Dream the Combine: Jennifer Newsom on Direct Experiences, Interpersonal Ties, and Showing Up

By Caitlin Dashiell

Jennifer Newsom is a Minneapolis-based architect, artist, and co-founder, along with Tom Carruthers, of Dream The Combine. Dream The Combine’s work consists of large-scale, public art installations exploring metaphor, perceptual uncertainties, and the boundary between real and illusory space. They are intrigued by forgotten places and unpredictable audiences, and consistently seek out spaces on the margins in their work. They are winners of the 2018 Young Architects Program at MoMA PS1 for their installation “Hide & Seek”.

In addition to Dream The Combine, Jennifer is an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota School of Architecture, graduating herself from the Yale School of Architecture. In her interview with Caitlin Dashiell, Jennifer talks about the foundations and focus of her practice and finding a city to run it from, advising young architects to own their agency and continue to show up.

CD: How did your interest in architecture first develop?

JN: I was interested in how architecture is a mediator of space, narrative, and experience, from a very young age. When I was little, my family lived in Oak Park, Illinois, the land of Frank Lloyd Wright. I would ride my bike through our neighborhood as this mischievous little spy on two wheels. I used to look into the windows of houses, wondering about the ways in which people lived inside of them.

I loved art and math and thought architecture was the joining of these two things. I didn’t know any architects at the time and I didn’t have any architects in my family. But my mom has always been interested in interior design, and she passed a deep consideration of environment on to me. She used to take me to open houses, even though we weren’t moving. There was a mystery and delight about these Sunday trips, and they fueled my love of interior worlds worth exploring.

“One of architecture’s greatest gifts is its capacity to welcome. People experiencing our work become active participants within it; they co-create the work to a certain extent...I position that within a practice of generosity.”

Let’s talk about studying architecture - you went to Yale for undergraduate and graduate school. Tell me what you learned there.

I have a liberal arts degree in architecture, so I took a lot of classes outside my major — African American Literature, sociology, graphic design, African American Theatre, psychology, decorative arts, et cetera. My undergraduate experience was far-ranging, and I felt incredible freedom to supplement my architectural learning. That also became part of the challenge of going to graduate school — it was “Architecture, with a capital A” all the time, and that narrower focus was challenging.

What stuck with you from graduate school at Yale?

I learned that I’m a resilient person. Architecture is a hard discipline and many of the tests begin in school. I also met my husband there! We now have a creative practice together - we were in the same graduating class. We began dating during our first year, and at the end of school we decided to move to New York and live together. We thought, “If we got through grad school, the rest is going to be easy!” [laughs]

Take me through your experience getting started in the field.

One of my first jobs was working at Procter & Gamble for a couple of summers through a program for students of color called “INROADS.” I developed marketing proposals and product placement strategies for various retailers. Learning about persuasive selling certainly impacted my ability to confidently speak about my work in an architectural context.

The summer before my senior year in college, I had my first architecture job at Hammel Green & Abrahamson (HGA). I worked on developing a planning database for their Healthcare division.

After graduating from college, I worked for Robert A. M. Stern in the model shop. It was like “Yale, Part II,” since there were so many people I already knew there. I could have stayed on, but I knew I wanted to get my professional degree sooner rather than later. After a year, I went back to graduate school.

Hide And Seek by Dream The Combine in collaboration with Clayton Binkley. Photography by Pablo Enriquez, courtesy MoMA and MoMA PS1. — *Hide And Seek* by Dream The Combine in collaboration with Clayton Binkley. Photography by Pablo Enriquez, courtesy MoMA and MoMA PS1.

What did you do out of graduate school?

I built a house the summer after my first year at YSoA as part of the Yale Building Project. The next summer, I worked at Adjaye Associates in London. I had met David while I was putting together a symposium at Yale during my second year. His practice was still pretty small at the time and while working there, I had valuable face time with David and other leaders in the firm. It was incredibly meaningful for me. In a field where everyone struggles to find their place, I felt like I belonged there. It was great encouragement to keep going.

