Elevated Conversations: Melody Tang, AIA, and Ryan Jang, AIA

{"version":"0.3.0","atoms":[],"cards":[],"markups":[["em"],["a",["href","https:\/\/lpadesignstudios.com\/","target","_new"]],["a",["href","https:\/\/www.lmsarch.com\/","target","_new"]],["a",["href","https:\/\/www.aia.org\/resources\/6478884-2022-aia-young-architects-award","target","_new"]],["b"],["a",["href","https:\/\/www.hok.com\/","target","_new"]]],"sections":[[1,"p",[[0,[0],0,"AIA\u2019s\nnew series, Elevated Conversations, will feature architects\nfrom diverse backgrounds and their perspectives on their career paths, changes they\u2019ve seen in the profession,\nthe importance of diversity and inclusion, and more. To celebrate Asian\nAmerican and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Elevated Conversations\u0027 inaugural\narticle features two prominent young architects, Melody Tang, AIA, project architect and associate at "],[0,[1],1,"LPA Design Studios\u2019"],[0,[],0," Irvine, California,\noffice and Ryan Jang, AIA, principal\nat "],[0,[2],1,"Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects"],[0,[],0," in San Francisco. Both Tang and\nJang are honorees of the "],[0,[3],1,"2022 AIA Young Architects Award."],[0,[],1," "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[4],1,"What inspired you to become an architect? "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[4],1,"Melody Tang"],[0,[],0,": When I was little, I loved everything to do\nwith being creative. I loved drawing, crafting, writing, music, everything that\nhad to do with \u201cartsy-ness.\u201d I had parents who looked at that and said, \u201cWell, we don\u2019t want you to be a starving artist.\u201d In high school\nthey encouraged me to put my interests to use in a practical way and they\nsuggested that I look into architecture as a way to blend my interest in art\nand my technical skills. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"And of course, I loved playing with Legos as a\nkid, which I think many architects did. I used to set up these imaginary environments\nfor my dolls to live in, and [my parents] took that as a sign that [architecture would] be a good career for me to pursue. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[4],1,"Ryan Jang"],[0,[],0,": I really didn\u2019t know what I wanted to do\nwith my life, but at the high school that I went to, you had to choose a visual\nor performing art as an elective. I didn\u2019t think I was very artistic, but I saw\na class called \u201cArt and Architecture\u201d and I thought, \u201c How hard can that be?\u201d "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"I\nsigned up for it and the teacher, Hugh Aanonsen, was an older architect who\njust happened to be a great teacher, a great mentor, and\na great inspiration to follow in that path. So that class that I chose on a\nwhim, in combination with an internship program that paired high school\nstudents with different professionals to shadow for six weeks during the\nsummer, inspired me to go to college for\narchitecture. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[4],1,"Who was your role model or mentor when you were studying\narchitecture? "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[4],1,"MT"],[0,[],0,":\nWhen I went to school at Cornell, one of my biggest role models was a student a\nfew years ahead of me named Jerome Garciano. He acted like a big brother to me\nand helped me get acclimated to the very demanding environment of the design\nstudio. That\u2019s so important for young people; there\u2019s a high attrition rate for people\nentering design school and it\u2019s extremely taxing mentally, physically, and\nemotionally due to the long hours and the brutal critique sessions. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Having someone who went through the whole thing, who had the\nfull perspective, and was able to give me advice and encouragement \u2013 he even\ngifted me his drafting supplies after he graduated\u2014that was valuable to me. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[4],1,"RJ"],[0,[],0,": I had several wonderful professors at\nCalifornia Polytechnic State University. [Students] spend a lot of time in the studio environment\nwith professors and [stay] with them\nfor a long time. This gave me an opportunity to get to know our\nprofessors well and develop strong relationships. Tom di Santo was a great role\nmodel when I took his class. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"At my internship at "],[0,[5],1,"HOK"],[0,[],0," I worked with Thomas Pippin. He\u2019s\nstill an architect now and was probably only in his twenties then. He was just\nthe coolest guy I could imagine as an 18-year-old. He made\narchitecture look so cool and I appreciated his time and willingness to help me\nalong. I\u2019ve been lucky to have great people show me there are possibilities in\narchitecture that I just wasn\u2019t aware of. