EVELYN LEE
Portrait courtesy of Evelyn Lee.
Senior Experience Designer, Slack Technologies
Founder, Practice of Architecture
Evelyn is the Founder of the Practice of Architecture. A licensed architect in the state of California, Evelyn has over 15 years of experience working with individuals and companies that are looking to reshape their future.
She is a featured keynote speaker and panelist at national conferences. Her topics focus on developing knowledge leadership, organizational change management, and strategic approaches to put design thinking to work in life and in practice. She also is the first female Treasurer to AIA National‘s Board.
During the day, Evelyn works as the first-ever Senior Experience Designer at Slack Technologies.
The Road Less Traveled
What inspired you to pursue architecture?
I wanted to be an architect for as long as I could remember, ever since my 4th-grade teacher asked us to draw our dream homes and I drew my first plan (while my classmates drew their home in elevation).
On my family’s weekly visits to the grocery store, I would always stop and pick up a magazine full of house plans. I remember first falling in love with old Victorians with large wrap-around porches.
My husband would probably be happy that my preferences have changed since then.
Photo courtesy of Evelyn Lee.
Internship and Career Survey. Photo courtesy of Evelyn Lee.
Pro Bono Guidelines. Photo courtesy of Evelyn Lee.
What is the most important thing that you learned in the past year?
Schedule for efficiency, but practice agility.
I’ve learned to be more productive through time blocking but I’ve also become much more adept at being more agile – prioritizing what I need to finish and moving them around to make it happen. This is to account for any number of things that 2020 has thrown at me including but not limited to, shelter in place, loss of childcare, distance learning, mental stress and wellbeing, company re-orgs and acquisitions, etc.
Being agile and adaptable has kept me sane but has also made sure that I keep moving forward one step at a time.
Photo courtesy of Evelyn Lee.
Photo courtesy of Evelyn Lee.
What are some architectural organizations (or specific person/role model) that helped you learn to overcome an obstacle? How did they?
I am heavily involved in the AIA and have been ever since I graduated from grad school. I’ve learned so much from the organization and the people within it, I consider many of them my extended family. My national board class literally pulled together enough money to furnish the nursery when I was pregnant with my first.
The organization has given me the ability to chair committees improving my stakeholder engagement abilities, the confidence to speak in front of thousands of people, and the patience required to make meaningful change happen even if it takes time.
AIA Conference. Photo courtesy of Evelyn Lee.
Photo courtesy of Evelyn Lee.
If you were given the opportunity to repeat the year, what is one thing you’d do differently?
I would begin to prioritize time for myself sooner rather than later. I’ve only recently started creating enough space on my schedule to really benefit from it and start feeling myself again. A part of me was trying to outlast the current state rather than make all the necessary changes to make the most of the situation.
I’m exercising regularly, cooking more than ever from scratch, finding time to meditate and write down what I am grateful though on a more regular basis.
Photo courtesy of Evelyn Lee.
As you reflect on the past year, what did you discover as your biggest strengths?
I always choose a word of the year. In 2020 that word was strength and every definition of the word from physical to mental. In 2021 that word is agility. I think we are all adaptable and agile, but in the best of times that muscle is never flexed, and in the worse of times, along with everything else, we tend to get in our own way.
I’ve learned to build bridges where I need to, reach farther outside of my network (even virtually), and create a schedule that works for both me and my family.
Photo courtesy of Evelyn Lee.
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 think the biggest concern is going to be what happens next. That the band-aids we’ve created are going to get adopted into what we do every day when firms really should be rethinking each and every process from the ground-up, especially if they want to create a more flexible working arrangement going forward.
Photo courtesy of Evelyn Lee.
