Our Women’s Roundtable Explores What’s Driving Business Forward

From using artificial intelligence (AI) in daily workflows to turning empty offices into affordable housing it’s all about sharing ideas, setting goals and kicking off the new year with purpose.
The participants included roundtable host Tiffany Rafii, co-founder and CEO, UpSpring; Christine Faverio, Associate Principal, JCJ Architecture; Oona Walsh, Teknion, Director of Corporate Marketing, Teknion; Jenny Freeman, Managing Director, Buildings, Group PMX; Jenna Harpe, Principal, Hord Coplan Macht; Bhavini Hardev, Principal, RYS Architects; and Dina Gonzalez, Senior Associate, Architect AIA, NCARB, at Carrier Johnson + Culture.

UpSpring’s Rafii: What does your daily routine look like?

Carrier Johnson + Culture’s Gonzalez: I work on a lot of multifamily projects and am fortunate to say that about 90% of them have been built, ranging from ground-up mixed-use towers to corporate tenant improvements. I’ve also done some higher education projects.

Part of my experience is in interior architecture, so I’ve seen multiple design projects from conceptual design through the final punch walk. I work closely with clients to identify their needs and help bring their vision to life. I get very creative working with all types of budgets and love diving into construction details, which means collaborating closely with GCs to ensure the design intent is maintained throughout the construction process.

I get very creative working with all types of budgets and love diving into construction details, which means collaborating closely with GCs to ensure the design intent is maintained throughout the construction process.

RYS Architects’ Hardev: My role is focused on the firm’s vision, mentoring teams and being hands-on in guiding the design of the projects I’m involved in. We’re currently doing a lot of renovation work versus ground up. Being on the West Coast, things are a little bit slower to start; developers are slightly hesitant about starting new construction.

Hord Coplan Macht’s Harpe: We are a multidisciplinary firm that does architecture, interiors, branding and graphics, landscape—the full spectrum of design services. My group focuses on housing mixed use. We are 99% ground up construction, so it has been an interesting past couple years. While we have seen lots of new starts and holds on those starts, not too many things have gone dormant. They’re just taking longer to get under construction.

Recently, about four things that have been sitting there shook loose. We’re seeing things happening quickly right now.

Group PMX’s Freeman: Group PMX is a program and project management firm with a large footprint in the owner’s rep world, overseeing projects for our clients, staff augmentation, primarily institutional and agency work. We are an MBE firm, so we also carve out some work for agencies, as well, supporting quite a few partners in our space.

As the managing director of buildings, I spend a lot of time pursuing new work and trying to line up the right resources for our clients, also providing executive oversight and strategic direction on some of the more challenging projects that were involved with.

We’ve been really striving for growth. We’ve had about80 people in the firm for a couple of years, and I’d say this has been a sort of a rough year for that. Things have stalled. I think somebody else mentioned that we’ve seen a lot of projects that haven’t moved forward.

Most recently, there have been a lot of cutbacks in government related funding for projects and a lot of higher edges. Many of the institutional clients in the New York area have had some restricted funding and it’s had an impact that has worked its way downstream to a lot of the projects.

Teknion’s Walsh: I’m in a sort of different space than you all because we do contract furniture. As Director of Corporate Marketing, my role is around brand messaging in the physical and digital space. It’s also about trying to read some tea leaves, especially for the past couple of years where there has been lots of uncertainty. We felt that pretty strongly when everyone was sent home and people started asking if the office even needed to exist. We were holding our breath, thinking—we sure hope so.

I’m a big advocate for the office, and we’re starting to see a shift away from heavily ancillary spaces. There was a time when collaboration was such a priority that it became overwhelming. Now we’re seeing a return to more traditional office needs.

JCJ Architecture’s Faverio: I’ve been in the industry for 37 years. This is my seventh year at JCJ as a Senior Project Designer. JCJ works on a wide range of project types, with a focus on hospitality and educational markets, providing architecture, master planning and interior design services. We have seven offices nationwide and I’m the Studio Leader for the New York office.

