Women's History Month Profile: Lauren Rottet, FAIA, FIIDA

Happy International Women's Day! In the spirit of celebrating the women, past and present, who've dedicated their lives to breaking barriers and paving the way for others, Rottet Studio is featuring some of our fabulous and fierce female designers on our blog. Over the course of Women's History Month, we will be profiling their experiences in the architecture and design industry as they put a face to the realities and rewards of being a working woman.Though the conversation around women in the workplace is hardly new - buzzing with oft-quoted entreaties to "lean in," fraught with questions of work/life balance and "having it all" while working a "second shift" -  it continues to have profound, if varied, applications for both genders. In what has become known as The Missing 32% in the architectural practice, women represent about 50% of students enrolled in architecture programs in the United States, but only 18% of licensed architects are women (Equity by Design). Rottet Studio occupies a unique vantage point in the industry - over 60% of our full-time staff are female, and our Founding Principal, Lauren Rottet, has broken new ground as one of the most celebrated architects and interior designers over the past few decades.As the only woman in history to be elevated to Fellow status by both the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and International Interior Design Association (IIDA), Lauren shared some of her thoughts on and advice for women in design:Tell me about your path to a career in design and architecture. I was always constructing and inventing things. When I was a child, I used to build little rock houses for the toads that would hang out in our driveway in Waco, Texas. I’d construct these little houses, then put the toads in there, and I considered it a huge accomplishment if the toads were still inside the next morning - it meant that I had built something sound and secure. During high school in Houston, I watched as these lovely high-rise buildings were constructed. My father let me skip school one day – which was a very big deal – to explore what I thought would be amazing interiors way up in the sky. I was so disappointed that these great buildings had such uninspiring interiors, and thought I could do better.What is your favorite part of your job?That it’s so different every single day. I love going into a space and it’s just like you imagined it, that you created something out of nothing and everyone’s so happy and enjoying it – if it’s an office space, they say it’s enlightened and catapulted their business, and if it’s a hotel, watching the guests enjoy their stay and come back. Every designer wants to make people happy.What are the ways in which men's and women's careers in architecture differ?I was raised by a father who told me that there would be no difference between men and women in my generation, and that I needed a career so that I wouldn’t have to rely on anybody else. So when medicine didn’t work out [at The University of Texas at Austin], I switched to architecture. Fewer than 10 percent of women graduated in my class, but I didn’t really think consciously about being a woman in architecture. I never really thought about it as a man’s field. Then again, I don’t think I’m a normal woman.Once in a while, when the guys are standing around taking credit for your ideas (not the design ones, as they figure you might know how to “design,” but the structural, mechanical or project-siting big ideas), I do get a little annoyed. But, it’s a team effort at the end of the day, and I always end up giving those big ideas away anyways. In my studio there is, of course, none of the man/woman thing. We all work hard, and we all have each other’s backs. If you’re knowledgeable, have done your homework, and can hold your own on a job site or in front of a client, you’ll be respected. If you never even realize that there’s something holding you back, then there isn’t anything holding you back.What are potential pinch points that affect talent retention in the design industry, particularly for women? Why do people leave?The time pressure of a design or architecture career is tremendous, so having a family and rising to the top of your game are an effort, to say the least. It is physically difficult to be a young mother with children and work the long hours that being a designer or architect requires. But businesses should be flexible with employees who have children; it’s incredibly helpful when firms are flexible.How do you feel your experience working in a creative field might have been different if you were in a more corporate industry?I just couldn’t have worked in a non-creative field. I would have been an absolute failure, because my brain works too non-linearly. I think you have to match what you love doing with your career, then you can’t help but succeed - because you love it! Working in a more corporate industry wouldn’t have been as fulfilling for me – in a creative field, you’re always learning, excited, and inventing. Every day is a new challenge.Describe the professional moment, accomplishment, or realization that you are most proud of to date.One of the first interiors projects I did when I moved to LA was for a law firm, and it broke so many new grounds. Paul Hastings’ office in New York turned the way people office upside down, catapulted a new way of thinking about office furniture, and went on to win Best of NeoCon. They were moving out of a building with 360 degree views on Park Avenue to a space with no views whatsoever. That’s how I figured out little tricks – the use of materials to make them seem like they go on forever and make a space feel bigger, which was a precursor to what we do now. I had been influenced by Light and Space artists from LA like James Turrell, Larry Bell - and found it fascinating how light alone can manipulate and create the illusion of space. So with the Paul Hastings project, I really added in form and started to look at a space three-dimensionally. In modernist architecture, you look at the floor, wall, and ceiling like planes, whereas in Paul Hastings New York, I looked at the space like a volume that you sculpt into – planes, angles, forms, that trick your eye.Other than that, I must say I was proud to have a parking spot with my name on it when I worked for Keating, Mann, Jernigan & Rottet.What's the best career advice you've received?I’ve been given quite a bit of wonderful professional advice, but I think probably one of the best ones is just to listen. Listen very, very well. You know, you always want to come up with a solution or an idea, or instantly retort back, but I think if you really sit back and listen to the parameters – what the client wants, what the surroundings are telling you about a project, I think that’s probably the most helpful professional advice.And another piece of advice – one of my favorites – is if you start to recognize what you’re doing, you’re not designing. A recent study of 22,000 firms in 91 countries found a positive link between the number of women in leadership roles and a company’s profitability. What does diversity in leadership mean to you? What responsibilities do you think companies and individuals, both male and female, share in promoting gender equality in the workplace?In any field, your responsibility is to promote the candidate with the most drive, who is best equipped to do the job, and that means if you end up with all women or “pink people,” then so be it! Businesses have an obligation to hire the best talent: young or old, male or female. Don’t make people wait for their age bracket or take their “turn” to catch up.You’ve often said that your work centers on improving the human experience through the built environment. What are specific ways we can improve women’s experiences through the design of the physical environment? The way we can help any person in the workplace is having good lighting and more personalized temperature control, because that seriously affects the way people work. Give people inspiring spaces – spaces that are light-filled, uplifting and environmentally clean. There’s nothing wrong with beauty and aesthetics. In my opinion, making your path beautiful from here to there is equally as important as actually being able to get from point A to point B. We have more of an obligation to make things “pretty” than we do just to make things. It’s human nature to respond positively to a smile, a hug, or something that looks or feels welcoming.Mentorship is crucial to professional success and longevity, but many studies have shown that women in the workplace are more reluctant to pay it forward and have a harder time finding mentors than men do. Do you think this dynamic holds true in the design industry, as well?I find that shocking – intuitively, women are nurturing, they’re typically givers. I could see it happening if women were not confident in themselves, or came from a past generation. They always say – hire your replacement, because then you can do bigger and better things. Those people must have come in the workforce late, or don’t understand how to grow people.The key to being a good mentor is the day you realize you can’t do it all by yourself, so you have to teach someone else how to do it. I think the education of our staff – and of our clients – is really important. I love nothing more than getting a student straight out of school - very smart, very talented - and then, you know, kind of hovering over them and helping them learn. Then, once you do that, I feel like they’ve learned from my experience, which amplifies the experience they came to the table with – and now they’re twice as good. They’re better than I am! And I love that.Who is your mentor? The absence of one was my mentor. You can self-mentor by being a sponge and watching people, even if they’re not sitting down and teaching you. You can also learn what not to do by watching those same people.