My favorite place to travel:
I love traveling to any new city with a public transit network and exploring on foot. One of my favorite examples of this was a trip to visit a friend in Switzerland, where we purchased a rail pass for the entire country and visited a different city every day for a week. This trip also introduced me to a new motive for travel: geography. I knew we would be doing some hiking in the Alps, but what I didn’t realize was how visible the mountains would be from nearly everywhere in the country. I felt it gave the country a really unique sense of place, and it was much more impactful than I expected. Since then I’ve started seeking out new landscapes for travel, like Zion National Park, or the redwoods in California.
Favorite building:
I discovered my first favorite building when I visited Montreal in high school – Habitat 67 by Moshe Safdie. Although it’s not really reflected in my practice, I still love Brutalism – even Boston City Hall.
When I’m not designing architecture, you can find me…
drawing – things besides buildings. I’ve always liked visual art, and I like trying out new media and subject matter. My interests have ranged from figure drawing and portraiture to packaging design, and from watercolor and gouache to vector illustration. Recently, I’m very interested in children’s book illustration, and I love checking out new artists from the library to study. It’s very interesting as a type of pseudo-naïve art, and I really enjoy the way many illustrators use simple shapes and complex textures.
What is the most valuable advice you ever received?
Pin your work up next to that of someone you admire, step back and compare.