As the Studio Leader, my goal is to build on the strengths of our team and cultivate talent in our studio. The design and preparation of documents for the downstate New York casino license for the MGM Empire City application has kept me very busy and engaged these last few years, and now I am looking forward to expanding my focus to other properties and project types, including multifamily housing.

 UpSpring’s Rafii: Let’s hop into construction & design trends. What are you noticing in the market today?

JCJ Architecture’s Faverio: I’ve been around for a while, so I witnessed the evolution from hand drafting to CAD, and now we’re experiencing the evolution to AI. Each transition in the tools we use to implement documentation and express design has been met with a mix of resistance and enthusiasm.

Some like to just jump right in there; others hesitate. It demands significant resources, commitment, and a willingness to evolve from both individuals and organizations. But at JCJ, we are actively exploring ways to integrate AI into our operations and design processes, trying to stay ahead of the curve as the industry continues to transform.

Teknion’s Walsh: We’re seeing a return to more traditional workspaces, along with a deeper appreciation for craft. People want to understand the heritage, design and thoughtfulness behind each piece. It’s almost a reaction to the work-from-home era, when everyone was buying from Wayfair and Overstock and realized that cheap is cheap. That shift toward quality and authenticity is really interesting. From a client perspective, acoustics and lighting are also becoming major priorities—elements that elevate space design in ways that feel more intentional and transcendent.”

Whether that’s circadian or interactive lighting, I think there’s going to be something interesting in the next iteration of offices. From our point of view, we’re grappling with AI and how to use it in the smartest ways possible. Attraction and retention also are important. How do we get the best talent? How do we make sure we’re competitive in the market?

Group PMX’s Freeman: I’m seeing quite a bit more activity in the design-build approach to developing projects. We’re seeing that more and more of the agencies in the New York marketplace have now received legislative approval to utilize Design-Build. And there’s been a real push towards engaging in a different way, which has been really interesting to see and to grow with. The New York construction market is one of the slowest changing kinds of work ever.

We do not adopt new technologies easily. We’re not particularly nimble in terms of a willingness to do things in a different way. I did my first project that had some prefabrication probably 13 years ago. And I thought, of course, this is going to just take over and it has gone very slowly.

We’ve been very reluctant to engage in most of the marketplaces that I’ve seen. But I am seeing more and more efforts to award projects in a design build way. And we are obviously encouraging our employees to get DBIA certified and be positioned in a good way to support those projects moving forward.

Hord Coplan Macht’s Harpe: Market rate housing is interesting on the luxury apartment side and is not going away. I’m hyper focused on that notion of authenticity. We see a world of endless options. There is so much endless customization available. What makes this unique is when you have so many choices. That’s at the top of our list—it drives everything we do, from the building design and unit layouts to the interiors and every aspect of the building’s branding.

That’s not going away—it’s only becoming a bigger focus for our clients. We’re seeing a shift from large multipurpose spaces to highly specialized ones. It’s not just a gym, it’s a cryotherapy room. Not just a coworking space, it’s a podcast studio with sound attenuation and a full suite of amenities. Exploring that level of detail has added real depth to our work and to the experiences we’re creating.

We’re seeing a steady rise in wellness requests, but many clients still aren’t sure what that really means. They know they want it—they just don’t know what “it” is. So we’ve been exploring everything from saunas and infrared therapy to salt rooms and swim therapy pools. It’s become a full-on exploration. Wellness amenities that used to average 2,500 square feet are now pushing 3,500 to 4,000, with nearly half of all amenity spaces dedicated to fitness and wellness. It’s been fascinating to watch that shift take hold.

RYS Architects’ Hardev: We’re seeing wellness come up across the board as something new, even though it’s been around for a while. It’s typically associated with luxury, but now the focus is on bringing that experience into mid- and lower-scale projects. How do we design for wellness without it feeling like a high-end spa or sauna? How do we make these spaces accessible at a lower price point? That’s what we’re exploring.

