The Architecture of Learning - Gabriella Bermea (S2-04)

In this episode, we're joined by Gabriella Bermea, a proud Tejana Architect, who shares her passion for architecture and K-12 education. The discussion highlights her commitment to mentorship, involvement in the architectural community, and the challenges of project management due to rising costs.

The conversation explores Gabriella's insights into effective design principles for educational settings, the integration of music and creativity into architecture, and the critical role of mentorship in professional growth. She also discusses strategies for community engagement in school projects and building strong client relationships.

Perfect for aspiring architects, educators, project managers, and anyone interested in the intersection of design, education, and community development.
Listen to gain insights from Gabriella's expertise in K-12 architecture and her dedication to the field!

Connect and learn more about our fantastic guest:

Gabriella’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriella-bermea-aia/

Perkins Eastman Website: https://www.perkinseastman.com/

At ENHANCE, we’re dedicated to uncovering the “why” of industry professionals and sharing their unique stories.

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Thank you for your support, and God bless!

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Transcript

0:01 - Andy
So what did you think of the episode?

0:04 - Andy
I thought it was great. I enjoyed having Gabby on, Gabriela, and she's from Texas. So this is our first time into the Western part of the country, really our second time out of South Carolina. So I'm glad that we had somebody, it was an architect, and we talked a lot about schools, about K-12, but I could tell the passion that she had for what she does came right through. What did you think?

0:28 - Madeline
I thought it was interesting. And she talked about, you threw the curveball, and she talked about music and how, you know, she grew up and she did the choir, which is something I can relate to. I also liked how she kind of slipped the script on you, and when she was talking about three E's in her, what was it?

0:48 - Andy
It's called the NCARB, which is an architectural organization.

0:51 - Madeline
Okay, and how she was talking about how they have three E's, which I don't remember what they were, but...

0:57 - Andy
Right. Well, one was education, experience, and something else.

1:00 - Madeline
Yeah, and then you said, well, I have my 60s, and she flipped it, and she said, well, tell me about them. Yeah. So that was really interesting.

1:08 - Andy
Yeah, it was fun. And then I flipped it back, because obviously the last one was Enhance, and I asked her, you know, how does she enhance the world? You could tell she had a passion for not just her practice of architecture and designing schools and what she does, which is, I could tell, very important to her. But also giving back through the organization she's a part of And you could tell that was important to her.

1:34 - Madeline
Yeah.

1:35 - Andy
So, yeah, I guess without going into it further, let's let her speak for herself. My name is Andy Richardson. I'm a structural engineer. I've been doing this 26 years and I'm still learning so much about the AEC industry. We're here to learn the why of AEC professionals so that you can learn your why. I've got my, and I've also got my assistant and producer Madeline here with me as well. So she's here to provide joy and bubbliness, but let's jump to the intro.

2:09 - Madeline
Welcome to Enhance, an AEC podcast where we learn the why behind AEC professionals so that you can learn your why.

2:19 - Andy
Hey, Gabriela. Good to have you on the Enhanced Podcast today.

2:24 - Gabriella
Thanks for having me. I really appreciate being here. I really do.

2:28 - Andy
Yeah. Yeah. So it's going to be exciting talking about architecture, K-12 schools, and everything else. By the way, do you prefer Gabriela or Gabby?

2:37 - Gabriella
Gabby is usually, yeah, part of the brand. Gabriela is always good to introduce with, and then I'll get into Gabby after that. Okay. Yeah.

2:46 - Andy
I love the name, by the way, Gabriela. I may call you that. Cool.

2:51 - Gabriella
That's good on YouTube.

2:53 - Andy
So yeah, I usually like to do just an opener question to break the ice. So I want to know, are you somebody, as you're working on architecture buildings and designing schools, do you prefer a quiet room?

3:09 - Gabriella
Do you prefer music or a podcast? Oh, so it depends. If it's something that is, if I'm detailing, I am really in the weeds. I'm trying to figure out the design of maybe a roof section or roof detail I'll have kind of like lo-fi music playing something that keeps me in the zone but if it is the initial parts of a design or we're getting into bubble diagramming and I'm interpreting what Yeah, have been client notes before they get on paper Very bouncy creative music as much as possible to kind of build a lively energy So I kind of just tune it based on what? What phase of design we're in. It's been really helpful.

3:50 - Andy
Yeah, awesome. And any particular bands or anything that you listened to during that bubbly phase?

3:57 - Gabriella
Oh, goodness. So I have really, really been a fan of Gracie Binyon right now, B-I-N-I-O-N. Fantastic artist, just great vocalist. I love, I appreciate good music. I did a lot of music in high school. Which kind of influenced my path into architecture. But gosh, any good vocalist has got me. That's the bubbly phase, for sure. Yeah, awesome.

4:24 - Andy
And by the way, today we have another guest, or my producer. My producer, Madeline, is in studio today. So she might jump in and say hi or something. So just wanted to let you know if you hear Madeline, that's who that is. She helps keep me on path. So you have a music background. Was there an instrument that you played in high school? Yeah.

4:49 - Gabriella
When I was growing up, I was really invested in choir. Ironically, High School Musical came out around the time I was making a big move. We moved from the border up to North Texas. So musicals, I just got fully ingrained in them. I thought it was the coolest thing. And there was a really great fine arts program at the high school. Middle school I went to in Northeast Texas. And I joined the choir. And then after that, my parents got me piano lessons with someone who lived down the street. So I do that as my instrument. And then kind of continued on with that in college. So I do play both. I sing and I play. And it's a great creative relief. It's always good to have that. Right now, my hobbies are in the geriatric millennial style of crocheting and sewing. Good things. That I wish I would have learned in school, but use with your adult time.

5:45 - Andy
It's fun. Yeah, I love that. I mean, it seems like it's taken a full circle back to those hobbies.

5:53 - Andy
Yes, exactly.

