Getting Back Into Place Sean Joyner

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 KuppSubscribe to the Practice Disrupted podcastYou 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 @mikethepoetlaFollow Mike on Twitter @mikethepoetlaBe sure to purchase Mike's book Letters To My CityHere 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 MitchellMorgan State University Spring 2020 Lecture with Melvin MitchellThe Crisis of the African-American Architect: Conflicting Cultures of Architecture and (Black) Power by Melvin MitchellAfrican American Architects: Embracing Culture and Building Urban Communities by Melvin MitchellMelvin's essays on ArchinectFollow Melvin on LinkedInFollow 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 ContextCheck out Germane's website at germanebarnes.comFollow Germane on Instagram @gmane16Follow 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 @barbarabestorFollow Bestor Architecture on Instagram @bestorarchitecture  Scandinavian Design & the United States, 1890-1980 by Bobbye Tigerman and Monica ObniskiArchitect’s Newspaper article on Barbara’s LACMA exhibit‘Hood Century’: How One Man Is Redefining Midcentury Modern Architecture | NY Times article on Jerald CooperFollow Jerald Cooper on Instagram @hoodcenturymodernBarbara’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.commadamearchitect.orgMadame Architect’s Expanding the Conversation seriesSand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World by Tyson YunkaportaMachiavelli for Women: Defend Your Worth, Grow Your Ambition, and Win the Workplace by Stacey Vanek Smith