After I graduated with my M.Arch., I worked for Jaque Robertson (of Cooper Robertson) and Deborah Berke, both of whom I knew through school. Honestly, a lot of my early professional experience was through my Yale network. I hope these silos aren’t still as prevalent, but sometimes where you go to grad school can be as much about the network it provides as the education you receive. I have been fortunate that many of these interpersonal ties positively influenced the opportunities that later came my way.

How did Dream the Combine eventually come about?

Having my son and getting licensed was where it all started. Unfortunately, I ended up on unemployment during my maternity leave. I was really frustrated, but it turned out to be the best thing because I could focus on taking my ARE exams. I set a goal of achieving licensure during my son's first year of life. However, when my son was three months old, I realized I needed to spend some serious time just being a mom. Having a kid is really hard and it wasn’t like I was getting a ton of sleep. I also spoke to Billie Tsien who has been a great mentor to me. She assured me that I could still have a career and be a mom. I didn’t need to feel this pressure to do it all at once — that there was time to get to all I wanted to do.

Even after that though, I was still pretty focused. Every day I was studying while he would take a nap. When he was six or seven months old, I picked the tests back up again and did manage to do one exam each month. During this time, Tom was working 90 hours a week at Diller Scofidio + Renfro. He hardly ever saw our son, or me, for that matter. There are a lot of amazing practitioners who have had children and remained in New York, but for us, it felt untenable. So, we decided to leave. To be totally transparent, we didn't really have a concrete plan about where we would land. We just started driving west!

“...that’s our continual check. If it keeps getting better, we’ll keep going.”

Wow. Where did you end up?

At first we thought we were going to move to Pittsburgh - a good creative scene, and still close to New York. However, when we were about an hour outside of the city, we had a run in with some scary-ass white supremacists who tried to run us off the road. It was crazy. I’ve still got love for Pittsburgh, but we decided maybe that part of the world wasn't the best for our little interracial family [laughs]. We kept driving towards my parents in Minneapolis, and eventually decided to stay. We did know we wanted to be in a mid-size city with a vibrant arts community, so it felt right to us. I had lived in Minneapolis from 5th to 12th grades, and I didn’t think I would move back. But here we are!

Is that when you launched?

Almost [laughs]. After moving to Minneapolis, we went on a month-long trip to North Africa with our son. We were so burnt out from working and being new parents. It was a life-affirming trip and one that reminded us of architecture’s majesty, and its visceral effect on people. We traveled North to South, from the Bent and Red Pyramids at Dahshur, to the Temple of Isis at Philae — all of these places that were incredibly historic, beautiful, and had a space-positive understanding of architecture. When we came back, we started Dream the Combine in January of 2013.

Initially, we took on every project that came our way [laughs], but we noticed that we were always doing these public art installations too. As the summer of 2013 approached, we had to move since our lease was ending. We considered moving to Vancouver, where Tom is from. We only had one kid – we didn’t know it then, but another was on the way — and we decided if we were going to try moving there, then it was a good time. So we did and were there for almost three years. When we came back to the United States, we moved back to Minneapolis and decided to make installations the focus of our practice.

Lure by Dream The Combine in collaboration with Clayton Binkley. Photography by James Harnois. — *Lure* by Dream The Combine in collaboration with Clayton Binkley. Photography by James Harnois.

Lure by Dream The Combine in collaboration with Clayton Binkley. Photography by Caylon Hackwith. — *Lure* by Dream The Combine in collaboration with Clayton Binkley. Photography by Caylon Hackwith.

Tell me about that, about the projects.

One of architecture's greatest gifts is its capacity to welcome. People experiencing our work become active participants within it; they co-create the work to a certain extent. We set the stage for these interactions to happen, and I position that within a practice of generosity. We are committed to working in public spaces for that reason.

The first installation Tom and I made was called The World is Rated X for an arts festival in St. Paul. It was a crystallizing moment where we had to see if we could actually work together in addition to being married. We could! It felt good - that’s our continual check. If it keeps getting better, we’ll keep going. The second installation, Longing, was within a skyway pedestrian bridge. We had been petitioning to do it for two years, but it came together within a compressed six week period of time: from having the go-ahead, to getting all the detailing figured out, sourcing the materials, fabricating it, and installing it.