5:54 - Andy
I think we need that to have that sort of cathartic type of release after a long day of doing roof sections and bubble diagrams, as you were describing earlier.

6:06 - Gabriella
Agreed. It's nice to see. I think that's one of the miraculous things about architecture, truly, where you put something on paper and it turns into something real. You get the same at the scale of maybe a little crochet stuffed animal, or a blanket, or a quilt. It's just this idea of something that goes from idea to reality that can be implemented at any scale.

6:32 - Andy
Yeah, awesome. So sometimes I just kind of keep going down a path. I'm curious. And by the way, this is the Enhanced Podcast. We focus on enhancing the world around us. I'm an engineer, but actually we interview everybody in the AEC industry, architects, engineers, contractors. So anybody involved in the AEC community that is interested in enhancing the world around us. So the reason I mention all that is I might ask some questions know, like for example, I was going to ask you what a bubble diagram is. So, you know, understand, you know, maybe have some engineers or contractors or even other architects that are new, like a new architect out of school. So, what is a bubble diagram? What does that mean exactly?

7:18 - Gabriella
And how do you use that? Yeah, at its core, it's essentially saying here are program elements. These are spaces that are needed by the client or asked for by the client. And they've given us, I need, in school specific, A security vestibule, my administration needs to be broken out into a dean suite, into a counselor suite, into a principal suite. I need somewhere for my main classrooms to go. I need somewhere for my cafeteria and kitchen, my heart of the school. And then what we do from there is we say, okay, at its base level, what needs to connect to where? Is this a primary adjacency? Is this a secondary adjacency? And we kind of use bubbles to plan those out There's nothing hard-lined about it. It's really just identifying where do you need to get from space A to space B? What does that administrative space, what does it need to overlook? What's the experience that you want a student to come into? Do you want them to come straight into a classroom or straight into what becomes the heart of a school? And what is identified? Is that a library? Is that a cafeteria space? Is that a courtyard? And you have the opportunity to define these at a very base level to where you get the general understanding of what the client's needs are, what the student's needs are. Again, I'm speaking K-12 biased as an architect on that in that practice, but it's a great it's a great way to show how the pieces all move together in a very flexible manner.

8:45 - Andy
Right, yeah, that sounds really interesting and create, I mean, that seems like, is that one of your favorite parts of design?

8:53 - Gabriella
Yeah, genuinely, my reason for and architecture is just a want to serve others. And that's the way I see the world and the way that I'm fortunate enough to give back is helping people's ideas and asks and needs turn into a real thing. So the bubble diagram is one of the main strategies to get us there, to get us to that point. My background has been in design throughout, and now I'm moving into design and project management a bit more in the consistency of client relationships. At the end of the day that when people's eyes light up because you got it right, that's the best part. That's the best part about being an architect.

9:33 - Andy
Yeah, that's awesome. I mean, that sounds like an important part of doing your job. If you could just keep that in mind throughout the whole project, it seems like that would be a good goal to reach, right? To have that smile at the end.

9:50 - Gabriella
us get there. You just got to ask the right ones and have the experience in it and have really good mentors that guide you to that path.

10:01 - Andy
Yeah. Was there any important mentors in your life to get you started on this path?

10:07 - Gabriella
And then also, who's helping you currently with that? Yeah, absolutely. So I grew up on the border in Eagle Pass, Texas, very small town. It's sister city is Piedras. When I was 12, we moved to Northeast Texas, to Texarkana, and that's really where I was exposed to architecture through a high school class. I was in a STEM program. It was a first STEM program kind of in the region at Texas High School and with Texarkana ISD. And there was a six-week module for architecture. I was like, okay, well, this sounds cool. I knew engineering was kind of where Actually, that's where I thought I wanted to go. I knew I had aptitude towards it. My parents knew it, not through their profession, but said, well, engineers. And engineers make the world, right? So why don't you jump into that? I think that would be good. And through that course, I was able to refine those asks into an architectural course and learned that. And my first mentor in this space was my architecture teacher, Mr. Mack, George McKesson. He still teaches at Texas High School in the same course. And he was just so encouraging. He had industrial engineering background and said, but hey, look, I've done plans for houses before. I can start to take you down this path and expose you to what architecture could be. So he would leave books. He would give me web links. He would tell me, like, here are accredited architecture programs, which is its own thing. And he helped me walk. To that path. My family then was able to visit UT schools of architecture and then University of Arkansas. I ended up moving to Austin and now I practice in Austin, but it was a great experience to be in Fayetteville for five years. When I was in university, the mentorship changed again. I had the opportunity to connect with professors. I had a very difficult time my first couple years in school to really understand, to do the mind shift what architect what design thinking was and what I thought architecture was right I was in a very CAD minded okay well I know how to do CAD I have an idea of what Revit is I can make something that looks like a building to go into your first year of school and then be asked sit on the ground get out your charcoal and let's sketch out the light and darkness of these three stools that are stacked on top of each other and you're surrounded by a hundred other people And I was like, fish out of water. What am I doing here? Did I sign up for the right class? Is this what I'm actually supposed to be doing? And I had an affinity to the arts, but not the artistic skill. And we had a very different setup, where everyone would put up their drawings, and they'd say, OK, who's the best and who's not the best? Maybe, like, who's the worst? And mine were constantly on the chopping block, I think, like dance moms, where you're at the bottom of the pyramid. And that was pretty funny. It was very frustrating, especially when you're used to having this idea that academia at school has always been easy. It has always come easy. You've done the hard work, and then you get it. But when you go into a subjective field like architecture, it is difficult. It's difficult to hear, you're not. You've got a long way to go, right? And it took a college professor, as I continued on, to say, you have a place here. You have a place here. Those skills that you have. Learned in school are still applicable today. And your ability to connect with others is going to be a big part in your architectural process in your career. So don't give up. And that was John Belkins. He was a fantastic professor in my comprehensive year studio and in my fifth year. I had him like three years in a row. But it was a connection point for me that said, there's space. We got to keep going. And then going into the profession I've had a number of incredible mentors in all kind of aspects of design. I worked at a really great K-12 firm when I first started Stantec. There was Tom Ehler, Christy Bickel, Shivani Langer. All of them now work at other firms, but they were instrumental to how I saw the practice of architecture. And one was a sustainability specialist. One was one of the most incredible project architects I've ever worked with. And one had been growing grow in the office since before I was born in Austin. Right. So he had a longstanding client relationship ability. And what I can say has been so key about staying ingrained with those three remarkable humans throughout my my architecture journey, even though we haven't always worked with each other. Right. We've gone to different firms and then came back. It has been incredible to see the fingerprints of all the people who you work with, work with on on a day-to-day basis in how you practice now, right? And one of their remarks was always take the good and then if there's something that you don't like, turn it into something that you are, right? It doesn't have to look, I think that's the best part about mentorship is when it turns into a nurturing and truly a, let me support you to not look like me and how I practice, but rather turn that into your own scape and your own leadership capabilities within the field, within the profession. And that was really, it was a turning point for me in how I mentor others as well. The last thing you want to do is have carbon copies of every person, right? No, you want to show those skills enough so that they withstand on their own and they can stand on your shoulders and do even better. I also have a number of mentors within this space. Outside of the work, there is the volunteer scape, whether that's through nonprofit volunteer service like with the Education Foundation and Linda Medina Lopez who's our executive director. She's an incredible resource for me when it comes to the nonprofit space within Austin and staying ingrained in the community and then of course our mentors at the state board level whether that's NCARB leadership like Martin Smith or it is our my TXA leadership and Jennifer Briggs or my current president Jason Pusho or Kristen Hacker. So you get this chance to learn from everyone whether that is a vertical mentorship or you're mentoring others or there's a horizontal there's something to learn from everyone and it's so valuable.

