AUSTIN HOGANS
Portrait courtesy of Austin Hogans.
MARCH + MSRED (sustainable real estate development) from Tulane University
B.A. in Architecture from Miami University (OH)
Originally from Columbus, Ohio, Austin is a Designer at Studio Kiro Architecture Firm Based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her interests lie in Environmental Sustainability and design that celebrates people with historically marginalized backgrounds and social justice. While attending Miami University, Austin participated in the Over-The-Rhine Design-Build Residency Program that explored issues surrounding gentrification in Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati. It was from this experience where she began to explore ways of supporting equity and inclusion through design. Outside of the studio, she was a member of Black Women Empowered/BWE, a student organization at Miami University that provided a safe space for Black Women at Miami University and brought awareness to issues surrounding racism and sexism experienced on and off-campus. After graduating with her B.A. in Architecture, Austin attended Graduate school at Tulane University and recently graduated with her MARCH and MSRED. While at Tulane she participated in the UrbanBuild program during the building part for UB 15. Austin enjoys spending her free time cooking, drawing and water coloring, and fishing, and biking.
Fall 2016, Over-the Rhine Residency Program, Signage prototype. Photo courtesy of Austin Hogans.
Fall 2016, Over-the-Rhine Residency Program, Design-Build Final. Photo courtesy of Austin Hogans.
What inspired you to pursue architecture?
There were these small but significant moments at a very young age that got me towards the path of architecture. I got interested really young, I believe I was in 2nd grade when my dad had seen my interest in drawing and suggested that I should become an architect. I had no idea what an architect was but to a 7-year-old, it sounded pretty cool when he said it. My mom always had the HGTV channel on constantly and I was always tuned in to the home renovations shows on there, and then we ended up renovating our own home out of necessity ( frozen pipes burst! Flooded the whole house). I believe these moments, both positive and negative, in my childhood were pivotal in my interest being geared towards architecture. When I was in 8th grade, my school required us to take a career day where instead of going to school for a day, we showed at Job that was related to our current career interest. I decided I wanted to shadow at an architecture firm and the only one I reached out to, allowed me to come for the day to shadow. That firm was Moody-Nolan. I didn’t know much about the firm, only that it was Black-Owned and lead which heightened my interest even more. I was very happy that they accepted me to be there for the day and I became very aware of how well known and important the firm was until I got there. Everyone was warm and welcoming and seeing the messy, drawing-filled desks and seeing people who look like me thriving, enjoying the work they do in this field made me even more certain that this was what I wanted to do.
A design-build project, sophomore year, Fall 2015, where a group of my studio mates and I designed and built studio lofts for our group. Photo courtesy of Austin Hogans.
What is the most important thing that you learned in the past year?
After graduate school, it felt that your work in the studio defined who you were. A mediocre studio-grade, a bad critique, or just not feeling like your measuring up to your studio peers felt like a personal attack for me. This was something I struggled with throughout graduate school. Gratefully I was one of the ones blessed to find a position at a firm during the pandemic right after I graduated, but when I started to work on the projects at my firm and the pressure began to build up, I started being way too hard on myself when I would feel like I was measuring up to the work I was doing. Now that I am working in the field and have kind of detached myself from academia, I am realizing that there’s way more to life than my career. But I am also understanding that for me to be a successful architect, I need to practice a good work-life balance, and also to not take my mistakes as something bigger than what they are and to take them as a learning opportunity. This year forced me to take the lessons I learned in the past and apply them to my career, and overall, to myself.
2017 Germany-Malta Study Abroad, Vitra Design Museum, Germany. Photo courtesy of Austin Hogans.
2017, Study Abroad in Valletta, Malta. Photo courtesy of Austin Hogans.
What are some architectural organizations (or specific person/role model) that helped you learn to overcome an obstacle? How did they?
Graduate school for me started off pretty rough. I did very well in my classes outside of the studio but I ended my first semester of the studio with a grade that was pretty poor, it caught me off guard and it put me on academic probation, because of that one grade alone. I am not sure why that grade got to be the way that it did but it sent me spiraling, I started to have bad anxiety and I became very depressed. Although I was getting good grades in the studios that followed and were able to get off of academic probation, that one poor grade was like a dark cloud over my first year of graduate school. It had gotten really bad to the point I was questioning whether I should be an architect. I cannot say it was one specific person that got me through this moment, but it was the Black women in my architecture program, and my support system back home that kept me grounded and got me to overcome that obstacle and I was able to be successful and enjoy my final year of graduate school. Through their support and love, I started to go to therapy and I started to find my place, my joy in architecture again.
Fall 2019, Final Review For the Rajasthan Cities Project// Jaipur -Research Studio. Photo courtesy of Austin Hogans.
Jama Masjid, New Delhi | Fall 2019 Fall Studio Trip to India. Photo courtesy of Austin Hogans.
If you were given the opportunity to repeat the year, what is one thing you’d do differently?
With everything that has happened, I am blessed to say that this year has treated me very well. However if there was one thing I would’ve done differently, I would try to speak up more, be more vocal. Recognizing the power of my voice and assert myself as a leader in my final year of graduate school and at my firm. I often underestimate the voice I have and in 2019, I really sabotaged myself by barely expressing myself and having low self-esteem. I was burnt out and became more insular. This year I started to be more vocal and more expressive and I am very grateful for the gains I did get this year but there is still room for improvement.
Axon of the modular communal bin in an informal context | Fall 2019, Rajasthan Cities Project// Jaipur -Research Studio. Photo courtesy of Austin Hogans.
Dot Density Map, Designing for Communal Waste Bins in relation to population density| Fall 2019, Rajasthan Cities Project// Jaipur - Research Studio. Photo courtesy of Austin Hogans.
As you reflect on the past year, what did you discover as your biggest strengths?
Compared to the years prior, I have been challenged both mentally and physically and it wasn’t until 2020 where I started to take accountability for my mental health and began to experience the beginning of my professional career without “imposter syndrome”. 2020 was a year of uncertainty for me but I am not a stranger to this reality. I believe my biggest strengths are what kept me grounded through all my obstacles in the past, My will to preserve and my will to Adapt, no matter how uncomfortable, how much something might seem unattainable, are my biggest strengths.
Spring 2020, UrbanBuild, Design-Build: Roof Framing. Photo courtesy of Austin Hogans.
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.
I wish that Architecture Schools in general would do away with their outdated “gatekeeping” practices so the architecture community can become more inclusive for people of all backgrounds, including race and class.
“ Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Fall 2017, Art Piece inspired by the 13th Amendment, Pen, and watercolor. Photo courtesy of Austin Hogans.
