"I've never met a woman architect before..." holiday gift list 2020 #WFH Interview w/ Rosa Sheng, FAIA

Rosa Sheng in Red Pants at the Great Wall

So, it's the time of year where I post my "I've never met a woman architect before..."  holiday gift list 2020 but first....

We get together with family and friends and argue about family and friends....

Oh wait, we aren't getting together with family and friends this year, well at least more than three households in attendance and this year it is actually the Thanksgiving that I have been threatening everyone with for years:

Just the five of us, outside on the back patio 

"From an Architect's Table"

(of course we will have to move all of the things around because we are at the end of a construction project and it seemed that when we moved things around, they were all moved around to the back patio and covered with visqueen)  

So, I was trying to find a way to do a Holiday Gift List for the Woman (or Man) Architect in your life and I realized that the thing that most everyone probably wants is to go back to normal and just buy things on sale at the Friday after Thanksgiving sales, but how fun does standing outside of a store waiting in line to go in and buy those great deals for loved one's presents when we have already been standing in line outside of the stores to buy toilet paper, water and ingredients to make every baked good in the Silver Palate Cookbook?  

So, this year instead of just looking for items on the internet that I thought would make good gifts, I decided to ask the "Mothers in Architecture" group and on my personal Facebook and the EntreArchitect "Context and Clarity" group:

"Do you make or can you recommend any item that is made by a Woman and/or Architect that I can put on my list?"

Following is that List as well as a great  interview/podcast with Rosa Sheng, FAIA  

I was wondering how to describe the feelings that I might have about "Celebrating the Season after the last several months, I have been writing a blog for five years and doing interviews with architects the last three and so I decided to write ones that were for #WFH that was what I thought would be for one or two and then we would be "back to normal" like before, but twelve #WFH blogs/interviews later.... Then I read Rachel Preston Prinz's Calendar Backstory and I think it describes things pretty well. We as architects and as women are pretty resilient, we are holding up the world here, but let's go through these new gates of the future.  Here's to a New Year!!!

Ministry of Architecture: Gates of New Mexico Calendar

RACHEL PRESTON PRINZ

Director, The Ministry of Architecture 
(formerly Archinia + Architecture for EveryBody)

505-204-8177 | www.theministryofarchitecture.com | FB/IG: @archiministry

she/her/hers

Calendar story I had two surgeries during the pandemic. The first was the day before everything closed down, which we didn’t really know was coming. I knew I’d be down a while, but I didn’t know how hard that would be for this overachiever who runs both a for-profit and a non-profit... both of which went on hiatus when the Pandemic world seemed to stop turning. So I started going through my computer, to get ready to work on some projects I finally had time for. One of those was organizing my photos. I’d developed a bit of a fanbase for my Instagram Gates of New Mexico series, and several had asked if they could buy prints. Plus, for years, I’ve been taking tens of thousands of photos of architecture around New Mexico through my work in historic preservation, and I’d wanted to make a calendar of the images that people commented on the most. So I decided it was time… and hired Tricia English of UNUM Magazine to design a calendar. And, now… here we are! The other thing I got to do with this downtime was to raise a little bit of money to complete a microdocumentary on the kids with Rocky Mountain Youth Corps who are restoring Bandelier National Monument. In 2018, I was filming out there for a tv show about New Mexico architecture history, and as it happened, we got some great interviews with kids from Ohkay Owingeh , San Ildefonso, and Espanola who were working on the restoration. The main Bandelier site is a precursor pueblo to what we know today as Cochiti. The popular outlier – Tsankawi – near White Rock is a precursor Pueblo to San Ildefonso. And now kids from the local Pueblos were spending their summers out there doing restoration work… on sites that their ancestors built and farmed. And in their world, still are living and working on, just in a different plane of existence. Talking to these kids opened an extraordinary door into how they see themselves, and each other, in relation to the ancient and modern worlds. I couldn’t let that story lie. And now we are in final editing! Every bit of our work is New Mexico True… I am using my same team from our Acoma documentary, which ultimately became an Acoma Architecture curriculum…. and we are even using music from a young hip-hop artist from Ohkay Owingeh named G Precious! It’s extraordinary to get to help these kids tell their stories. I’m so excited

Folde Jewelry

Architect Terri Moore from Los Angeles makes this jewelry and I just think it is so beautiful!!!