16:37 - Andy
Right I mean it sounds like you've had incredible people around you to help you out and get ahead so that's that's really awesome to hear and it sounds like you really are embracing the idea of helping others as well so that's really cool to hear. But I am curious about the K-12, because that's been a focus of yours, really, for your career. Was there anything about K-12 that you just wanted to do, or is it just, hey, I kind of got into this and I kept going?

17:09 - Gabriella
Or like, how did that go about? Yeah, so my first internship with Stantec was phenomenal, right? For some context, my mom was a teacher. She was a teacher, now she's in Special Education Administration. But teaching was my path not taken. I enjoyed it so much when I was in school. I did, like I volunteer taught. I taught at our martial arts studio. I did tutorials for people in our classes. And then same in college. I kept that same momentum. There was always this want to engage in education in some way. But when I took the architectural path, I thought, well, probably not going to get the chance to see those pieces come together. And sure enough, when I got my first internship, what they specialized in was in K-12 education. So that was the happy accident of it all. When I got in, because the firm I had applied for, Stantec is a global firm, so they did everything. I didn't know specifically that Austin did K-12. But then when I landed, it turned out a number of those architects had actually worked on projects that I lived in. They worked on the Sullivan Performing Arts Center at Texas High, which was the same place I played piano recitals and vocal recitals in. And I was actually in some of the rendering photos, like the actual project photos. And I'm like, I should be on this K-12 path. This is exactly where I'm supposed to be, right? And then the first thing I was brought into was a project interview, and then a high school project, and a middle school project. And the moment I got to go into the recording room and see communities engaged, thought, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. Then I've gone to different firms since then. So I was at Stantec, and then for four years was in a Texas-based K-12 firm for another four years. And then now I am a senior associate and project manager at Perkins Eastman, which is a global K-12. It's a global firm, but really I came for their K-12 and research capabilities. Has been phenomenal.

19:14 - Andy
Yeah, that's awesome. So, have you ever designed anything besides schools? Actually, yes.

19:20 - Gabriella
So, I did an adjacent facility with a nonprofit partner at schools called Communities in Schools, sure enough. They're an incredible nonprofit that goes into campuses and meets students with counseling and mental health services, as well as a food pantry, and just administrative needs not only for students, but for staff as well. And I had the really amazing opportunity to work as a designer, as a lead designer for a new office administrative building for communities and schools in Tarrant County. And that was so wonderful because it was a adjacent program to schools, but still there was such a heart for the community in it that it's in that same vein of this is who we're doing it for. Community, it's for our students, but it was a broader community than K-12 alone.

20:14 - Andy
Yeah, so I mean really even when you don't work on schools, you're providing these adjacent aspects. Yes, right, right.

20:21 - Gabriella
Which is cool.

20:22 - Andy
So speaking of cool, is there any cool jobs or interesting projects that you're working on right now that you could talk about? Yeah, absolutely.

20:32 - Gabriella
So we, I was actually right before this, we're putting some scheduling together to prep for at groundbreaking. Right now I'm working on Palmer High School, which is a historic high school in Colorado Springs in D11. So I'm based in Austin, but I travel quite a bit out there with our associate architect, RTA Architects, and they're phenomenal. That is an exceptional project. It's an IB, it's an international baccalaureate. So for curricula, it has a different mode of learning, which is also a really cool part of design, is getting to actually dive into those educational models and ask, how does space support it? But this high school is for 1,300 students in the middle of downtown. There are a number of trips that we have taken to kind of expose the community to this great work that can happen with a downtown partnership. What does a high school look like when it becomes a civic building? So we toured a number of Perkins Eastman landmark K through 12 projects that are in DC, like Alexandria High and Banneker High School and that are modeled on the same IB model or significant connections with career and technical education. And to see a community see that and become fired up and engaged, we brought that energy back to Colorado Springs and are now in the middle of design. We are actually a week away from our schematic design submittal dates, right? So you can tell where we are in the process, still pretty early on, but it has been, it's been fantastic. Working on a larger team that's not only, I mean, we cover four different time zones across our project teams, across the Perkins Eastman and RTA project teams, but our contractor, our consultant partners, Adolphson and Peterson, and then again, our consultants and our D11 team and the Palmer community have been so engaged. I worked on a number of comprehensive high schools. This is my sixth comprehensive high school I've gotten the chance to work on. I've never had one that's in the middle of a downtown. So it is so exciting. It's been a learning experience for me as well, where most of my high school experience is in Texas, to learn how Colorado approaches education and how each community is so nuanced. But at the end of the day, they're all asking for the same thing. They're asking for the best solution for their students, for their community. And you get the chance to design for the next 100 years. And it puts the pressure on to get it right. And that's what we're hoping to do through the process.