As for other trends, we’re seeing more design-build and modular construction, both of which have been around for a while. We’re not only seeing modularity being applied to affordable housing, but also to luxury hotels. It’s interesting how we can manipulate and design with modular construction to create these varying projects of very different scales.

Carrier Johnson + Culture’s Gonzalez: We’ll continue to see adaptive reuse. There are still a lot of empty office buildings out there. Even though people are returning to the office, companies aren’t requiring the same scale because there’s still some hesitancy. We also still have a massive need for housing, so adaptive reuse will continue to be a trend.

One trend I’d like to see more of is regenerative design. A lot of the projects I work on are in California. We have a bit of a head start in sustainability, and our codes are stricter, but with new generations entering the workforce, “hurting less” is no longer enough. Many of the sustainability codes we see are just that, minimizing harm. Regenerative design asks, “How can our buildings actually give back?”

In adaptive reuse, there’s already a sustainability benefit—there’s no greener building than one that already exists. The question is, how can we add a layer to that? I think it’s going to speak to the responsibility every design firm has—what is their social responsibility, and what do they want to give back to the community? It’s going to touch everything. Instead of just adding greenery to a space, you could connect indoor and outdoor spaces.

What if we create gardens? For example, in housing projects, instead of just a beautiful green space, what if it’s an herb garden that people can actively use? There are so many design opportunities like that.

This also ties into wellness. I think the new generation cares more about their health, wellbeing, and the future world they’ll inherit. They’re entering the workforce expecting us, through our designs, to try to make a positive impact. I hope regenerative design becomes one of the biggest trends we start seeing—more conscious and responsible design practices.

UpSpring’s Rafii: How are your firms dealing with the occupancy rate of buildings to possibly convert them to residential or affordable housing?

Carrier Johnson + Culture’s Gonzalez: We’ve had the opportunity to work on building conversions, and some adaptive reuse has even been on projects we designed previously. That gives you a unique advantage because you understand why things were laid out the way they were. I’m not going to say we have it all figured out; we’re definitely working with challenges.

We work closely with general contractors from the start to identify key areas. For example, in a typical corporate floor layout, where are the concentrated plumbing stacks, and how do you redistribute them? In my opinion, the biggest challenges are solved through programming.

You start with the floor plan because the spans between columns are one of the main obstacles when changing a building’s use. The depth of the floor plates is another challenge, just to create functional spaces. If you’re converting offices to housing and figuring out where the core truly needs to be, it really comes down to space planning.

You work out the floor plate programming, trying to minimize transition points to maximize the efficiency of existing plumbing, shafts, and systems. Taking this programming approach vertically, redistributing uses doesn’t always mean converting the entire building. Sometimes the best solution is to convert only a portion, using some of the budget to rearrange systems for certain floors for housing, while the rest could remain office, hotel, wellness centers—anything really.

You’re just redistributing portions of the systems, not the whole building. I don’t think there’s a magical solution, but it all comes down to creative reprogramming and paying close attention to how the building is organized.

RYS Architects’ Hardev: One of the biggest challenges we’ve seen—especially in downtown San Francisco—is with older buildings we’re looking to convert for new uses. The issues almost always begin with accessibility. San Francisco is a very hilly city, which already makes accessibility a challenge, and many of these older structures were built long before ADA requirements existed.

Then there’s fire and life safety. Many of these buildings have narrow stairways or maybe just a single stair. Some have roof access where the only way down is through roof ladders or old fire escapes—features that simply aren’t allowed under current codes. The real question becomes: How do we adapt and reuse these existing buildings while upgrading what we can to meet modern standards?

A successful path forward usually means close collaboration with city officials, fire marshals and building departments to find creative, acceptable solutions to all these unique challenges. But that process takes time—often more time than our clients expect or want to spend before we can even present a design solution.