Folde jewelry is about timeless design. Timelessness is a feature that describes pieces that get the details right so that they remain precise expressions of style and never look dated.  Folde achieves this by focusing on every angle and corner to acquire flawless proportions. When the details are taken care of, nothing is left to desire. In this way, timelessness compliments the project of sustainability by creating lasting objects whose relevance never fades.

runciblestudio Women of Architecture Greeting Cards

I have interviewed Marilyn Moedinger, AIA on my interview podcasts  She has her firm, "Runcible Studios" and has opened an Online Retail Shop and has some other Merchandise on it including t-shirts and masks.

Interview w/ Marilyn Moedinger, AIA click here

Art of Where Scarves by Sharon Turner

Sharon Turner is a graphic designer, artist, teacher and I have known her since we were in an architecture class in college together back when I was 17.... She won a competition to design a flag that was one of many others that won that were flown at Rockefeller Center in New York.  When they returned the flag, she decided that she would repurpose it instead of having it sit in a box in a closet.  

Dawn Zuber, AIA of her own architecture firm, Studio Z Architects creates her Earrings from beads and those little pieces that hold it all together, "nuts and wingnuts". 

Email her at: Dzuber@studiozarch.com.

Architect Benita Cooper in 
the JunoJones Black Meti Boot

                                                  

https://junojonesshoes.com/

Emily Soloby is the CEO of Juno Jones, a safety work boot made for women. She started the Kickstarter Campaign earlier this year and I was one of the funders which reached its goal and more in less than 29 hours, so buy Juno Jones Boots!!!

"Over the Edge"
Can anyone relate?

"Roskilde", Denmark, had to include it!

Yevgenia Watts, Architect Watercolors

Yevgenia Wattts is an architect, artist and  a regular collaborator on "EntreArchitect" "Context and Clarity., a Facebook group for Architects and daily "Architherapy" that started with hostest with the mostest Jeff Echols, Associate AIA who makes moderating this "Mini-Mastermind" group of Architects look easy as we navigate the waters of #WFH and Architecture in these trying times.  

Interview w/ Jeff Echols, Assoc. AIA, click here

Michelle Acosta's jewelry 

Architect in training Rhoda D. Miller's Business
Liquid Goldsmith

Rhoda D. Miller's "Liquid Goldsmith"

Liquid Goldsmith: Breast Milk Jewelry

Recommended by Michelle Acosta, this Breast Milk jewelry by another maker, with her son's lock of hair around it is in the top photo. She mentioned Liquid Goldsmith, which is 'fellow architect" Rhoda D. Miller's business and she makes the bottom two.  

Artesano Design by Claudia Godoy

Protective products for your important work tools!

 

dovetail workwear

rough and tumble design

The Original Hobo Pack

My intention is a blending of function driven design with our custom developed luxury materials. The Rough & Tumble core is informed by the very beginning. A time when I didn't carry a handbag and wondered what a bag that I would want to carry would feel like.

Virage Napa Valley (WOW: Woman0wned Winery)

Virage, a French word meaning 'a turn in the road,' or a change in perspective, reflects both our adoption of the Right-Bank blending tradition and the specific location of our early vineyards, located just above the turn in the road onto Hwy 29, before one travels upvalley into the warmer climes producing many brands of Cabernet Sauvignon. 

Virage founder Emily Richer discovered wine in culinary school at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in Napa Valley. Wine added another layer of flavor and inspiration for cooking and sharing meals with friends. The idea of wines as an expression of place creates a vehicle to access culture and travel the world--right in one's own kitchen. A farmer at heart, Emily is inspired by wines anchored in a place--and produces wine to share her discovery of those places.

