetics, architectural theory, literature, curating, popular music, and performance art. His work has appeared in the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Deleuze Studies, Contemporary Aesthetics, the Journal of Popular Music Studies, X-tra, the British Journal of Aesthetics, Interiors, and more. Rossen originated the ongoing Boxing Philosophical debate series at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in Los Angeles. He has been a member of the Encounter performance art collective since 2014 and is currently Professor of Philosophy at Woodbury University.

You can check out some of Rossen's essays and articles below:

• "Building Privilege: Architecture and the Privacy Fetish," The Mediated City Conference
• "Anti Bodies: Two American Pandemics," Public Seminar
• "Black Aesthetics: Reconstruction Through Resocialisation," British Society of Aesthetics
• "Everything Loose: Ron Athey's Acephalous Monster at REDCAT," Aesthetic Investigations
• "A Reality to Call Our Own," X-Tra

In this second episode, I spoke with artist and traveler Alán Ramiro Manning. Alán has been traveling the world and sketching for over ten years, visiting over 25 countries, and still going. He is an urban sketcher who has set out to create beautiful art, connect with people of all cultures, and serve them in the process. We talk about his path to becoming a full-time traveler, his background in architecture, embracing uncertainty, and much more.

With ten years of experience working in architecture and a lifetime obsession with sketching, Alán has combined the two to create a holistic approach to representing vision—as lines.

Travel sketching, particularly, is something that has developed since his break-through studying abroad in Spain. When push came to shove, no money left, Alán hit the streets of Barcelona and shared his sketches with tourists and locals alike. That was the catalyst that led him to 'SeeTheLines.' By creating an experience for people, in turn, a connection and a memory to savor, sketching became a means to access the universal language of admiration for creation.

After having traveled to 20 countries, it is with utmost joy and passion that, Alán is now in the position to create immersive experiences to join him on his travel sketching journeys. You will see the lines and begin to harness your own unique vision of creating a legacy of sketches.

• Follow Alán on Instagram @seethelines 
• Subscribe to Alán’s YouTube channel here
• Check out Alán’s website at www.seethelines.com