We haven’t cracked that completely yet. It really comes down to finding the right client— someone willing to invest what it takes to work through these details with us and the city. It’s especially interesting when you think about this in the context of sustainability and adaptive reuse. There are so many abandoned or underused buildings out there, but if they can’t meet today’s fire and life safety codes without major infrastructure upgrades, what options do we have short of massive spending?

That tension—between preserving what exists, meeting modern standards, and staying sustainable—is one of the most fascinating and complex challenges in adaptive reuse today.

Hord Coplan Macht’s Harpe: On the interior amenity side for housing, we don’t do much adaptive reuse, but we’re seeing a big rise in requests—especially for office and hotel conversions. There also has been an uptick in long-term property holders asking us to refresh their spaces. It’s a way to stay active in a slower market—taking an existing asset and repurposing or updating amenities to give it new life and appeal. It’s a smart way to add value without starting a four-year project from scratch.

UpSpring’s Rafii: Do you feel the volume is enough to bring the price points down overall?

Group PMX’s Freeman: We see a lot of office to residential conversions in New York City. Part of the reason that they pencil out and are so effective is because, as you’ve mentioned, they require a lot of plumbing. You have to put separate toilets, separate kitchens for each apartment. You also have to conform to light and window requirements.

You have to sort of either make a donut out of the building or vertically add towers on top of it to make it lucrative. And what I see in that, because we are doing a lot of it in New York, is that it’s not affordable housing. It doesn’t pencil out as affordable housing. It pencils out because we also have such incredibly high demand for luxury, high-end rental and condo units that can support a business program that has higher costs for conversion.

In that sort of private market for residential, you see a lot of that application. But in affordable housing and what you’re hearing about? Absolutely. The mayoral race and the huge push is the other end of that spectrum. For people who don’t have a lot of money to spend on their housing, they can’t find anything they can afford in New York. And that is a huge issue for, let’s say, teachers and firefighters.

There are so many public service employees who need to live close or reasonably close to where they’re providing services. It’s a challenging issue, but I don’t see it being solved, per se. The conversion program is continuing to add units to the portfolio available, residential in New York, but not at the lower price points. We’re not solving it that way at all.

UpSpring’s Rafii: Do you feel the volume is enough, that it’ll just bring the price points down overall?

Group PMX’s Freeman: I don’t think it works the best that way, and what they’ve come up with could be problematic. There’ve been some very interesting proposals and ideas put forward over the past couple of years. During Bloomberg’s days, he was trying to build these micro-apartments, these really small units. There certainly have been some modular units that have been put up in an effort to develop affordable housing.

But at the end of the day, what we’re going to be able to provide in New York will be  what is supported by the government with financial support. We have a whole industry of affordable housing in New York City being built and it has to pencil out. These projects are almost always associated now with a service program that provides a community based need, and there’s a rubric for that formula that gets supported by government funding. That’s what’s pushing those projects forward.

Teknion’s Walsh: We’re facing a really interesting sustainability challenge. One of our key differentiators is that we manufacture our own furniture—but that also comes with huge responsibility. It’s a lot of space, a lot of material and a lot of effort. The question is how we balance what we must do as a manufacturer with what we should do to make the right choices at every step. Much of it comes down to small, incremental initiatives that add up over time. What’s equally fascinating is seeing how our clients are approaching the same challenge.

How many people are looking to use our divert program, which is where we take used furniture. Or, when they’re ready to move, we take the furniture away. We find it another home, and then other clients ask if we have secondary furniture they could use. Sometimes it’s a budget issue; sometimes it’s just because they want to do the right thing.

We’re seeing growing interest in making decommissioning part of our contracts—helping clients remove and repurpose furniture responsibly. If we can’t recycle it right away, we’ll store it until we find a partner who can use it and benefit from it.

JCJ Architecture’s Faverio: The inefficiency and the depth of the floor plates and getting that right ratio of window and wall, structural modifications, integrating fire protection, updating to meet accessibility standards, are all challenges to address in conversions from office to residential or hotel. I agree that this doesn’t really bode well for low income or affordable housing, which is unfortunate.

