AMANDA MCGILLVERY
Portrait courtesy of Amanda McGillvery.
Interior and Architectural Designer
University of Memphis - dual degree: BFA in Architecture + Interior Architecture
Graduating in the top 20% of her class as a Tau Sigma Delta member, Amanda earned a dual degree in both architecture and interior architecture. After having the opportunity to intern with some of the greatest firms in town, she began her journey post-grad doing community-centric design at a local firm.
Based in TN, the warm culture of Memphis has driven Amanda’s passion towards community based design work. This goal stems from her volunteer work with Memphis Heritage. Her experience with historic buildings gave her a better view of how they can provide a sense of establishment and character towards regional culture. Amanda’s long-term career goal is to be proactive in helping to regenerate existing buildings in dense urban locales.
A Journey to Self-Discovery
What inspired you to pursue architecture?
A deep love for fine arts and psychology leads me to pursue architecture.
Living in Memphis helped me realize the full impact and importance of architecture as well as how it affects the community that it reigns in. Blight, economic and racial stratification have divided this community for many generations. I wanted to pursue renovation projects to revitalize that blight in our communities which would hopefully bridge the gap both racially and economically.
More generally, architecture’s overall impact can set the tone for the city by providing the steppingstones for a neighborhood's success as well as potentially destroying or dissolving that same neighborhood if it became blight.
Learning and seeing the effects of infrastructure drove my passion towards community centric design as well as healthy building practices. It wasn’t until my involvement in DAP, Design As Protest, that I was connected with urban planners and could learn more about how blight happens and why it remains in neighborhoods for years if not decades at a time. So much of being able to revitalize existing buildings is based on local and national funding -in many cases, the lack thereof- as well as how costly it can be to renovate the aged bones of existing buildings. So much of what I’ve been able to learn in organizations like DAP are things that I wish were integrated into academia.
Façade Renovation, Conceptual Design in Academia. Photo courtesy of Amanda McGillvery
What is the most important thing that you learned in the past year?
Amidst a global health and economic pandemic, racial awakening and systemic stratification, it’s incredibly important now more than ever to practice intersectionality in addition to staying engaged with the world around us. This is by far the most important thing that keeps resurfacing now more than ever.
Both intersectionality and engagement can be the building blocks to finding your voice as an emerging designer and as a young adult or evolving adult. Finding our voices as individuals helps to build the framework for our journey as emerging professionals. Understanding our voice helps us to realize what we are most passionate about in the design field while keeping a well-rounded and well-grounded perspective in learning about the world around us.
Revitalization, vicinity analysis. Photo courtesy of Amanda McGillvery.
Revitalization, site analysis. Photo courtesy of Amanda McGillvery.
What are some architectural organizations (or specific person/role model) that helped you learn to overcome an obstacle? How did they?
Although there’s a lot of great resources and information that national and local organizations provide, I’ve found that BIPOC design communities like OH help to create a strong sense of community while encouraging our journey as emerging professionals. OH connects us with experienced design professionals to create opportunities to hear about and relate with their journey. We have the opportunity to ask questions or even ask for advice about how to maneuver through any issues or sticking points that we have in our journey. This community has been my back-bone through this season of self-discovery and through exploring interdisciplinary design.
Photography, Memphis Infrastructure. Photo courtesy of Amanda McGillvery.
4part piece, hand drawing of downtown Memphis. Photo courtesy of Amanda McGillvery.
If you were given the opportunity to repeat the year, what is one thing you’d do differently?
It’s been a Renaissance year for me, full of boldness and independence and I wouldn’t change a thing! I took some pretty big leaps of faith this year and am continuing to take those leaps after realizing that they truly lead to self-discovery. This year’s work-from-home order has given me the time and space to explore interdisciplinary design work and connect with like-minded designers from across the nation who are also interested in exploring the many facets of the design world. It’s been a huge help to try out different design opportunities, from partial design career pivots to discovering which parts of the design world I enjoy most. Enjoying the work that I do has been the driving factor to pursuing different design work.
Site Visit at Crosstown Concourse. Photo courtesy of Amanda McGillvery.
As you reflect on the past year, what did you discover as your biggest strengths?
Independence and resilience seem to be my biggest strengths and I didn’t really realize that until one of my closest friends brought it up to me in conversation. No matter how difficult or challenging things get I know that I’m capable of figuring out any problem and discovering how to solve it -thanks to academia and to the design profession! They’ve definitely helped me learn how to juggle multi-tasking and what it takes to meet last minute deadlines. This has helped me to realize that I’m fairly independent in problem solving and resilient in recovering from the emotional stress of intensive deadlines.
Interior Bedroom Renovation part 1. Photo courtesy of Amanda McGillvery.
Interior Bedroom Renovation part 2. Photo courtesy of Amanda McGillvery.
In terms of rising concerns and problems (in the architectural profession) over the past year, what is one change that you wished would happen and it did not? This can be in an educational or work atmosphere.
Alongside racial liberation, gender equality and equal opportunity, my hopes for the design profession is that it will make its full transition from euro-centric design to global, culturally inclusive design.
The social structure of architecture and more broadly the design world is not inherently inclusive of the world that it designs for -that’s got to change.
Be your own Basquiat. Photo courtesy of Amanda McGillvery.
