I consider myself to be a raconteur, someone who has an affinity for storytelling. Growing up, I spent much of my time in the theater – a place with the unique ability to transport you to a different time or place. A place flooded with stories. Theater taught me to immerse myself in the narrative and let it guide my emotions and movements. Then, once I began architecture, I realized that the two have one critical thing in common – they come alive with people.

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Architecture is a vessel for storytelling. It allows us to transform stories into the language of the tectonic. It is simultaneously the theatrical and the ordinary, the didactic and the fantastic, the simple and the sublime. My particular interest in architecture involves a desire to understand how the built environment impacts people and vice versa – how they circulate, how they interact, how it makes them feel, and how each person develops a perceptual construct of their environment. I design my projects with a story in mind – a guiding narrative, a conceptual idea that carries the project from beginning to end. My ultimate pursuit is to create spaces for performance. Spaces where each person observes performance and becomes a part of it. Spaces that tell stories and help make new ones.

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We all have a unique narrative that unfolds over time. As with any good story, there is a driving force – a passion that gives meaning and purpose to everything we have set out to do. Once we find that passion, we pursue it relentlessly. That is why my story has led me to CMU’s School of Architecture to pursue the Master of Architecture degree with a Theatre Architecture focus. 

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I have come to understand that architecture is ultimately rooted in empathy – in the willingness to understand people and their stories. And to design with those stories in mind. Because without people, what would architecture be but an empty armature?