81 episodes

The Design Voice Podcast seeks to elevate and amplify those voices of women in the architecture, engineering, and construction industries. Each episode features honest conversations with women who shape the built environment - their unique perspectives on the state of their professions, stories about their career journeys, and more. By telling their stories, this podcast hopes to serve as a source of education, inspiration and empowerment.

Design Voice Podcast Catherine Meng

    • Arts
    • 5.0 • 1 Rating

The Design Voice Podcast seeks to elevate and amplify those voices of women in the architecture, engineering, and construction industries. Each episode features honest conversations with women who shape the built environment - their unique perspectives on the state of their professions, stories about their career journeys, and more. By telling their stories, this podcast hopes to serve as a source of education, inspiration and empowerment.

    Evolutions of Landscape and Practice with Sarah Warto

    Evolutions of Landscape and Practice with Sarah Warto

    Sarah Warto is a landscape architect and founder of Boxleaf Design.  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 highly-complex international and national planning and landscape projects.  Later moving to the private sector, Sarah, was able to apply her appreciation for historical gardens to creating highly personalized, timeless and contextual spaces.   
    In 2012, she started her own practice, Boxleaf Design, a full service landscape architectural firm, focusing on high end residential and commercial work in the Bay Area. Sarah is continually seeking insight and creative rejuvenation from the Bay Area's native and diverse environment, in its purest and most rugged form. 
     
    In this episode, Sarah talks about how her interest in landscape architecture developed, what landscape architecture school was like, and her first job experiences out of school. Sarah also shares what made her decide to start her own studio, her experience growing and managing a practice, her design process, how landscapes are always evolving and never finite, and advice for those who want to start their own businesses.

    • 32 min
    Curating a Career and Spaces that Resonate with Madelynn Ringo

    Curating a Career and Spaces that Resonate with Madelynn Ringo

    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 approach to space powers Ringo’s adventurous use of texture, form, materials and color, pushing functionality into a realm of convention-breaking appeal.
    Previously, Ringo served as the creative lead on retail experiences for Glossier, designing locations in Miami, Boston, Austin and Atlanta.  Immersive experiences for iconic brands such as Studs, Bala, Funny Face Bakery and the Museum of Ice Cream are among her portfolio of designs for beauty, wellness and culturally inclusive lifestyle brands with a focus on collaborative exploration, collective solutions and a strong belief in spaces that resonate.  Madelynn is also the Head of Studio Design for aging wellness brand Modern Age, bringing the customer experience to life through careful consideration for every customer touchpoint. 
    Ringo founded Brooklyn-based Ringo Studio in 2020 with a focus on collaborative exploration, collective solutions and a strong belief in spaces that resonate. 
    In this episode, Madelynn shares her experience moving to New York City, navigating the early years of her career and curating her professional experiences before starting her own studio. Madeleynn talks about her design process, why she loves the discovery phase of projects, and how she balances inspiration versus invention in the visually saturated world that we all live in now. We also talk about designing for Gen Z and Millennial audiences, and the desire to create emotional reactions in people when they enter a space. You can also find Madelynn on Instagram @madelynnringo.

    • 40 min
    Passion and Purpose with Deryl McKissack, President and CEO of McKissack & McKissack

    Passion and Purpose with Deryl McKissack, President and CEO of McKissack & McKissack

    Deryl McKissack is the founder, chairwoman and chief executive officer of McKissack & McKissack, 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 generation of her family to work in design and construction. Her firm is an extension of the nation’s oldest African American design and construction firm, and traces its origin to Moses McKissack, a master builder who was also a slave. Before founding her firm in 1990, Deryl earned a B.S. in civil engineering at Howard University and worked at Turner Construction and Dames & Moore to hone her experience in field work, business development and construction management.
    Among the many nationally significant projects in McKissack’s portfolio of work today are Museum of African American History and Culture, the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, the Obama Presidential Center and the Navy Pier Centennial Projects in Chicago.
    In this episode, Deryl talks about how she first got her start in the industry by drafting at her father’s architecture firm at the age of 12, her experience managing a large university facilities team by the age of 27, and what ultimately made her want to start her own business. Deryl shares the challenges she’s faced throughout her career as a black woman, how she’s persevered to become the successful business woman she is today, and gives some great advice for those who want to start their own businesses. Deryl also talks about her 7 point plan to combat racism in the AEC industry.
     

    • 38 min
    Paths to Leadership with Liz Leber, Managing Partner, Beyer Blinder Belle

    Paths to Leadership with Liz Leber, Managing Partner, Beyer Blinder Belle

    Liz Leber is the Managing Partner at Beyer Blinder Belle 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 about her experience spending much of career at the same firm, and how she advanced to become Managing Partner. She shares what made her gravitate toward leadership and management roles, how one can learn or hone their leadership skills, and the importance of vulnerability as a leader. Liz also talks about what drew her to adaptive reuse projects, her approach to these projects, and what impact she hopes to leave on the world.

    • 41 min
    Productive Collisions with Latoya Nelson Kamdang, Director of NY Operations, Moody Nolan

    Productive Collisions with Latoya Nelson Kamdang, Director of NY Operations, Moody Nolan

    Latoya Nelson Kamdang is the Director of New York Operations for Moody Nolan. 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 educates students on interdisciplinary design and material theory. She has a research focus on expanding urban areas, neighborhood gentrification, sustainable technologies, and indigenous architecture. Latoya earned a Master of Architecture from University of Pennsylvania School of Design as well as a Certificate in Real Estate Design & Development from the Wharton School of Business. She has a Master of Fine Arts degree from George Washington University and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Marketing from Georgetown University. She currently sits on the board for Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation, The New York State Board of Architecture, The First 500, and the Van Alen Institute VanGuard. In this episode, Latoya shares how she went from being a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Taiwan, to becoming Director of Operations at Moody Nolan in New York.  She shares her experience as a professor at Pratt, how she developed her skillset as a professor, her approach to teaching and meeting students where they are. We also discuss the challenges of becoming a working mother, and figuring out how to carve out space for yourself.

    • 41 min
    Elevating The Role of Architects Through Technology with Anamika Goyal

    Elevating The Role of Architects Through Technology with Anamika Goyal

    Anamika Goyal is a biologist-turned-architect solving for scale in a complex industry with high human impact.  She is Head of Design at Cottage, 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 student, to working at more traditional architecture firms, to jumping into the start-up world.. She talks about how the design process works at Cottage, what makes them different from a traditional design firm, and other innovations she’d like to see in the building industry We also talk about the difference between professional services and consumer services, how Anamika prepared for leadership roles, and advice for people who want to shift career paths. --
    Books Anamika mentions in the episode:
    Radical Candor The Goal --
    We want to hear from you! Please send your feedback to hello@designvoicepodcast.com and follow the show on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/designvoicepodcast.

    • 40 min

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