Building Identity: Kathy Scott on Growing into Leadership, Digging Deep, and Having Fun

By Julia Gamolina

Kathy Scott, LEED AP, is a Principal at Walker Warner Architects, a San Francisco-based architectural practice, specializing in custom residential and estate design, as well as winery, commercial office and recreation club design in the Western United States and Hawaii. In her role as Principal, Kathy mentors teams in the use of good processes to achieve the highest quality of work. She earned her B.Arch from Rice University. In her conversation with Julia Gamolina, Kathy talks about growing up with Walker Warner and establishing her leadership identity in the process, advising young architects to do each task as deeply and thoroughly as they can.

JG: How did your interest in architecture first develop?

KS: I grew up on Long Island and I was really visually taken with the home that my grandparents lived in during my childhood; it was a house that my great-grandfather had built at the turn of the century, and it was a cool, old, three-story elaborate home, with things like grand staircases, and wrap-around porches - the kinds of things that made the house incredibly interesting as a place to be in. These elements introduced me to the built world and got me inspired.

Then as I got older, I found that I was strong in the sciences and math, as well as art, and so I started to think more seriously about pursuing architecture as something that connected these three things. My mom, who was a Cornell graduate, looked into the summer program there for me, so I went up to Ithaca between junior and senior year of high school. I went into it with no preconceived ideas about architecture, which was a really wonderful way to enter the design world. By the end of the six weeks, I’d caught the bug. I was one hundred percent sold.

Wilderness Cabin, courtesy of WWA. Photography by Cesar Rubio.

You ended up down at Rice for your B.Arch. What were some of the big lessons learned there?

Rice wasn’t a school that was ever on my radar, growing up on the East Coast, but a friend of mine from the Cornell summer program recommended that I take a look at it. I found that leaving the East Coast, and heading out to Texas, provided a really different experience. The East Coast is very intense, everyone is packed in together, whereas Texas was much more laid-back and something about the wide-open spaces and the relaxed atmosphere drew me.

While I was there, I did an internship in San Francisco between my fourth and fifth years. I came out to intern at Gensler, which further kicked me West [laughed]. I ended up in this glorious, beautiful place that is Northern California, and once I was here, I just couldn't go back.

I interviewed a design strategist, Ashley Bryan, who made the move to San Francisco from New York, and we talked at length about what a good change of scenery that was for her.

Totally. The natural physical beauty and the livability of San Francisco has been amazing. I’ve raised a family here - both my boys have grown up in the city, have gone through the public school system here, and have generally been a part of the urban environment in this livable, wonderful city.

Regarding my time at Gensler - it was a great experience and I spent fifteen months there, working under Linda Moriarty. She was an amazing, smart, well-grounded, and balanced person, as well as a great leader, and she gave me a ton of opportunities to try out different types of projects, and really helped me get my feet under me as an architect in that year. I felt like I had a very different experience than some of my classmates did that year, some who had gone on to more high-design oriented firms. They ended up inking drawings for monographs or buildings models, and not having the project experience that I had. Linda put me on a corporate interiors project for Apple, as well as some Disney stores, and I worked on so many sets of drawings in that time, that I really felt like I got a feel for what the process is.

“...making the transition to Principal, you just have to exude a different level of confidence and re-establish yourself as an independent person, beyond the firm.”

What did you first do after school?

There was a recession going on, so it was really tough to find work. Gensler did offer me my job back, but I wasn’t sure about being there long-term, as I was really interested in doing ground up construction. I wanted to focus on something smaller where I could have my hand in all of it, so I was looking at residential firms that were doing that kind of work.

I ended up working for Peter Duxbury, who was a Gensler spin-off. He was doing residential work in Palo Alto, and I spent a couple of years there, dipping a toe in the residential world. I really loved it - the connection you have with a client, the opportunities to be involved with all aspects of a project. There weren’t giant teams where people were separated into roles, like design, technical, or project management. I liked doing it all so this was a really great fit for me.

How did you finally get to Walker Warner?

After two years, I decided I didn’t want to commute to Palo Alto anymore. I looked around - this was pre-websites - and a structural engineer that I had shared office space with in Palo Alto recommended Walker Warner. I interviewed with Brooks and Greg, who are my partners now. I was twenty-five then, and they were thirty-five and thirty-six, so we were all relatively young during this period, and the firm was really tiny. I was the third employee.

We were doing some remodeling work and corporate office space, but not much ground-up construction yet; they were just getting started and this was about six years into the firm’s history. From the beginning though, Brooks and Greg had such a great approach to all projects that I learned from them, and I very much grew up with the firm, in their mold.

As the firm grew over time, and took on more and better projects - we’re 63 people now, a departure from the five that I started with [laughs] - my role grew as well, first into job captain, then into project manager, and by the time I had been there for twelve years, Brooks and Greg decided they’d like to establish a studio system and asked me to be one of the studio directors. I did that for a number of years, before then being promoted to associate principal, then principal, and eventually to partner.

Kathy Scott with Walker Warner colleagues. Photography by Matthew Millman.

Walker Warner firm anniversary celebration. Courtesy of Walker Warner.

Where do you feel like you’re in your career today?

I’ve been working for about twenty-eight years, and I feel like I’ve gained a diverse experience in leading projects. Right now, among other things, I’m leading the largest project in our office, one with such a significant scope and quick pace that it’s staffed by what would normally be three regular teams. I very much enjoy the role of leading and mentoring this extended group through the development of the design and helping navigate the process on what’s a pretty high-profile project with little room for error. The challenge is what gets me up in the morning each day!

Tell me about being a mom and an architect.

