This week's episode features a conversation between me and Katherine Williams. We discuss her journey into architecture and construction, Riding the Vortex, and the importance of creating a support system to navigate life and the profession.
Building Highlight - Cedar Hill, Frederick Douglass' home in Washington, DC
"Historic buildings rarely survive generations by accident. Someone made a choice, or in the case of the Douglass Home, a whole lot of women made a whole lot of choices over decades."
- NPS website on Cedar Hill
Links:
Bio: Katherine Williams, AIA, NOMA, LEED AP is a licensed architect in Northern Virginia and currently a Senior Project Manager for construction at a DC university. Her career path includes work in traditional architecture firms, community development, and managing commercial construction for a general contractor. She restarted the Black Women in Architecture brunch in DC, an annual event, co-founded the Desiree Cooper ARE Scholarship, and is a founding panelist for Riding the Vortex.
Katherine has written about architecture and development and served as editor for multiple publications. She was the NOMA magazine editor from 2009-2014. In 2020, Katherine published Melvin Mitchell’s book African American Architects: Embracing Culture and Building Urban Communities.
Katherine served as chair of the AIA Housing and Community Development KC advisory group and currently serves on the AIA Continuing Education Committee. She is a board member of the Village of Love and Resistance (VOLAR) working to build a co-operative community in east Baltimore. Katherine was an Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellow in San Francisco. She received the 2016 AIA Virginia Emerging Professionals award and the 2013 National Organization of Minority Architects President’s Award. She writes at katherinerw.com and is publisher/editor for archstories.com and bwa-network.com. She is also one of the recipients of the 2021 Whitney M. Young Award from the American Institute of Architecture.
**This episode is sponsored by www.Smartsheet4architects.com, a better way to manage architecture projects.**
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