From Emily Richer:

"The “mini-vertical” of Virage Right-bank Bordeaux blends is a great gift, 3pak. 

I’ve added a code “WOMAN” for the “Women’s 2020 Holiday Special” which offers a 15% discount, including the already-discounted bundles making the vertical only $127.84  https://www.viragenapavalley.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=BD3PKV  All three of these wines are rich, smooth, black-cherry ripe, layered, delicious.

 

The code works on the rest of the site, and the other bundles, too, including the 6pak of Rosé of CabFranc for $100 (so would be $85) 

 

Or mix/match to heart’s content."

Thank you Emily and we will!!!!

cool.haus

cool.haus gift-card/digital-gift-card/

Coolhaus is the leading women-founded and -led ice cream and frozen dessert brand creating premium cookie sandwiches and pints. Each dairy and dairy-free treat is thoughtfully crafted with the highest quality ingredients and creamiest texture. Coolhaus is best known for their uniquely innovative flavors and their modern twists on the classics!

Eat the Whale T-shirts 

Equity by Design T-Shirt

So, I was also able to interview Rosa Sheng, FAIA and we talk about architecture, #WFH and life in general during these times.  

Rosa T. Sheng, FAIA is Principal and Director of Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and SF Higher Education Studio Leader at SmithGroup. She is also the founder of Equity by Design [EQxD] and 2018 Past President of AIA San Francisco. Throughout the years, Rosa has led a variety of award-winning and internationally acclaimed projects, while launching a national movement for equitable practice, just and inclusive design outcomes in the built environment with a focus on higher education learning and space resources for student success. Rosa has delivered continuing educational programs and thought leadership outreach featured in Architect Magazine, Metropolis, Wall Street Journal, TEDxPhiladelphia, SxSW, KQED/NPR, and Cannes Lions. In 2019 she was recognized as a Metropolis Game Changer.

smithgroup website

Interview w/ Rosa Sheng, FAIA: click here

Books for 2020:

I joined the Architect's Book Club (ABC) on Facebook (which i encourage everyone to do because Jessica Parmenter is amazing to have started this about a year ago but it is probably really great for people now) but I have yet to read all of the books all the way through and as much as I would like to say that I am reading during this pandemic, I find that i am still reading more articles on Social Media or in Magazines than I have reading books, though I do skim and read chapters and bounce around in tomes (yes, I am that type of person) And no I have neither started nor finished any puzzle thus far.  

Just to tell you how weird things are now, I actually had a contractor text me a photo of a puzzle that he was doing.  It was of multi-colored yarn skeins...

SIDENOTE: I have not done any puzzles and I have been busy with a lot of work (but I am always looking for more!!!) but if I did have time to do any crafting, I would knit. I have always admired anyone's knitting now and I was looking at Carmen Stan's Instagram and wondering if I could fit it into my schedule.  She is not selling her knitting but she said that I could post her Instagram.

Brown Sheep Knitting

@s_carmyy Carmen P. Stan, Architect

@weareknitters

And my grandmother taught me how to knit so I have wonderful memories from that... and still have throws (formerly called afghans and sweaters from her)

Back to the Books! However, I am super excited that I now have archifriends who are actually writing their own books and I am trying to read theirs (or at least read several pages....) 

                                                                

NPR Interview w/ Alexandra Lange

The Design of Childhood: How the Material World Shapes Independent Kids

This is a repeat of last year, but sometimes I just think that it needs to be restated. Alexandra Lange is an architectural critic, well recognized and a regular contributor to Curbed, etc. and I follow her on Twitter and Instagram. I have not read this book yet, however I read the forward and she mentioned a book "Belles on their Toes" that my mother had read and passed it on to me to read as a child so long ago and it truly resonated with me as to how much it might have prepared me for the last 2 1/2 years of my personal and professional life. I asked her if she would sign her book if people sent it to her and she graciously accepted. One can email her about that at alexandra.lange@gmail.com

Urban Experience And Design: Contemporary Perspectives on Improving the Public Realm

YouTube video of Modern Architecture and PTSD

My friend and fellow Archimom and Author Ann Sussman has written a couple of books and though sometimes controversial in nature, I encourage you to read the scientific theories behind one's preference for traditional versus modern forms and composition in architecture and how the mind reacts to different spaces.  

