Seattle Architecture & Design

MJ is an expert at translating brands into impactful customer moments. She has spent her career studying consumers and the drivers that impact their decisions. MJ creates a center of gravity on each project, leading teams, and clients through an innovative process that blends brand stories, business goals, and consumer insights into memorable experiences. At her core, she is a listener, opportunity-seeker, and choreographer crafting ideas into environments that delight. She has collaborated with some of the world’s most notable brands, including Nordstrom, Harrods, Anthropologie, and Hyatt, to name a few.

Joan Insel leads global brand strategy for CallisonRTKL. Her background in both architecture and graphic design allows her to bring a unique perspective to each project. As a brand strategist, she fuses retail knowledge—business, market, trend and information analysis—with imagination to build a strong foundation for designs that will ignite the minds of the creative teams charged with bringing the client’s projects to life. Ms. Insel is a sought-after speaker who has presented at national events including Globalshop and has been recognized as an Influencer of the Year by design:retail magazine.

With over 20 years of experience, Interior Design Principal Kimberly Frank has extensive expertise in multi-family housing, senior living, and hospitality in varying complexity and construction types. Kimberly is a resilient, adaptable, and flexible leader. She directed the planning, design and delivery of multiple projects in the Greater Puget Sound and Los Angeles area that range in scale from intimate to expansive. She thrives in a multidisciplinary practice, often collaborating with marketing, branding and leasing management teams. Kimberly is an ambassador of integrity and strong company culture – she is compelled by the belief that each employee drives an organization’s potential. She inspires teams through a user-minded design approach with rigor, curiosity, and creative solutions that are relevant to the end consumer. She skillfully guides projects influenced by relevant lifestyle trends in multiple markets, and identifies shared values for target demographics.

A multidisciplinary design leader, a seasoned interior designer Carole spent most of her career crafting-built environments rooted in strong conceptual ideas. She has a unique understanding of the connection between people and place and brings an exceptional story-telling and brand imaging perspective to her work. This depth and breadth in experience allow her to integrate innovative interior design solutions to new design challenges. The common thread tying all her projects together is a passion for designing innovative environments with deep contextual meaning, her intuition and an emphasis on the human experience that makes the spaces memorable. Carole believes that meaningful experiences can differentiate brands, drive business, and build community. Carole has worked across market sectors, including commercial, workplace, healthcare, multi-family residential, and aviation. Her work has received numerous design awards and featured in multiple publications including Interior Design, Contract, Healthcare Design, and IIDA Northern Pacific Chapter INawards.

Loren is a senior designer with 17 years of experience leading projects ranging from large scale (stadia, corporate headquarters, cultural hubs) to small (wineries, retail, and restaurants). With a proven ability to create visionary architecture regardless of project type, site or budget constraints, Loren takes immense pride in delivering projects that transcend expectation. He is a registered architect in both New York and Washington State, and has an expansive portfolio of built work in both the US and abroad.

Margaret Montgomery is NBBJ’s global sustainable practice leader. She leads initiatives and projects with the goal of creating healthy places that reunite people with nature. Employing strategies that range from biophilia and indoor air quality to zero net carbon design, she encourages teams to improve building performance, ecosystem vitality and human experience on each project. She has more than 30 years of experience in civic, commercial, corporate, higher education and healthcare architecture. Her work includes the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Campus in Seattle, the world’s largest LEED Platinum non-profit headquarters; and the LEED Gold U.S. Courthouse in Billings, Montana. Margaret is the current chair of the national AIA Energy Leadership Group. Previously, she served as Chair of the Large Firm Roundtable Sustainability Committee, served on the board of AIA Seattle and co-chaired its What Makes It Green program and was a member of the AIA Energy Education Working Group. She is also involved with Better Bricks, the Cascadia Green Building Council and Seattle Climate Partners. She is a frequent juror of award programs, including the AIA COTE awards and a sought-after speaker at events, including the Zero Net Carbon China Forum.

Erik is an award-winning design leader with 25 years of experience conceiving projects and places in urban and campus contexts with a focus on meaningful place making and the transformative potential of design. Erik is a holistic-minded, inventive thought leader who has demonstrated exceptional leadership as a design practitioner and engaged community advocate for design excellence. His diverse portfolio includes planning and design for higher education, civic, commercial, healthcare, science and technology, and public art. Erik’s work is distinguished by thoughtfulness and quality in conception and execution and demonstrates a broad creative range in which the opportunities of a place and program are manifested in unique and memorable solutions shaped by the focused aspirations of the client and creative team. His work has been recognized for design quality and clients enjoy his creative approach, and collaborative and engaging design leadership.

Known for her collaboration and management leadership, Pamela has spent her career successfully delivering private and public developments including commercial, workplace, hospitality and residential projects in the Pacific Northwest. A creative and strategic thinker, she leverages her unmatched capacity to engage both project stakeholders and community voice towards a unified vision—resulting in solutions that enrich neighborhoods and cities. Pamela was the Project Manager on the newly completed Seattle Asian Art Museum Expansion and Renovation projec which honors and preserves the architectural legacy of the historic 1933 Art Deco building and integrity of the Olmsted-designed Volunteer Park.