23:08 - Andy
I mean, that's really interesting that just the locale you're in, it sounds like more of a suburban or rural area even, would you say, that you've practiced in typically?

23:19 - Gabriella
Yeah, so typically where a lot of my clients have been is in the suburbs, in the fast-growth school districts that have a lot of land and this opportunity to do something grand, to do something that is usually the second high school in a district. I think three of the six have been second high schools. And it's so impactful because you're working with the Texas landscape, which is all on its own, its own powerhouse. I mean, it's so beautiful to work with the Hill Country. It truly is. And then you get the opportunity to go from the Hill Country to Pikes Peak working in the mountains and you have this breathtaking view of the mountains and at the end of the day with what the connection is across is yes we have these large buildings that are going to last a lifetime but however how in that response are we respecting the terrain that we're on or respecting the land that we're on is that through different site mitigations it's working hand in hand with our civil engineers and our landscape and our landscape architects. It's ensuring that when we are accounting for daylighting and views that we're using responsible orientations and the right kind of daylight mitigations to minimize glare. So that's been a blast to see those aspects no matter where you practice, no matter where you get the chance to design, there are these core principles that teach us how to design right.

24:50 - Andy
Yeah, I mean I think about challenges when I was in school. It's like, especially growing up in the 80s, I mean, architecture is a lot different now, it seems. Sure. And looking at some of the schools, it's just like, how can people go into that school for eight hours a day, and yet you have an opportunity to make these interesting—you're talking about light, and, you know, a lot of times I was in these classrooms that had very little light.

25:18 - Gabriella
Or if it did, it's like you mentioned, you have this sun that's directly on you and how can you so how do you how do you deal with those type of challenges in your in your practice absolutely so again first and foremost it's hard to out over design a building that has been poorly oriented to start with right so we start with on the core what is the best orientation for the classrooms okay right you want them on a certain axis you want to limit the amount of east-west exposure so you can allow for the most amount of light to come from the north and south, right? That's also responsibly on using your mechanical systems. Your mechanical systems, you do not want those to overheat or overflow during certain times of day, so that proper orientation is critical to how we approach daylighting and views. Secondly, we do again aim for the 100% daylight and views in all classrooms at a minimum. And then typically we engage that with OK, well, how is that extending into the library, into the cafeteria, into these different elements where you get large groups in one space? And of course, when you're in the landscape, you can't help but want to be inspired by it and allow for that responsible use of glazing versus spray. Because the least efficient wall is a wall that's full with glass, because it's really difficult to do any kind of climate mitigation strategies on it. But the way that we've started, I step number one is always mitigation with your orientation with how that building is landing on the site. Then of course, you know, we continue to dive into that on where are, where's the teaching wall going to be set up? How is the day-to-day going to be with the furniture in the classroom? Are we talking about flexible furniture? Where are we pushing our collaboration areas? Is this a comfortable experience? Is this an experience where collaboration can happen effectively? Those are all things that happen from the design level and continue on through our detailing, our consultant coordination, and bringing our teams all together. It's a conversation that we may never have with a committee, right, with a steering committee or with the students themselves, but you feel that experience when you're in the building and it moves us into this comfortability to where people can genuinely focus on the learning, on the teaching and learning that happens in the space as opposed to oh I'm uncomfortable because I'm having to take my jacket on and off every 30 minutes because I get too hot and then I get too cold.

27:54 - Andy
Yeah yeah it sounds like definitely a challenge to consider all these different aspects which ties into my next question which is just what are some challenges that that you have dealt with maybe on a project basis or just on a career level?

28:10 - Gabriella
Yeah some challenges, let me think, Let me think on that one. Really, more than anything else, what I think I found is the ongoing cost increases that have happened in a number of our projects. And that's not only because, oh, we're over-designing. No, a lot of that comes from the economics of the time. We're seeing inflation rates not similar to COVID, as we were seeing in that, which was almost half a percent a month. But there is about 2% to 7% inflation escalation costs as we go over the next couple of years. Things like tariffs are going to implement into that project location if you're further away from a metro where you're going to have to bring in labor from another city, which I've seen on a number of projects. But budgets and bond capacity are only going to hit so much, right? So in Texas specifically, we've got the homestead exemption at $100,000 on your houses. And what that raising does is really great for taxpayers. It's really hard on school districts, really hard on rural school districts in particular that have houses that may not be worth that specific value. So when we talk about school finance, when we talk about legislature support of public schools, of education in general, it really puts us to this point of where do facilities fall? Will we get into a space where we're waiting 30 years again or maybe putting band-aid fixes on facilities that really need full refreshes and full updates. So what's been really great about our practice at Perkins Eastman, we have a strategies group that is specifically focused on long-range facility planning. And that's not only in our K-12 group, it's also in our senior living and our commercial practice and our workplace practice. But what's been fantastic about K-12 is it is the strategic planning from the beginning all the way throughout. We're talking about where facilities, economics, and student needs and student outcomes all come together. And it's been incredibly powerful to see that at the front end and then to see the fruits of it on the design side. To see the fruits of it on the architectural end are exceptional. It gives you the chance to see the full story. We're seeing the district community planning happen before we even step a foot or put a shovel in the for groundbreaking.