Connecticut offers tax incentives to developers who build affordable housing through state and federal programs. Adaptive re-use programs encourage the redevelopment of historic buildings into productive, modern-use spaces.

We’ve just completed a project at 321 Ellis Street, which has been very successful, and it’s really rewarding to see an old mill building transformed into 154 beautiful, affordable units that anyone would love to live in.

UpSpring’s Rafii: Does anyone else want to share any challenges?

Hord Coplan Macht’s Harpe: Engagement is a word that gets overused, but it’s something we’re really struggling with—both with clients and within our own teams. Between Zoom fatigue and the shift to virtual collaboration, that sense of belonging in the design process has changed.

Presentations feel different now. We’re often talking to blank screens, not seeing real reactions. That disconnect affects how we work with clients and how we mentor junior staff. Just because we have more ways to communicate doesn’t necessarily make those connections more effective.

It’s much harder to gauge progress and reactions. That’s a big challenge for us—as well as an opportunity and a goal. Next year we want to do a better job of learning how to live in this world because it isn’t going away. We work across the country. Nobody’s flying around at the same level as before.

UpSpring’s Rafii: It’s so hard. There are trade-offs for everything and the way we work now feels easier, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s better.

From my perspective, I always encourage our teams and clients to keep their cameras on during meetings. It’s so much easier to collaborate successfully when you can see each other. There’s a sense of belonging that we need to work to cultivate intentionally in the digital world.

Group PMX’s Freeman: Group PMX is a virtual company. We don’t have a main office, so we’re on Teams regularly, but Obviously not with our clients. This actually encourages me more to go to clients because I’m at my desk in my apartment so often. I see it as a major challenge, and I also see it with my children who are not working in the office very regularly, is that you don’t hear any conversations that you are not directly part of.

In my career, which has been pretty long, I learned so much by hearing other people, how they conducted business and how they handled challenging situations, and how they resolved conflict. I feel like it’s a big hurdle for the next generation to understand and learn those skills and get a sense of the political landscape that’s going on within their companies when they’re not hearing the conversations that don’t specifically involve them.

On the flip side, from a challenges standpoint, on my end, I’ve always focused so strongly on being a transparent leader. That’s been a huge priority for me as a human. So that the people who work with us, not even for us, feel they have buy-in. I’m not concerned with whether or not they stay forever. I just want them to do what’s right for them and for the time that they are with us, I want them to feel connected to the unit so that our outcomes are better.

I think it’s harder because we’re mostly virtual. What I would say is the biggest hiccup is that in my head, I think I’m completely transparent and sometimes I lose sight of what people actually do and don’t know because when I’m having conversations, they’re in silos. I feel like I’ve maintained this transparency, whereas people on maybe three levels disconnected from me don’t feel that way because they see me once a year in review. They don’t see me walk through the office and crack a joke, which seems so silly, but that is sort of part of that internal fabric.

At the same time, going back to affordability, the conversation isn’t  just about housing. It’s about offices, too. To fit our company in an office would cost $400,000, $500,000 a year. I There are significant trade-offs to consider, It’s about working with what you’ve got. And the solution may not be perfect in the end, but I think it’s important that we’re having these discussions so that we can find those solutions.

JCJ Architecture’s Faverio: Since we have seven offices nationwide, it has always been a challenge to communicate successfully. I encourage everybody to have their camera on during Zoom meetings because I do want to have that visual contact.

Also, because our team is sometimes scattered throughout different offices, I like to have a Zoom call even if they’re in the New York office sitting next to me. This way, if there’s another team member in a different office who needs to join, I can invite them into the conversation easily.

So, everybody’s really sitting with their headsets on almost all day, and we’re constantly just pinging at each other. It’s like you would tap someone on the shoulder and say, “Hey, come over here and look at this.” So, in a way, it’s a challenge, but from JCJ’s standpoint, since we were scattered already before the Pandemic, in different offices, using Zoom has actually been working for our benefit.

