Tangible Optimism: Trahan Architects' Lesley Braxton on Moving, Learning, and Grace

By Julia Gamolina

Lesley Braxton is a Principal and Higher Education lead at Trahan Architects. Her work strikes a beautiful balance between courage and restraint – two qualities learned during her childhood. Her family relocated to eight different states in her first 17 years, teaching Lesley to embrace change, optimism and the cultures of many. This influenced her path as an architect and interior design architect to take a wide-angle view and operate as a generalist in a seemingly very specific world. She designs across higher education, science and technology, and corporate typologies, ultimately blending influences of each project into the next.

Lesley is a frequent guest speaker and critic at SCAD and Auburn University, her alma mater, where she received a Bachelor of Architecture and a Bachelor of Interior Architecture. She is also a dedicated mentor to many young women, helping them develop careers while giving her a deeper look into their cultures. She also has a love for art and travels the world with her family drawing and painting; both of her children held paint brushes before the ever holding a pencil. Her motto is: “Great design is tangible optimism.” In her interview with Julia Gamolina, Lesley talks about the world she’d like to create for the next generation, advising those just starting their careers to be curious and move around.

JG: How did you grow up and how did your interest in architecture develop?

LB: I grew up everywhere. I never had a home, really. I moved eight times in seventeen years.

Where?!

I lived in Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania...then the Southeast. I decided to stay in the South for college and my parents moved to Chicago during my freshman year. But my interest in architecture came from my high school art teacher, in Columbus, Georgia, Robert Dozier. He taught me ceramics, how to draw, how to paint, and I think I would have skipped every other class to sit at the potter’s wheel. That’s where it all started.

Why did you decide to stay in the South for college, for architecture school?

Oh god [laughs]. I wasn’t the greatest high school student at all – other than in art. I lacked focus, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do. My dad hounded me for not excelling in school – and I will certainly do the same to my children - but my mom always supported my love for the arts.

Anyway, I was a senior in high school in Columbus, Georgia, and went to visit the University of Georgia where I fell down a flight of stairs at a rush party in front of everyone [laughs]. So after much embarrassment, Auburn seemed like the most likely choice, because I could get in-state tuition and nobody knew me. Where I landed was more by necessity than choice, but I did fall in love with Auburn. However, I didn’t originally turn to architecture – I thought I could be a veterinarian – but after doing very terribly in chemistry and then visiting a friend going through 1st year summer option, I changed my major, and found my passion and my academic success.

What did you learn both about architecture and about yourself in studying it?

I learned that I was super competitive. I don’t think I ever really harnessed that before architecture school. To this day, I don’t play games I can’t win.

Also, when I was a second-year student, studying Under Sambo Mockbee at Auburn’s Rural Studio, and I just found this remarkable appreciation for place, and that not all architecture has to be precious, and that the mundane can be made beautiful.

“I’m excited by the opportunity to refocus on the process of authentication and creating architecture for people.”

— Lesley Braxton

How did you get your start in the industry?

I interviewed all over the place, but of course I had a college sweetheart, and I married him. I wanted to go to the Northeast but he pleaded with me to stay in the South near family, so we did! I found a job with TVSDesign out of Atlanta — I loved the international work they were doing and got really excited about working with them.

After about a month of being there, I had sketched these master plans for the Dubai Central Business District. I will never forget getting a phone call from my boss, now mentor, Manny Dominguez, asking me to go to Dubai to present the work. Suddenly, I was twenty-three and working in Dubai — a couple of others from my firm were there with me. We had so much fun. We never slept. We worked so hard and played hard too.

I’ll never forget when one of the renderings that I had worked on with a colleague of mine, was on the side of a skyscraper. They literally printed it and put it on the side of a skyscraper in Dubai.

I was in Dubai in 1996, and it was a completely different world than what it is today. There were hardly any high-rises!

Wow. Yea, my experience there was insane, and my eyes wide open. The Burj Khalifa was still under construction and I stayed at a hotel right next door. I got to see the inception of it into the skyline. This got me very excited about the possibilities of architecture, but also very nervous about it’s future.