30:35 - Andy
Yeah, I mean, and are you a part of that, I guess, the committee that you mentioned, are you a part of that?

30:43 - Gabriella
Yes, so I play a part in it. My specific focus is in architecture, but I work closely with our planning principal here in Austin.

30:52 - Unidentified Speaker
Okay.

30:53 - Andy
Yeah. Yeah, and one thing I noticed from your profile, I mean, I did look at your profile, wanted to do some research and understand who you are, because this This is the first time we've met, by the way, for the audience. And this is a little bit unique because we're going outside of South Carolina for the first time. I mean, we've had one or two outside. So we've gone outside of South Carolina into Texas, and we're happy to do that. So yeah, I wanted to understand who Gabriela was. And so I noticed that you were pretty involved in your professional organizations. So you're a part of a number of them. Let's see, I had it written down. Yeah. But, well, maybe you can tell me what, you know, AIA is one, the Texas Architects Group was one, I think, right? But can you tell me about which organizations you're part of and really why that's important to you? I mean, it seems like you're pretty involved in those.

31:56 - Gabriella
Yeah, absolutely. So as you can hear, I'm very passionate about K through 12, passionate about how students become involved in the building process. Well, when I graduated college, I came into Austin and wanted to be a part. I was in a number of organizations in college, but thought, OK, how do we do this at the professional level? What does that really look like, And what was great is when I had the chance to experience it, one of the first programs I got involved with was the ACE Mentor Program of America here in Austin. In our Austin chapter. I became a lead mentor almost right away, jumped right into it. And what ACE is, for those who don't know, that's an architectural construction engineering program. It's a free after-school program located all around the country. What it does is it's a chance to expose students to the profession of architecture, construction, and engineering, and then the related trades. And for Austin, it was a 16-week curriculum, I fell in love with it. It was as equally an opportunity to engage with our students as it was the chance to engage with the professionals and build this professional network. So when I was in that, I had a fellow mentor who said, one of the other mentors in the group say, you should join AIA. I don't know if you've looked at it yet. And I said, sure, I'll take a look at it. I have a case of helium hand. I'm always happy to raise my hand for things. And I was, came into my first meeting was a Latinos in Architecture Committee, which I, fifth generation Tejana, grown up in Texas all my life. I'm very ingrained in the Hispanic community, but didn't necessarily knew how that connected to architecture. I just knew that was a part of who I was, other than your connections with people. And when I joined the local committee, the Austin LIA committee, I just, I loved it. I had never experienced anything like that. That before, where you go into a committee meeting and it feels like somewhere I grew up, where we're all giving each other hugs and talking about, you know, we're introducing ourselves by where we're from and where our heritage is. I'd never experienced that before in architecture school, never experienced it in the space of architecture. But it was a moment for me where I kind of understood my culture does have place in my practice. It's not necessarily something that is, oh, just a side note. That to strengthen who we are, our background, our heritage has a place in this. And so I continued on with my helium hand. I joined on to the state. So I moved from the local to the state level, where I was the, I came in as a chair of one of our committees on the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, where we took on a number of efforts. We got to plug in with K through 12, and we did a number of webinars that highlighted the diversity in our practice. We paired with the National Organization of Minority Architects, with NOMA, to come and actually give these joint webinars that reached hundreds of people within Texas. Our membership is 7,800, but our webinars had this chance to actually reach outside of the state. Another one where we had members who were really charged with, we're not talking about accessibility and universal design enough. So we developed a webinar series on accessible and universal design that was shared as well. So we had this chance to combine health, safety, welfare credits with equity, diversity, inclusion, and talk about it in the same space, which was really exciting. From there, I was elected on as the vice president of practice and recognition, where I oversee the honors and design awards committee. So getting to Read these stories and these narratives of how architecture combines with the landscape, with nature, with the community at the Design Award. And then seeing these exceptional individuals on the Honors Award side was just incredibly inspiring to see that. And that's the role I currently serve in now. In tandem with my state appointments, I jumped into what's called the AIA National Young Architects Forum, the YAF. That is just an experience all on its own. You get the opportunity. There's one appointed in every state. And then I served as one of the advisory committee members under communications. You can imagine, I like to talk, I like to stay connected. And what got me into that was my love for writing. I love the written word to highlight stories that maybe typically haven't been, right? That haven't been in the past. So I've started writing for Texas Architect Magazine, which is an exceptional publication. That led me to writing for what's called Connection Magazine, which was an AI national publication. With the YAF that highlighted stories of young architects practicing all around the world. I became editor-in-chief of that in 23 and 24 and have since passed on the reins to Nicole Becker, who's actually a representative out of Oregon, she's out of Portland, and they're just doing an exceptional job there. So there's been a number of involvements at AIA at the professional level. I'm also involved with NCARB, who's our National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, I've been an NCAR volunteer there for, my gosh, almost, I just signed up for my fifth year of volunteering. It's on another fiscal year, so we start in July, where I've been really fortunate to have served as chair in the capacity of the experience committee, which is, for architects, there's three E's in order to get your license. You have education, examination, and experience, and I'm on the experience side. This will be my second year as chair, and then I've served on that committee level two years prior. Okay, awesome.

37:39 - Andy
Yeah, I'm a big acronym guy, so I like,

37:42 - Gabriella
I know, I feel like there's too many.

37:45 - Andy
I feel like you have to name them all out before I go. The three E's. I've got six E's, actually. Okay. That speaks to me.

37:54 - Gabriella
E Enhanced is one of them, actually, so. Really? Yeah. Tell me more about your six E's, Andy.

38:00 - Andy
So, 29. Oh, wow, you flipped the script on me.