UpSpring’s Rafii: What advice do you all have for young women in the industry?

JCJ Architecture’s Faverio: My advice would be just to surround yourself with women and men who support your ambitions. Throughout my journey—and with so few women in the profession when I started out—men played a key role in my success—mentoring me, providing opportunities and encouraging me.

Only 3.5% of women were registered architects when I started. I checked today before we jumped on and that number’s grown to 27%. I would just advise women to continue to recognize the value that their unique perspectives and abilities bring to this profession and to keep pushing boundaries and contributing in a meaningful way.

Teknion’s Walsh: I think the AEC industry is one of the best places to be a woman because we are supportive and excited to have other women. It’s one of the best communities.

The best piece of advice I’d offer is that remember, if you have a question, somebody else has one, too. Just asking the question is so incredibly important. I often find people, me included, who try to piece things together and figure out subtext instead of saying, “I’m sorry, I don’t really understand what you’re saying.”

Group PMX’s Freeman: Advancing and supporting women has become a passion of mine. I feel like I became aware at some point in my career that I was part of the problem as opposed to part of the solution. And that was a very painful realization that impacted me drastically. There was a particular book  I recommend called “Women Don’t Ask,” and it made me aware of the differences between men and women and how they behave.

My advice to young women is not just to read the book but to ask for that raise, to ask for the opportunity to push yourself to be your best, to take that seat at the table. I probably have more men than women working for me, but I certainly have made an attempt to bring in very talented women into our fold.

But if I tell you, over my career, how many men would sit at the other side of the desk from me and tell me where they want to be financially and every woman would come in for their review and burst into tears. It was crazy. It’s just so different in terms of how we approach and review ourselves.

I think the message for women has to be to understand that so that you can deliberately put yourself into the best light and position for your future opportunity and growth.

Hord Coplan Macht’s Harpe: One of the best pieces of advice I’ve received is to understand how many disciplines it takes to bring a building to life—and to get involved in all of them. You need to know what drives architecture, interiors and MEP systems, and understand what motivates clients. Curiosity is key.

Too often, we get laser-focused on our own tasks and lose sight of what the whole building—or the client—is trying to achieve. Leaning into the business of design, not just the craft, is something that isn’t emphasized enough in school.

It’s also about aligning yourself with the people around you—being in the office, listening, asking questions like why we’re doing something and why it’s done a certain way. That curiosity gives perspective and helps you understand the bigger picture. It brings structure and purpose to the work, beyond just doing it because it’s fun or creative. We’re in the business of design—and that’s what makes it meaningful.

RYS Architects’ Hardev: For someone young in the industry, it’s important to talk to people—as many people as you can. You need to expose yourself to different conversations. There are so many facets of our industry. You don’t know what you don’t know. You also don’t know what’s going to be of interest to you because you may not know it exists because you’ve been in your tunnel of graduating and finding a job and those types of things.

I also think it’s very important in that process to find your allies and your mentors. Someone once told me years ago to find your voice. There are conversations you won’t always be in or invited to, and you need someone to be your voice for you. Make sure you have that person

Carrier Johnson + Culture’s Gonzalez: I’ll say it in Spanish because my mom always said it to me, in case it gets lost in translation: “El no ya lo tienes por no preguntar.” Loosely translated, it means: “You have a guaranteed ‘No’ by not even asking the question.”

Historically, when applying for a job or looking at skill sets and qualifications, women often feel they need to be perfect, like 95% of the way there on the list, before even considering applying. That’s wild, considering that at some point, most of us have worked for someone who clearly didn’t meet all the qualifications listed on the job posting.

Women hesitate too often because we’re expected to be perfect before we even try. How I translate that phrase into practice is: don’t tell yourself no. If you’re not a project manager yet, or not a senior designer yet, or whatever it is you want to try, go for it—let someone else tell you no.

