Design x Alaina Ladner
Architect at Huntsman Architectural Group
Illustration by Bonnie Kate Wolf
Interview conducted by Stephen Jordan on February 26, 2020
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background where you come from.
I was born and raised in San Diego, California, in a pretty typical middle-class family. I studied architecture at the University of Colorado and spent some time in Boulder as an intern for about a year and a half. I hated it. I actually got a really bad first impression about architecture. I was 20 at the time, and I thought, “So this is what architecture is,” and I immediately went back to my job scooping ice cream at Ben and Jerry’s. The architects that I worked with were like, “Wait, you're quitting architecture to go scoop ice cream?” and I was like, “Yes.”
For the next five years, I waited tables, traveled, and lived with my parents, and one day I looked at my resume and realized that I'm more qualified to wait tables than I am to do anything else. That’s not what I wanted to do with my life. After five years, I realized that I still wanted to design stuff and I still really wanted to practice architecture, but at this point no one would hire me because I'd been out of the game for years and I had no relevant experience. So I decided to go back to school at the University of Oregon.
While I was a student at Oregon, I had a part-time job at the Career Center. I worked closely with the director, which really opened my eyes about all the things that I could do with my design background. She became a life mentor for me, and with her guidance, I was able to finish my architecture education.
After graduating, I applied for an internship at Huntsman Architectural Group in San Francisco. I got the position and they offered me a full-time role after my internship. I accepted and ended up working at Huntsman for five years.
Soon after I got my architecture license and my husband and I quit our jobs, and we traveled for six months. My mentor always joked that I need to give a lecture called “Why You Should Quit” because it always led to something better.
What an amazing story. You talked about the first bad job experience in Colorado. What made that experience bad?
It was the type of work that the firm specialized in and the slow pace. I never got to see anything get built. They would also say, “Oh, you're the woman in the office. Pick some colors.” At the time we weren’t thinking about how to design for the human experience. We were just going through the motions.
What skills did you carry over to architecture from your experience waiting tables and scooping ice cream?
I mean, there’s a part of me that thinks everybody should work in the service industry at least once in their life.
“I mean, there’s a part of me that thinks everybody should work in the service industry at least once in their life.”
I found my experience dealing with the general population extremely valuable because I was interacting with people at a very casual level, which helped me understand how people naturally interact with a space.
What did you learn from quitting?
By quitting, you open yourself up to all the good and bad, and you have to kind of be open to all of that, which can be exciting and terrifying. Sometimes quitting feels like it's a bad idea, but when you wake up and you can tell in your gut that this is not it, and if you can financially make it work out, you don't have much to lose.
What factors do you consider when you think you should quit your job?
The reason I knew it was a good time to quit was because things had become rather repetitive. I didn't feel like I was being challenged to learn something new. I wanted to feel like I was growing and that was not happening anymore.
Was there a moment that you knew you wanted to pursue design?
In grade school, we had a huge sand field and I would draw plans of my dream home with my feet. I love that design is like a problem-solving puzzle.
What are some topics you’re particularly interested in right now?
I think about how our work impacts people and our planet, and how that focus should be the most paramount objective in our field. The building and construction industry is a massive part of the situation that we're in with the environment. I’m talking about construction waste and carbon emissions and using up natural resources. I wrestle with the role that design and construction plays in the degradation of the environment regularly. I’m also uniquely situated to be a part of the solution due to my role as an interior designer. If I’m working from the inside, I can be doing everything that I can to influence and practice better methods. I strive to connect the dots for clients and colleagues that integrating sustainability into design is not about sacrifice, but rather, abundance.
“…integrating sustainability into design is not about sacrifice, but rather, abundance.”
Holistic design delivers in positive human experience and harmony with the environment.
Tell us more about how one can be a successful advocate. How did you bring these new ideas around sustainability into the work environment?
I think we shouldn’t underestimate the power of one voice, and we shouldn’t underestimate the power of our position as designers.
“I think we shouldn’t underestimate the power of one voice, and we shouldn’t underestimate the power of our position as designers.”
Huntsman is a like-minded firm. I think we’re moving in the right direction, but we weren’t moving very fast and we weren’t taking many steps. I went to a lecture on deforestation, and I went home and reflected about this and about our field. In that moment, I just started drafting an outline of what we could do better as a firm. I stayed up late that night. Then I wrote the email to our CEO and said, “Hey, I think we can do better.” You know you’re not supposed to send emails in the middle of the night, but I couldn’t resist. I was fired up. I was just like, “All right, well, this is either going to get me fired or it’s gonna get me more actionable effort behind this initiative.” I needed to feel like I was working somewhere that was going to be aligned with my goals. Fortunately, it was received with overwhelming positivity.
How do you communicate the importance of sustainability to clients? How do you justify the extra effort put into things that some clients might not care about?
Fortunately, people in California are pretty aware of the importance of sustainability. I think it’s important to try to understand where the biggest opportunities for impact are for your client. What are the opportunities for their project that would have the most impact to them as a business but also to the environment? That’s a win win situation. But I will say that after the preliminary discussion, if you get the sense that that’s not a priority for your client, you absolutely do not need to abandon it for yourself. We have a responsibility as designers to just do it anyway. Sustainability should be just one of the many filters designers use to evaluate performance and quality. Clients should not feel like they need to sacrifice something to have a space that supports human health and the environment. These goals help define a successful project and must be integrated as part of the design and delivery process.
What is the importance of having a mentor?
Someone who understands you can really help you almost like a life coach. They help you pose the questions for you to answer for yourself. They’re not going to give you the answer, but they know you well enough to know the questions to ask you.