38:03 - Unidentified Speaker
Sorry, I'm going for it.

38:05 - Andy
So, The 29E6 is my business name, is our business name. We're structural engineers. And that's the modulus of steel, but it's a number. So E6 is exponent six, like chameleon. And so, but I just use that, like how can I, you know, make six E's out of that? And so three, so here's the six E's. Three E's are needed for every business to run, in my opinion. Number one, you have to have excellence or you might as well go home. Number two, you have to earn a profit because money is the lifeblood of a business. And number three, you have to enjoy it. Or again, you're just going to get burned out. So those have to be on any business, whether it's architecture, engineering. So on the specialty to what we do, engineering, you have to have three. Number one, what we do, which is we ensure safety. E for insure, which a lot of people get that mixed up. I insure, like I, but it should be insure E. So there's a little vocabulary. And then that's what we do. And if we don't do that, then we should definitely go home because that's what we do. We have to insure safety. Next is we can't just design a building that's safe and it not be efficient, right? Because cost and things that you're talking about, inflation, tariffs, et cetera. So we do have to be efficient. And then finally, we want to enhance the world around us. So it's sort of the why question. And that's really what what we do here is we want to understand the why. And like I say, we I like to go over our vision statement with our team. And I say, you know, why are we doing this? And what what's driving us? Because if that's not, if we don't remember that, then, you know, you don't have that excitement that joy about coming to work and, you know, designing buildings for K-12 or doing your bubble diagrams, right? You lose that excitement. And that's really what I was also trying to understand from you is, why do you do all these activities? I mean, because you're already busy with your daytime job, right? Right. But now you're going and doing these in the evening and the weekends because, I mean, I imagine you have a five job. So these are things that you do extracurricular. So why is that so important to you, to do that?

40:31 - Gabriella
For me, it is a statistic that I was given when I first joined in the profession. There are more lawyers in the state of California than there are architects practicing in the nation, which to me is, it's a historic problem to where there have been boundaries in place that we don't necessarily know about, but all we can do now is move forward and empower people to be in these roles, find their place here to at least expose students to what the architecture engineering construction industries are. There is a labor shortage happening not only in the trades but in in the professional industries as well and my why is wanting people to find that excitement and that enjoyment again in our profession whether that is through professional organizations and finding a way to give whether that is seeing that the work that we do has tangible, tangible benefits for us. And it's not always about overworking ourselves, it's about being smarter and getting to the right solution by asking the right questions. And the only way we can do that is by encouraging others to do the same thing and honestly training them, mentoring them to be better than I am, better than we are, and do, more things but bring their strengths to the table and bring their specific talents and gifts, their God-given talents and gifts to where they are today and to live in that fully and not lose hope that this profession is just going and going to be gone but to give it a new enhanced breath of life.

42:14 - Andy
Yeah that's awesome and I mean it seems like to me there's There's also, we started off talking a lot about mentors, and it seems like maybe there's something there too. I mean, like Mr. Mack. Absolutely. And he brought that out in you, which you just mentioned, which is, and also your college professor that really brought that, like, hey, I'm challenging, I'm having challenges with being on the bottom of the thing of the creative But they gave you that encouragement that they said, stick with it. And it seems like that was a significant point in your career, really. Absolutely. And now you have the opportunity to help people in a similar way. Exactly.

42:58 - Gabriella
It's those fingerprints of someone who took the time for you. So you're doing the same for someone else in the hopes they do the same for someone else, and they do the same for someone else. And it's just this joy multiplier.

43:13 - Andy
So that's your extracurricular, and then also during the day, I mean, you're why for that? I mean, I think we've hit on it some, but is there anything else that really is why you want to enhance the world around you in terms of K-12 schools and your architecture practice?

43:31 - Gabriella
Yes. I see it the same way. It's being one person, one soul, determined to serve and empower others. And that's who I am in my core, whether that's in the day job, that is how I connect to my communities, my clients, and the team around me, the team around me that both energizes and inspires and hope to do the same for them. It's this holistic professional that I really aim to see more people do. And I've just been really fortunate to have found a lot of them and am inspired by them and then do the same. We just keep going, keep fueling each other.

44:09 - Andy
Yeah, awesome. And that, I think that helps you, you know, when you have that, that why, when you understand what that is, it helps you get up every day and focus on what you're doing. Exactly. So when you do face those challenges, like you mentioned earlier, right, because I imagine there's other ones that you have faced in your career. Oh, yeah. You know, you mentioned the creativity aspect in college. Was there anything that you hit a road career-wise that you had to push through?

44:40 - Gabriella
Yeah, career-wise, I mean, what has been really beneficial is there have been, you know, there are times when you need to stay, times when you need to go, times when you need to transition. And earlier, I think it was about a year ago now, right before I made my transition to Perkins Eastman, I had a very reflective moment to where your you're being asked, well, this is the path and this is the only path we have for you right now. And you can either deal with it or deal with it. And that's really hard to hear when you have put in a lot of time and effort and energy into your communities and your space. And for me, it was an eye-opening experience. And I had the chance to make a leap of faith and go somewhere else. After I had a really great experience in one place, the leap to change to was really a research-based driven firm. And it was terrifying because, you know, there is, sometimes it's not always the best time to move. No time ever feels like the best time to move. But when you take the leap into, to what this new leadership opportunity could be. For me, that was specifically my job role. It was really exceptional. It was a chance to be a part of something. And one of the first things I was asked is, most of your portfolio is in Texas. What if your portfolio is not in Texas for the next year? And I said, let's try it out. Let's go for it. And we'll continue to build relationships and bring in new work in this region, which thankfully we have been able to. And it was a leap, it was a leap to kind of open and not open, but start the momentum of a K through 12 architectural practice in the Southern region. It felt a lot more responsibility than where I had previously, but it's that, that show of faith of opportunity from the leadership who brought me onto this team was, it was challenging to go from somewhere you felt feel like you know and you have this experience in to a new practice area was, it's been a great experience. It's been fantastic and has pushed to new levels of capabilities in myself and project management and in contractual obligations that I hadn't really had the experience in before. But there's some really great training modules that I've been a part of to help me lead into that role with grace, not to mention number of mentors and guidance that I have here within the firm to elevate that experience from a state level to a national and international practice.