When we were later in the running for PS1’s Young Architects Program, I think part of our strength was having these early projects outside of the dominant gaze of architectural or social media. We had the opportunity to do work that was just for us and our local audience. We learned a lot and we were able to build off those earlier experiences. And I'm talking both about the conceptual development of the ideas, and also development of the nitty gritty of how projects get made.

“...part of our strength was having these early projects outside of the dominant gaze of architectural or social media. We had the opportunity to do work that was just for us and our local audience.”

What have been the biggest challenges?

All of the logistical things about being an architect and making a project real are some of the everyday challenges. Projects are multi-directional, clients can be multi-headed — there is so much going on.

More personally, another challenge is remembering that I have a voice worth hearing. There are many ways in which being in this profession, especially as a woman and a person of color, can be demoralizing. There have been many moments of disregard, diminishment, and plain racism and sexism. Our profession has a long way to go before it feels welcoming to everyone. The way we think about architecture, it's practice, and how it creates bodies of knowledge will have to evolve and change.

There are a lot of instances where you're told that you don't matter, but you have to continually show up. This is the life that I chose, right? This is the thing I’ve wanted to do since I was a kid, even as what I thought “architecture” could be evolved. I'm proud of who I am. I'm not going to stop showing up because some other person doesn’t think I belong.

Please don't! On the flip side, what have been the biggest highlights?

I've had the opportunity to meet amazing people. I get energy from being around people and incredible constellations of ideas. In addition to founding Dream the Combine, I am an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota. I didn’t set out to be an academic, but the position allows my practice to remain more experimental. I am fueled by my students and colleagues, opportunities to travel, the chance to meet other academics and practitioners, and the ability to see student work. It all comes down to personal growth right now - this ability to continually learn from new audiences. Whether it is with pedagogy or practice, I love the feedback loops.

Clearing by Dream The Combine. Photography by Caylon Hackwith. — *Clearing* by Dream The Combine. Photography by Caylon Hackwith.

Tell me about who you're admiring right now.

There are a few people who I continually return to - probably none of them are architects [laughs]. Toni Morrison is one - her book Playing in the Dark is an important text. Lately, we have been doing research about the work of Nancy Holt, and she was a total badass. Other influences are: Torkwase Dyson, Gordon Parks, Lorna Simpson, Martine Syms, David Adjaye, James Baldwin, Claudia Rankine, W.E.B. Dubois, Ralph Ellison, Sadiya Hartman, Christina Sharpe, Solange…I could go on. No matter if it is a song, or an artwork, or a critical text - it’s all data.

What is your core mission or personal mantra?

Oh! I don’t know that I have one, though I will say that with our work, there is something compelling about capturing people's attention, breaking them out of their routine, and setting the stage for performance, interactions, dialog, or something unusual to happen. That's not an overtly intellectual answer, but life isn’t usually governed by the intellectual answer. We feel things. We have emotions. We have visceral experiences. We have delight. We have joy. We have moments that are difficult to put into words. That's what I'm working in service of - this kind of direct experience.

“I’m proud of who I am. I’m not going to stop showing up because some other person doesn’t think I belong.”

I’m with you. What do you wish you knew when you were starting that you’ve realized now?

I wish I knew that I needed to build good sleep habits from a young age [laughs]! I still have to fight against my tendency to want to stay up late. Is it from fear of missing out as the youngest child? Or perhaps it ties into getting a lot of energy from other people.

Also, it is obvious but worth saying that everyone has finite time on this earth. You have to design your life as well as your career, and think carefully about the kind of life you want to have and work towards that.

Finally, what advice do you have for those just starting out?

I’ll say it is important to take risks, although I should acknowledge that this answer comes from some privilege. But it’s useful to think about opportunity costs.

It’s also important to have mentors to talk to about your struggles, decisions you're making, or gathering advice about having your own practice. I encourage people to realize the agency they always have in the moment. Even when you're the lowest person on the totem pole, you still have an important voice - a way to contribute significantly. You’re always setting yourself up for the next opportunity.