Karin Payson wins the Kirby Ward Fitzpatrick Prize 2013
The Architectural Foundation of San Francisco presents the Kirby Ward Fitzpatrick Prize every year to a small San Francisco architectural firm for design excellence. This year the prize has been awarded to Karin Payson for her work on the new Bayview Public Library.
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Constructed Realities Awards Program 2013
Constructed Realities is a biennial awards program established at the behest of the Small Firms Committee, AIA San Francisco.
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The Joy of Mentoring a High School student: The Build San Francisco Institute.
The Architectural Foundation of San Francisco has created the Build San Francisco Institute, a half day high school program for students interested in design, construction, engineering and architecture. The Build San Francisco Institute is a unique community educational partnership, involving AFSF, San Francisco Unified School District and more than two dozen major San Francisco firms.
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GREENBUILD 2012 San Francisco: A personal take.
“When I first visited the Greenbuild website to sign up, I became very excited: The prospect of spending three days in educational sessions at one of the world’s largest conferences dedicated to green buildings with building professionals from around the world sounded thrilling.” – Benjamin Todt
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Modern on a shoestring: How to spend less than $75,000 and completely change your home.
Last summer, I purchased a home in Napa with my partner, Anne Fougeron. Most of the existing style choices were an abomination to our modernist sensibilities.
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Amy Eliot on Women in Architecture
“Women forget that we CAN go with our instinct, we can trust our intuitions. Sometimes women at big firms or competitive work situations take the attitude that “I can make it work… I have to make it work… I’ll do whatever it takes, suck it up without complaint”. For women and men alike, it’s important to have control over our own destiny. Follow your passion, and don’t assume there’s only one right way to do, or think about, architecture.”
by Rebecca Firestone with Mark English AIA
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EB Min on Women in Architecture
“If you want to change things, you have to stay in the game. If you drop out and talk from the sidelines, people won’t take you as seriously.
Having a good mentor is very important. I can’t stress enough how important it is to be able to turn to someone for advice… a mentor can also be a model of behavior. I could watch my colleagues to see how they talked to people, how they spoke to clients and contractors. They did some custom, highly creative designs – how did they manage to get their way? Even the wording to use can be important… a mentor can coach you on how to speak.”
by Rebecca Firestone with Mark English AIA
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Karin Payson on Women in Architecture
“When I was young, I was a rebellious soul. My dream was to be an artist, and my mission in life was to have the freedom to own my own work, control my own schedule, and protect my creative energy. At age 15, I already knew that I wanted freedom. I had a vision of myself living an authentic life. That was my rebellion.”
by Rebecca Firestone with Mark English AIA
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Kate Stickley on Women in Architecture
“When the time came for me to start a family, I determined that the best way for me to have the work/life balance that I needed was to start my own practice. At that time, many of my peers were doing the same, because we could create how we wanted to work to support this. We were able to provide good service to our clients, and our clients respected our choice to frame our business to honor both family and profession.”
by Rebecca Firestone with Mark English AIA