47:33 - Andy
Yeah, it sounds like it worked out very well so far. How long ago was that change?

47:40 - Gabriella
That was Labor Day, so maybe seven months ago, is that right? About seven months ago, and it's taken me on a lot of flight has had a lot of new connections, but goodness, the leadership here, Hilary Birch, who's our managing principal, Sean O'Donnell, who's our K-12 international practice leader, Omar Calderon, who is our design lead, Patrick Davis, who is our planning principal, have just elevated the bar. And what I found is when you are being asked to practice at that level, because that's the level everyone else is at, you are now new level of, not necessarily of expectation in a bad way, but in a, this is the bar, this is where we need to be. And it's incredibly exciting to be able to push yourself in that way and then ask the same of those around you. Yeah.

48:37 - Andy
Well, and to one of my E's was excellence, right? So you have to, and that's like a baseline, like for me. Exactly. You have to be excellent. It's not even, you know, this is a baseline too. And we actually had an exercise yesterday where we were trying to rank the six Es. And it was a fun exercise because it depends on how you flip it. And I always say, well, they're all important. But it was a fun exercise. But yeah, excellence is super important. But yeah, you mentioned on your profile also that you're really good with managing and you have some strong client relationships. Yes. So I can tell that out of the gate, that networking, client relationships is definitely a strength of yours. But can you explain that a little bit more and what gives you that strength and how does that play out in your current role?

49:38 - Gabriella
Yeah, absolutely. I think it was, for me, it's the ability to bring architecture to any community, to someone who's never heard about it, knows what it is, and whether that is, you know, the student in South Central San Antonio who has a background a lot like mine, who I can sit down and talk with them about what I'm really asking about. I'm not asking about learning pedagogy of them. I'm not asking about, you know, daylight or sunlight or glare. I'm asking about what they want in a school, what they want in a campus. And then to have the professional capability to translate that into a space that has all of those things and what they asked for, that is where you have the best opportunity to connect with your client, to release the jargon, to move past our technical knowledge, which is needed, so needed, but understand that if our clients don't understand or relate or see the value of it, then we haven't fully done our job as AAC professionals. And part of that too comes with listening first and speaking second, really understanding what the client's goals are, and knowing that as the architect, the engineer, the contractor, the client, the consultant, we are our client's advocate. What they ask for, what they're looking for, more than anything beyond a building, in order to build that client relationship is expertise, and expertise in a way that is understandable. And then you have that, that trust back and forth. And to me, that that's been the most powerful thing about about connecting genuinely with with clients in this region with clients in our expanded regions is, you know, having that, that genuine connection, that trust, that friendship goes miles, it goes miles, because it's so much bigger than one, it's so much bigger than getting a project and going on, it's your community trusted advisor, you are a part of their story and understanding the humility that comes with that is very humbling. Yeah.

51:46 - Andy
Yeah, that makes sense.

51:48 - Andy
And I want to ask you about the client a little bit. And I know we're I just had a couple more questions for you, by the way. And because I know you probably have to write an article for Texas AIA or design a building or deal with a client. You probably have a hundred other things. So I appreciate you taking time. But yeah, I mean, when you say your client, for an architect that works for a school, who is that? Is that the board? Is that the teachers? I mean, who do you actually work with? It's all of the above a little bit.

52:27 - Gabriella
So to give you an idea, we are working on Palmer High School. I've given you a little bit of the backstory on it. We've had email engagements over 36,000 email touch points. We've had over 2,400 in-person engagement touch points for a high school of 1,300. So, I mean, that has been the full student body. It's been the community engaged. It has been civic and client meetings with downtown partnership. The idea of the client has really expanded to the whole of Colorado State. Springs which is which is scary I mean because because when you look at it it's a public project who's ultimately saying yes we've got some incredible project managers and of course the district superintendent who we are answering directly to but you are holding the asks and the wants and a granted not every ask is gonna be a good one and not everyone's gonna be in the building but people can see where their tangible feedback was in the new space that comes forward and to me that's what a successful project, the successful client relationship is. When it comes to, you know, the day-to-day interaction, our boots on the ground, our project managers at the district level, that is one of the key relationships, the key trust relationships, where they have my cell, and if there's a question that needs to be answered, we're available because they matter. They come first, right? But we have, like, actually tomorrow, we'll be back out there talking with principal and talking with staff, and then we're going to go back to the board the following week and then go back to the community for a community open house a couple weeks later. So again, all of the above, but we do have closer relationships with some, some more than others. Yeah. And you have to deal with communication.

54:15 - Andy
You have to deal with some of those dang engineers too, right?

54:19 - Gabriella
Oh my goodness. Yes. Our engineers with us the whole way through. We just got through a two hour coordination call before this. So I'm with you.

54:27 - Andy
Yeah, for sure. So, just a couple more questions. Yeah, from a general standpoint, what's going well for you right now, whether that be life, business, what are some things that are going well for you right now?

54:41 - Gabriella
Yeah. The business development pursuits in this area, which is not necessarily a fully new thing for me, but is a part of our role is pursuing work in the region, bringing in new clients, bringing in new clients, and then our existing relationships strong to where they feel like if there's something that comes out, we have a strong chance at it, right? It's this ongoing relationship, so I'd say that that's been a strong suit consistently and something that's going really well right now. Yeah, awesome.

55:13 - Andy
So you're learning, I mean, is that a new thing for you, the business development side, or is that something you've been doing from day one?