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[4],1,"What advice do you have for young people looking to\nbecome architects? "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0," "],[0,[4],1,"RJ"],[0,[],0,": Get your hands dirty and jump right in, and I\nmean that literally. Some of the best advice I got was to work in construction\nor on construction sites to see how the\nbuildings that we design are actually built. Seeing the ways in which they\nphysically come together will make\nyou a better architect. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Jump into community organizing and engagement in the\ncommunities that we\u2019re a part of. Get involved in our neighborhoods and\npolitics because the buildings we design are inherently political. One thing I\nlove about architecture is that it really is a generalist profession at its\nheart. As architects we\u2019re called upon to wear a wide variety of hats and\nreally think about the details, but also\nto look at the broader scale and the big idea of whatever it is we\u2019re currently\nworking on."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Embracing all of these ideas as a generalist is really\nimportant, but also one of the most fun parts of the job. It makes every day a little bit\ndifferent. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[4],1,"MT"],[0,[],0,": Be open to learning from every experience and\nstay humble and curious. I find that a lot of young people in this profession\nare very ambitious, and I think that\u2019s a generational thing. There\u2019s a sense of\nurgency where [young] people feel as though they need to succeed very quickly and\nclimb the ladder immediately, but there\u2019s so much learning in the field. You\nhave to have knowledge in so many areas and it\u2019s hard to become good very\nquickly. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"There\u2019s no replacing the time that it takes to collect\nlayers and layers of knowledge. It\u2019s not just technical knowledge, but you need\nto have a lot of soft skills that require years to learn. You need to be able\nto communicate, negotiate, deal with difficult situations, and lead your team\nthrough the entire building process, including working with contractors,\nclients, tradespeople, consultants, and many others. It takes a lot of people\nskills and those aren\u2019t things you learn how to do in school. Have patience, be\nhumble and continue to learn. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[4],1,"Why is diversity especially important in\narchitecture? "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[4],1,"MT"],[0,[],0,": I think there\u2019s two different responses to this. One is, \u201cWhy is diversity important for our clients?\u201d\nand the other is, \u201cWhy is diversity important for us?\u201d "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"From our clients\u2019 perspectives, architects can prove our\nvalue by reflecting the demographics of the people we\u2019re serving. If a firm\nshows up to a meeting with a potential client and no one on the design team\nlooks or acts anything like them, how are they going to be convinced that we\ncan relate to them or understand their cultural context? It\u2019s not always tied\nto race or ethnicity, but it might be tied to socioeconomic or religious or\npolitical backgrounds. There\u2019s tons of ways to be diverse. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"And why is diversity important to us as architects?\nMentoring a more diverse pipeline of young professionals to grow up into future\nleaders will help us become better at what we do. If everyone leading a firm\nlooks, acts, or thinks the same way you\u2019re not going to get a lot of\ngroundbreaking or innovative ideas. You will miss out on a whole new realm of\npossibilities by going in a different direction. An increase in diversity will\nhelp architects continue to innovate. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[4],1,"RJ"],[0,[],0,": Having people of different backgrounds will inevitably lead to having different perspectives. Those\ndiverse perspectives will make our buildings stronger and better. At our best,\nwe as architects can design authentically for the communities that we serve. In\norder to create or design a building that reflects its community, the people\nthat are working on the design of those buildings must be diverse. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"I\nwas born and raised in San Francisco, but further back my\nfamily were immigrants to the Bay Area. For me, my journey has been one of exploring issues such as\nbelonging. What does it mean to belong to a place, to a community, to a firm,\nor to any given social group? "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"In thinking about the idea of belonging I\u2019ve become more\nself-aware when I\u2019m designing a building, by thinking about who I am designing\nfor and thinking about how I can help design a sense of welcome into all of our\nbuildings. Hopefully diversity can help lead to an authentic representation of\nthe communities that we serve. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[4],1,"What are some of the biggest changes in the field of\narchitecture since you started your career? "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[4],1,"RJ"],[0,[],0,": When I was in school and starting my career, so\nmuch of the conversation about architecture was around style and aesthetics; this style of architecture versus the next.\nI\u2019m pleased that it seems like we\u2019ve moved beyond that. Instead of focusing\nsimply on how a building looks, it feels like we\u2019re thinking more and more\nabout other topics related to the built environment such as environmental sustainability,\nresilience and a reduced carbon footprint. \n"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"There\u2019s\nmore of a conversation about how buildings reflect the diversity of the\ncommunity that they serve, and how they can be welcoming places. I appreciate\nthat topics like building performance and inclusion are prominent. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"The practice of architecture seems to be moving on from this\nidea of singular authorship, beyond the idea that the boss is sketching things\non a napkin and giving it to others to see through to completion. Things have\ngotten more sophisticated; the buildings\nwe design require a more collaborative approach that incorporates a variety of\nvoices and perspectives. It makes the design of these buildings richer and fuller\nthan if they were designed by a single person. \n"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[4],1,"MT"],[0,[],0,": There\u2019s been an increase in the amount of\npaperwork and documentation that\u2019s required to get a building from the design\nphases all the way through plan check and then construction, which feels like a\nreflection of the increasingly complicated world we find ourselves in. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"But in general, there seems to be more diversity in terms of\nracial and gender dynamics, which keeps me hopeful for the profession. There\nare certainly a lot more opportunities for people who don\u2019t look like the\nmajority\u2014what people generally think of as architects\u2014which is older white men. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"There\u2019s still a lot of room for improvement in terms of\nequity. The beginning stages of the pipeline are diverse; there\u2019s more\ndiversity in terms of people entering the field, whether they\u2019re studying\narchitecture or they\u2019re hired in entry level positions. But when you look at\nfirm principals, that area is still lacking in diversity. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[4],1,"If you had a magic wand, what would you change or improve\nabout the field of architecture? "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[4],1,"RJ"],[0,[],0,": Our profession doesn\u2019t have as much of a\ndiversity of perspectives or backgrounds as we\u2019d all like. It\u2019s hard to change\nthat. It takes a long time for curious\nhigh school students to become practicing professionals. The pipeline takes a long time to build. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"When people ask why the profession isn\u2019t more diverse, the\nclassic answer is that it takes a long time, but to me that\u2019s a poor excuse. We\nneed to give people with different backgrounds a reason to stay in architecture\nby showing that they provide value to clients, by proving that they can be\ntrusted advisors and confidants and experts in their field. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[4],1,"MT"],[0,[],0,": There are so many things we could improve,\nbut one thing that has stuck out recently is that people don\u2019t really\nunderstand the value of what we do, and I\u2019d like to fix that. The general public\nmight have an idea put into their heads by popular culture, but that often\nleads to cost-cutting, which can lead to lower morale and burnout. As\narchitects, I think we can do a better job of communicating our value as\nproblem solvers, as people who have a wealth of knowledge in a bunch of fields\nof study. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"I\ntruly think we have a unique ability to come up with creative solutions to\ndifferent problems, such as the day-to-day problems that clients see in their lives -- in their homes or their workplace or their kids\u0027 schools. But\nif you blow that up to a bigger scale, I think we have the unique skills to\naddress some of the bigger challenges that society faces like climate change\nand equity. Architects bring a lot to the table. We\nhave so much to offer, and I\u2019d like to ensure that the public can see\nthat. "]]],[1,"p",[]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"\n"]]]]}