Whether it’s in school, a job or a new project at your office, don’t say, “I’m not ready yet.” Let them tell you you’re not ready. What’s the worst that can happen? They say no. If you don’t ask, you already have the no. The only alternative is that you might get a yes.

UpSpring’s Rafii: Let’s get into AI—how are you implementing it in your daily workflows?

JCJ Architecture’s Faverio: JCJ Is actively exploring ways to integrate AI into their operations, and we’re investigating how AI can be utilized for automation of tasks such as layouts or parking layouts. AI is very limited in this respect because very rarely do you have a rectangular site plan. But I can see where, in the future, this could be a tool that we’ll be able to use.

One way we’re using it now is to help us visualize design ideas quickly and generate that perfect precedent image where you might want a certain color texture. All of our designs are really very specific to each project, but AI does help generate ideas and images that can be shared with clients to convey what the design vision might be.

Group PMX’s Freeman: I’ll start with AI. We absolutely are using it mostly for, I would say, content in terms of communications.

When we’re writing documents, when we’re researching issues, we’re certainly relying heavily on AI to understand and help us get smarter faster. And we are looking for other applications. Group PMX is very, very focused already on using data once, on maximizing that impact, and not having to spend a lot of time putting the same data into different sources repeatedly.

We should be using AI to try to enhance while looking for ways to make it better—to make our product better and make ourselves better. I think we’re on the other side of that. Everybody is also reading some pretty horrific things in the news about what’s negative about AI and how using it is going to play out and about tons of jobs being eliminated. I read about that all the time, and I can’t say that I’m seeing that happen yet, but I’m aware of the concern and I think it’s all we watch and talk about quite a bit.

Hord Coplan Macht’s Harpe: Like others have said, research is a huge part of what we do, especially when it comes to creating an authentic sense of place. When we enter a new market, the first thing we do is learn the neighborhoods, understand their character and plan visits to see what’s happening on the ground. On a recent trip, we used AI tools to curate tours of emerging districts and projects, which was incredibly useful.

My team has also been experimenting with AI for image generation and idea building—not for finished work, but for sparking creativity. If we’re stuck on a design element, we’ll feed in a rendering and ask for variations, then refine those ideas back into the project. It has been a powerful way to jumpstart new concepts across everything from graphics and branding to architectural features.

Looking ahead, one of our big goals is to make presentations more engaging and interactive, especially in virtual settings. We’re exploring ways to use AI and animation to bring content to life—to move beyond static slides and create presentations that feel more dynamic and immersive.

RYS Architects’ Hardev: We’re exploring and starting to implement AI in the production side of our work, which has been kind of fun to see. You can catch some efficiencies that make things a little bit quicker. The end goal is to be able to save that time to focus on design work, because that’s what everyone in the office loves to do. How can we make production quicker, more efficient, with a little bit more quality control through AI and use that to our advantage?

We recently added interior design as a service at our firm. Our goal for next year is to focus on getting that word out there and growing.

Carrier Johnson + Culture’s Gonzalez: We’re using AI more for brainstorming and handling some of the tedious tasks that can be expedited. I’m also seeing it used a lot for research—looking things up in the code, doing the bulk of the research, finding specific items, or reviewing submittals and RFIs and spotting inconsistencies, even between previous versions of our own work.

I don’t think creativity will ever be replaced, but we should definitely use AI to our advantage.

When it comes to goals for next year, I think we’ll continue to diversify the portfolio. The more varied the types of projects we have, the better. Personally, I hope we can find more projects that have a social impact—those are the ones that feed my soul.Teknion’s Walsh: Our CIO has this wonderful term on digital labor. That’s what we look at AI as doing—the things that take up your time. Identifying redundancies, we’re trying to use it with some pricing, with some data cleaning. I use it a ton just for a kickstart. I cannot handle a blank page. If you give me a bullet point or three, I’m good to go. Using that as a way to really get us moving.