Dan leads the Seattle based office and engineering team for tk1sc – a comprehensive engineering services business specializing in building design. He is a thought-leader in the delivery of integrated design, emphasizing that sustainable design is an imperative, not an option. In his 25+ years of experience, and nearly 20 years serving the Puget Sound Region, Dan has worked with notable clients like Boeing and Google, as well as numerous K-12 school districts, Universities colleges and community colleges, large retail centers, healthcare systems, and government, facilities. Dan’s unique skillset and passion for sustainability has led him to the design and installation of large photovoltaic systems for Google’s Santa Clara campus, the Miami Heat stadium, the San Francisco 49er’s new Levi’s stadium, and at the MGM Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, NV which was the Largest rooftop solar project in North America at the time. Dan’s current passion project is in R&D supporting a confidential client’s initiatives to take their building developments to Net Zero Energy, Energy Resilient with Microgrids, and Carbon Positive building construction. Dan recently relocated from Bainbridge Island to downtown Seattle with his wife and daughter attending the University of Washington. Dan sits on the Board of the non- profit Seattle 2030 District with a mission to keep Seattle a vibrant, livable City with climate and environmentally conscious building development.

Driven by the desire to have a meaningful impact on both the urban and natural landscape, Rico works with organizations to have a positive influence in their own communities through design. In 25 years of professional experience, he has developed a keen awareness of the special requirements needed to make public, private, and non-profit projects a success. Rico is a principal at DLR Group and Civic Design Leader for their NW Region. Rico believes that through proactive design, vision, and multi-agency collaboration, opportunities for social change can be realized through urban-scale, civic projects. Rico was on AIA Seattle’s board of directors for six years and was president of the Seattle Chapter in 2012-13. Rico was a mayoral appointee to the Historic Seattle Council for six years, was a founding member of the National Organization of Minority Architects Northwest Chapter, and is current Chair for the Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority. Rico sat on the AIA+2030 national steering committee, a committee born out of AIA Seattle that has seen to it that 24 cities nationally are providing curriculum to help design teams and owners meet the 2030 Challenge. Rico sat on both the City of Seattle One Center City Advisory Board and Seattle’s Imagine Greater Downtown Advisory, was recognized in 2011 by AIA National as a Citizen Architects on the Move, and was awarded the AIA Seattle Young Architect Award in 2014. In 2019, Rico was voted in as an incoming board member of Seattle’s Downtown Seattle Association.

An urban designer, planner, and architect, Erin is passionate about building physical and social community. Her collaborative, listening approach results in high performance development for neighborhoods, housing authorities, private developers, and local governments. Erin is a national leader and advocate for healthy and sustainable urbanism; having pioneered the use of health impact assessments in design. Her areas of expertise include urban revitalization, affordable housing, EcoDistrict planning, and environmental metrics. She believes in the power of a holistic, human-centric approach and evidence-based design to maximize investment and vibrant community outcomes. Erin’s early career focused on housing and neighborhood redevelopment planning. She spent nearly a decade responsible for mixed-use, mixed-finance projects for private and public sector clients in Washington DC, Boston, and for multiple HOPE VI projects. To date, she has led projects resulting in over 3,000 units of new housing. Her work has received industry and peer awards for innovation in health, equitable design, and sustainability. In 2014, the Urban Land Institute recognized Erin as a Global 40 Under 40 Professional.

Kokila’s passion is to integrate transit into cities to help create more livable and sustainable places. Her planning and design skills, augmented by her experience in project management and stakeholder facilitation have resulted in a track record of continued client satisfaction, successful conflict resolution, and creative problem-solving. With over 21 years of international project management experience, and a career focused on transit and land use integration including transit alignment planning, Kokila’s diversity of expertise combined with her ‘client-first’ focus brings a unique combination of design sensitivity and strategic thinking to her work.

As a formally trained artist, self-taught businesswoman, and lifelong entrepreneur, NINE dot ARTS CEO and Co-founder Martha Weidmann aims to be a mentor and champion for aspiring artists and business leaders alike. Martha and Co-founder Molly Casey formed NINE dot ARTS in 2009 with the vision of building a forward-thinking art consulting company that both curates incredible art experiences and advocates for art and artists. Since then, the firm has completed nearly 1,000 real estate projects across 39 states and five countries, generating more than $50M in revenue for the creative economy. Currently, their artist application, Dotfolio, features over 10,000 artists from around the world.

Lindsey has devoted her career to understanding the legal risks her clients face in the construction industry. Her clients include developers, owners, owner’s representatives, contractors, international multidisciplinary design firms, and local engineering and architecture firms. She takes great pride in offering an integrated suite of services to her clients, providing advice on risk management, contract negotiation, and conflict resolution, as well as defending her clients from claims. Lindsey’s practice spans Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and Arizona and she considers it an honor to counsel her clients as they change the way people live, work and travel in the Pacific Northwest. Lindsey is deeply engaged with organizations in the field of construction and she holds numerous leadership positions as well as being recognized as an honorary American Institute of Architects (AIA) member. She is a respected leader in her field and a frequent presenter to industry organizations and professionals on a range of construction law topics.