55:22 - Gabriella
Something I've been doing really since goodness, it had like genuinely started probably in right around COVID, right before COVID, I was on a facilities master plan where I got a lot of one-on-one time with our, you know, a district director of planning, a lot of conversational aspects, and you realize, oh, you really have this chance to build a relationship. And in turn, you see that every interaction is business development. All the professional organizations is a chance to bring that firm's name up or a chance to not bring the firm's name up and then create a connection with, you know, they hear about the firm and they think about you. You have this chance to really build a friendship connection professionally that enhances where you work and where you are.

56:09 - Gabriella
Yeah, and I think the thing about the client relationship, that just goes hand in hand.

56:16 - Andy
If you do a great job, you have a good relationship. I mean, And they're going to likely give you a good referral for the next school, hopefully. But you always have to. I mean, that's the thing about business. You have to bring in more work. You have to have a pipeline that's solid. I mean, that's the reality of business. Exactly.

56:35 - Gabriella
You've got thinking about the next five years. You've got the projects in front of you, and you're thinking about the next five, and you're thinking about the next five, which is that part of it is new territory. Not necessarily on strategic planning from the business not from the non-profit side, but that's where all of these pieces come into play. Because I've been in non-profit experience for almost 10 years now. But to bring that in to the business strategic planning has been really cool to see all the pieces start to, all the puzzle pieces come together.

57:10 - Andy
Yeah. Okay. It sounds like you're on an upward trajectory. What's next for you, Gabby?

57:17 - Gabriella
I don't know. I feel like we're taking it day by day. Hopefully more work, more connections, and growing our office, growing the presence of Perkins Eastman in Austin, in Texas, and continuing to build strong relationships. That's what I'm all about. Yeah, awesome. And making some more awesome projects.

57:37 - Andy
I think those are great goals. I mean, you're not going to have any problems if you keep relationships, keep doing great work. So I think we've hit on a lot of great things today. It was really exciting to have all this input from you and learn about K-12. I don't really have any K-12 work currently, so it was interesting to find out more about how that works. And so I hope everybody enjoys that as well, and just the work you're doing, your why, was really interesting to me. So I appreciate you being on. But was there anything that I didn't ask you about today that you wanted to share with the audience?

58:20 - Gabriella
No, I think that was great.

58:22 - Gabriella
I appreciate you having me on.

58:24 - Gabriella
And I hope your audience is excited and energized by today's conversation.

58:28 - Andy
OK, awesome.

58:29 - Andy
And we'll provide your LinkedIn profile.

58:31 - Andy
Was there any way that you wanted people to reach out to you?

58:35 - Gabriella
I think that's probably the best way.

58:38 - Gabriella
And then I can send you our email.

58:40 - Gabriella
company website too.

58:42 - Andy
Okay awesome and what was that name one more time for everybody?

58:46 - Gabriella
Perkins Eastman.

58:47 - Andy
Okay awesome yeah use them for school design and what states do you guys practice in by the way?

58:54 - Andy
I know Texas and Colorado so those are two.

58:58 - Gabriella
Texas and Colorado is where most of my projects are based in.

59:02 - Gabriella
We have oh my gosh DC, New York, offices in Connecticut, we've got offices in Oakland and in in California.

59:10 - Gabriella
We cover coast to coast.

59:11 - Gabriella
And then we're actually an international practice.

59:14 - Gabriella
We had a groundbreaking with the American School in Mexico City last month.

59:19 - Gabriella
So our international practice, our K-12 practice, is actually really pretty incredible, too, remarkable.

59:24 - Gabriella
Yeah.

59:24 - Andy
OK, awesome.

59:25 - Gabriella
So anywhere.

59:26 - Andy
Anywhere.

59:26 - Gabriella
We've got a great Chicago office, too.

59:29 - Andy
And I meant to ask, too, one more thing.

59:32 - Gabriella
Yeah.

59:32 - Andy
Tejana.

59:33 - Andy
So I did look it up.

59:35 - Andy
But can you share what that is?

59:37 - Andy
because you mentioned that.

59:39 - Gabriella
Yes, absolutely.

59:40 - Gabriella
So when you come from a Hispanic heritage, Hispanic background, there are different variations.

59:45 - Gabriella
You have Chicanos who are Mexican-American heritage who grew up typically in California or in Chicago, in Illinois.

59:53 - Gabriella
Where Tejana comes from is it's that combination of Mexican-American and Texan heritage.

59:58 - Gabriella
Tejas is Texas.

59:59 - Gabriella
And then you have the Ana at the end of it.

1:00:04 - Gabriella
Tejana is a combination of both.

1:00:06 - Gabriella
because I've always lived with a foot in both sides, it feels like, where I grew up on the border and quite literally felt straddled between the two cultures, where I couldn't fully identify as Mexican because I hadn't grown up in Mexico and neither had a number of generations of my family.

1:00:26 - Gabriella
But our running thing is the border crossed us because my family was based in South Texas and never left, right?

1:00:34 - Gabriella
So we have roots going back to when it was Mexico.

1:00:38 - Gabriella
So at our heritage, we are Mexican-American, but where I identify with Tejana is really a part of a Texan culture.

1:00:46 - Andy
Yeah, that's pretty cool.

1:00:48 - Andy
Yeah, I had to look that one up, but I appreciate your explanation of it.

1:00:53 - Andy
So that's really good.

1:00:55 - Andy
And it sounds like that's an important part of your practice and just figuring are.

1:01:01 - Andy
So very good.

1:01:02 - Andy
Gabby, it was great having you on and I wish you the best.

1:01:06 - Gabriella
Likewise, thank you so much.

1:01:08 - Andy
All right, take care.

1:01:10 - Gabriella
Thanks, you too.

1:01:11 - Madeline
Hey everybody, thanks for listening to today's episode of Enhance and please leave a like, a subscribe, or a follow and we'll see