I’m deeply conflicted with AI as being sort of the voice of the brand out there. I am concerned about the rights of artists and designers, and making sure their art is truly seen as unique and not being commodified by computers.

We took the shackles off. My team recently used this software called Adobe Firefly, and was able to do some of the most amazing creative ideation I’ve ever seen. They wouldn’t have been able to do it without it. That kind of ties into my goal for next year—to find my comfortable space between the data, the digital labor and the incredible creativity outputs that are possible with AI.

UpSpring’s Rafii: Lightning round: What are your goals for next year?

JCJ Architecture’s Faverio: Now that I’m kind of in the golden years of my career, my personal goal is to share the knowledge that I’ve accumulated with those beginning their journey in this industry.

You know, I love working with the young people here at JCJ. They’re enthusiastic, they have energy, they have a fresh perspective that sparks new ideas to see design in a new way. I don’t really see mentoring as a one-way street. It’s best when there’s a mutual exchange of ideas and active engagement.

So, my goal for this year is just to continue creating space for these individuals to find their own path in this profession. This profession has been wonderful to me, and I hope that they can find that same joy that I have found, and I will continue to help them find a voice so that they can contribute in their own unique way.

UpSpring’s Rafii: Since we have a group of women here, let’s talk about balance. Do you have any advice on how to create or maintain a work-life balance?

Group PMX’s Freeman: That’s really interesting. My personal goals for 2026 are likely to be sort of around that issue. My kids are grown and out of the house, and now I’m trying to figure out how to not just work all the time and what else I can do that can feel meaningful in my space as I enter a different phase of my life.

I’d be happy to talk to you about decisions and choices I made about balancing time through my career. I have spent a lot of time mentoring other women and I think you can always make a different choice. If you want to go back to work, go back to work. If it doesn’t feel right, you can quit. You’re not making any kind of lifetime commitment; you can change your mind every day.

In terms of the notion of balance, I have a lot of younger staff that are getting married and having kids. We’ve talked a lot about setting boundaries but also knowing that it flexes both ways. As much as we can, with this beautiful life now where we can leave work at 2 p.m. to go pick up our kids, you might be on until like 6 p.m. to answer some emails. But setting your own personal cutoff time because that can vary, that flexibility that we have now that maybe didn’t exist as much before, can lead to some serious spillover into all areas of your life.

As flexible as we can be, set a personal limit on when you’re going to stop. Don’t check your email at night and decide when you are going to stop working. I think it was a little bit easier when it was 8:30 a.m. to a 5:30 p.m. cutoff point in the office. It’s more difficult now because it is all on you. Before, you could leave your desk and walk away. Now it takes a bit more personal action and restraint, to set those kinds of boundaries.

RYS Architects’ Hardev: For me, balance was about recognizing that it can look different every day. Embracing that concept helped me because each day is a little different, especially in the leadership positions we’re in. Some days, one “bucket” will take more time and effort, and the others will take less—and then it might flip around two days later.

I need my morning, and if I get my morning, the day goes wonderfully. That’s how I’ve set my boundary. My morning is non-negotiable.

Teknion’s Walsh: For next year, I’m looking to be more uncomfortable at work. I’ve reached a great point where I’m pretty comfortable and know what I’m doing. I know what I’m good at. I also know what I’m not good at, and I’m trying to grow in those areas. This podcast is an example of doing something that makes me a little bit uncomfortable. I’m trying to be better at this and putting myself in situations where I can grow instead of just becoming a little bit complacent with where I am.

Carrier Johnson + Culture’s Gonzalez: For balance, my recommendation is to remove the stigma around putting yourself first and being considered selfish. Putting your health first shouldn’t be seen as selfish. There’s a lot of guilt that comes with juggling work and family and trying to do everything at once, but I don’t think you should feel selfish for prioritizing yourself. It’s like an oxygen mask—you have to put yours on first to help anyone else.