My boys are seventeen and twenty, and my first was born about five years into my time with Walker Warner. What was great about the timing was that was that I was established enough as an architect, and serving in a leadership role on projects, such I was able to make my schedule flexible enough to make it work. I dropped to a four-day schedule, which worked really well. I actually paid for five days per week of childcare so the one day I took off could be flexible as well. Looking back, it was so important for me to continue on with my career. I worked part-time for seven years but was still really committed to the work. It was just about being able to prioritize both things, motherhood and my projects. I came back full-time when my younger son was four, when Brooks and Greg asked me to be a studio director.

Everyone has to make a decision about what works for them, but for me, it was important to be happy and content with my own life in order to be a good mom. If I’d become discontent in my role, or not been as engaged with my projects, I feel like I would’ve been an unhappier person in general and wouldn’t have been as able to be there for my kids. By continuing my professional career, and prioritizing my own happiness, I’ve been able to be a better mom. I also want to say that my husband has been amazing through all this - for a very short time after I went back to work full-time he was also working full-time, and we just said, “This is not working, there’s gotta be more flexibility here.” And he took his turn! He spun out on his own as a graphic designer, and made it possible for me to ramp up and be more focused on my role at Walker Warner.

“Our firm is very much grounded in the West, and designing for the way people live in this type of environment...The indoor-outdoor living that we focus on is really compelling.”

Looking back, what have been the biggest challenges for you in your career?

One of the biggest challenges when you stay at one firm for a long time, as I have, and of course there are many advantages to that, but one challenge has been to maintain autonomy among our community of builders and clients, and to break free in a way so that people know that I am a Principal and Partner in the firm. For a long time, I was seen as maybe a rock-star project manager, but making the transition to Principal, you just have to exude a different level of confidence and re-establish yourself as an independent person, beyond the firm. I’ve made a big effort in the last few years, especially when I’ve taken over the leadership of a project that I may have started with one of the founding partners, to establish clear roles so the clients know, and the project team knows, the work I’m doing.

The transition to leadership roles is certainly just that - a transition, and I’ve experienced it myself too. And perhaps for women it’s harder too, just given the ingrained biases that are in the industry.

Certain things are easier - I do feel like it’s always been easy for me to connect with staff, and I really enjoy the mentorship role that I have. The challenge comes in with the outside world, the perception, and I hate to say it, but there is still an assumption about having a man in the room, and if he’s older and his name is on the firm, he must be in charge and the one to look to. You don’t want to be obnoxious, but you do want to establish and make it clear when you’re one leading the effort. It does sometimes have to be clearly said.

Big Wood River, courtesy of WWA. Photography by Cesar Rubio.

On the flipside, what have been some of the biggest highlights?

It’s been so lovely to be a part of a firm that is constantly improving and getting better. The work has really evolved, first with ground-up, new homes, and eventually we started doing projects on really amazing properties. We’re based in San Francisco, so we’ve done a ton of work in the Bay Area, but we’ve also done work in Hawaii, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, and Southern California. Our firm is very much grounded in the West, and designing for the way people live in this type of environment - that’s so much more nature-oriented - and working in these phenomenally beautiful settings has been a gift. The indoor-outdoor living that we focus on is really compelling.

What has been your general approach to your life and career?

The biggest thing has always been to figure out what the priorities are within the given problem or project. You can’t get overly emotional – as an example, I was working on a project where we faced some budget challenges - not an uncommon thing, even on high-end residential projects - and instead of getting frustrated by it, we developed a more analytical perspective and said to ourselves, “What are the ways in which we can preserve the quality of this design, and still meet our client’s goals?” Always keeping a positive, upbeat, and proactive approach, and knowing there will always be a way to solve a problem, is important.

One other thing I’ll say is that while I try to bring a rigor to the work, I also try to make the process fun - and not just for my team at Walker Warner, but also for the clients, the builders, and the consultants. These are all really smart people who think through everything that they do really carefully, and if we can do great work while enjoying each other’s company, then that’s the best. I really try to promote an atmosphere of fun through the work - otherwise, who wants to go to work for nine or ten hours and be unhappy! Being upbeat and keeping things light, even as we work through a lot of complexity, is important.

“...doing work as deeply and thoroughly as you can with each task is important. It’s like compound interest, you just learn more and more and more as you move along, the deeper you go.”

Who are you admiring right now? Who is out in the world doing good, impactful things that you think are important?

During this pandemic the folks who have inspired me most are the ones who’ve made creative use of this crazy time and found new ways to bring meaning to the world. A couple of quick examples here in San Francisco are the Paint the Void project that’s raising money for artists to paint murals over boarded up storefronts and the San Francisco Trees group that’s creating socially-distanced tree tours in various neighborhoods by marking a route in chalk on the sidewalk and labeling trees with their common and scientific names and country of origin along the way.

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

We have a lot of young people in our firm, and we try to grow people up through our system. Our firm is known for doing work that is deeply thought through, thoroughly developed, and complex, and it takes a lot of training to be able to do this work well. It’s hard enough becoming an architect period, but it’s especially tough to take the quality to that next level.

What I try to tell the young people in our office is to really dig deep into whatever it is you’re doing at that moment, no matter what kind of work it is. Any experience you have - whether you’re involved in the early design stages, or chasing down code issues, or developing waterproofing details – I encourage you to commit yourself fully to that task, because you can then leverage what you’ve learned and the skills you’ve gained in whatever else you face in the future. Also, to ask lots of questions - I can’t stress enough how important it is to speak up when you don’t know or understand something. There’s no use in there being misconceptions. So asking lots of questions, and doing work as deeply and thoroughly as you can with each task is important. It’s like compound interest [laughs], you just learn more and more and more as you move along, the deeper you go. Don’t worry about the particular thing that you’re doing, but more the way in which you’re doing it.