"Breaking Ground" review by Mimi Zeiger

"Breaking Ground: Architecture by Women" by Jane Hall. Personally, I disagree with a lot of the things that Ms. Zeiger brings up in her review (coming up with a list of books about women architects for men architects asking notwithstanding) Mostly about the cover, I think this cover is not the greatest as far as contemporary book covers, it just is wrong on so many levels but whatever,  the first being that orange on red is never a good choice as it is barely readable and is that more of a statement here than I think??? But I think that it is probably a good book to become acquainted with women architects.

The Complete Zaha Hadid (Expanded and Updated) Expanded and Updated Edition

I selected this book because Zaha Hadid is the author and like many women architects, I feel that her architecture should be explained in her own words as opposed to those that someone else has chosen for her.  I met Aaron Betsky four years ago and we had dinner in the dining room at Taliesin West with my friend Tim Andreas, guest speaker Julie Eizenberg and several others. I have been there several times and  every time has been magical, especially if you are there at night.

Zaha Hadid: Little People, BIG DREAMS

For all of those little women (and men) architects out there.

The Little Architect's Alphabet: Learning your letters through design 

What Archimom hasn't thought about writing a child's book but didn't have time because they were too busy doing all of the things that are involved with giving birth to or adopting and raising a child?  Well here's Lora Teagarden's book to make it easier.  I haven't looked at it and my kids have moved on to Frank Lloyd Wright's Correspondence with Clients but here it is, buy a copy!  

carolina herrera White Suit Jacket

carolina herrera White Suit Pants

Yes, it is sold out in every size for a good reason, but I think you all know why...  

A gift for yourself: Buy yourself a white suit and wear it, or maybe as I would, probably an off white one... or frankly any color if you don't have one.  I have several and I work out of my house but I especially feel like right now, we need to get a suit so that we can just get out of our yoga pants (or Gap overalls, lol!!!!) and get a suit on and wear it around the house!!!

Or you can buy my T-shirts, Camis, Panties, and Onesies.

I've never met a woman architect before... T-shirts, Camis, Panties, Tees for Kids and Onesies for Babies

Volvo XC 90 Recharge Hybrid

Volvo Car Subscription

I have to say that if I had the money, I would buy a new vehicle.  However, one of my friends was an auto group controller and you know what?   Everything he bought when he started to work at the dealerships was used or "pre-owned".  So, while the 2021 model above is listed at $65k, the 2016 model (which for Volvo that rarely changes the model, compared to some other manufacturers, it is a way better deal at 

2017 Volvo XC90 T5 Momentum .  

Or you can find a 2002 Volvo V70 for $2500 on Craiglist and put in about $1,000/year in maintenace, but if you listen to my stepfather...

"A car is not an investment, it is a consumable item..." and you get over that pretty fast when the car payments would still be $614/month for five years paying $36,840 for a car that by that time will be worth under 10 grand.

So, in light of the current situation, 

Doesn't that make you feel better?

It does me, because that friend who was an auto group controller and retired, he might have a newer car, but he always wanted to be an architect.

This year's "Feel Good Contribution" is towards the Architects Foundation Diversity Advancement Scholarship. The Custom Residential Architects Network is one of the sponsors of which I am the chair of the AIA San Diego Chapter. Rosa Sheng and I are recommending that you donate to this worthy cause this year.  

architects foundation diversity advancement scholarship

And if you wanted to look at the previous year's, here are the links to those:

"I;ve never met a woman architect before... Holiday Gift List 2019

"I've never met a woman architect before..." Holiday Gift List 2018

"I've never met a woman architect before..." Holiday Gift List 2017

Ok Everyone Have a Happy Holiday!!!!