Georgia Tech West Village dining hall. Courtesy of Cooper Carry.

Why?

Well, everything was going taller, but why? And I was thinking a lot about our mark on ecology, and building buildings in the desert, and how sustainable is that really.

When and why did you move on from TVS?

I was there for four years, and after that, I just needed something different! I was looking to get registered, but I was working nights and weekends and travelling overseas. I felt like I needed a place where I could settle — not settle in terms of design, but settle in terms of place, my place. I went to Cooper Carry. But then, after a year, my husband got transferred for work to Birmingham, Alabama, so I worked at an office in Alabama for three years, then came back to Cooper Carry, and stayed with them for another eight years.

It was at Cooper Carry that I found coaches and teachers, as well as my love for education. I had been designing high-rise office buildings, and other things at a really huge scale. Schools gave me a totally different perspective and approach. I was also working with all these very talented architects, but no one was paying attention to the inside of these buildings — and I wasn’t either! It was at Cooper Carry where I realized that I need to extend my focus, and I pivoted to doing interior architecture and working inside out.

“I also remain a generalist in so many ways, and everywhere I’ve worked has wanted to put me in a bucket. Are you an architect? An interior designer? A business developer? What are you? Yes. I’m all of that.”

— Lesley Braxton

Tell me about how you got to Trahan Architects!

Trey [Trahan] and I met each other almost two years ago, and he was interested in doing more education work. He asked me to join him and I turned him down. I had just started at Perkins & Will in Atlanta, I was loving what I was doing, and I had a full, wonderful team. I just felt like I couldn’t leave. I was co-leading their education studio, which they called their Learning and Innovation Studio while being the southeastern practice leader for both higher education and Science and Technology.

Then, after a few years, I found myself getting more and more impatient because I was focused more on winning work, not doing the work — the whole reason I fell in love with architecture in the first place. I was laying on my couch at 9:30 in the evening and sent Trey a text that said, “I think I’m ready...are you ready?”

With this recent transition, where are you in your career today? What does this new phase mean for you?

I’m excited by the opportunity to refocus on the process of authentication and creating architecture for people. Trahan’s work reminds us everyday that we are humanitarians first, architects second. I find this line of thinking so beautiful — it aligns with my personal ethos and values. The future excites me in a way it never has before.

Tell me about motherhood, and how motherhood plays into everything.

It’s more like everything plays and fits into motherhood [laughs], when you have to keep a seven and ten year old alive. I have a really amazing support system — I have a husband, John, who knows that I love what I do, and is accepting of all of my crazy schedules, and travel. I also have a mother-in-law who would be there for us at the drop of a hat. My kids are part of my creative energy more than ever. When you have two children that are the next generation of learners, you have to make sure that what you’re doing is supporting their lives, their future, and their future kids.

And, they’re fun. They’re so interested in everything. They watch me draw — I have a drafting board in my office — and they get up there, and draw on top of sketch paper, on top of what I’ve done. They’re a part of the process. I mean, you saw last night at dinner, they wanted to see what I was up to, so we FaceTimed.

Yes, I love that you just so simply and seamlessly integrated them! You showed them who you were with, we all said hi and chatted. You weren’t like, “Hi guys, mom is at dinner, I’ll call you back later.” You involved them!

Well, they’re curious! And when I was growing up, the technology wasn’t available, and my dad was always travelling. So I would create this persona for him, since I never really knew what he was up to. I want to make sure that my kids can see everything, and know where I am, and who I am. Put the pieces together.

Lesley with her husband and two children -John, Jeb, and Avery.

What have been some of the biggest challenges in your career?

Oh god. Patience. I have none.

We are similar in that!

I also remain a generalist in so many ways, and everywhere I’ve worked has wanted to put me in a bucket. Are you an architect? An interior designer? A business developer? What are you? Yes. I’m all of that.

I’ve certainly been there too.

My response was always, “Why do I have to choose?” I think the bigger companies force you into these silos, and that’s why Trahan was so interesting to me. I felt like I could embrace all the different aspects of myself and my interests and capabilities.

What are you most proud of?

My work at Georgia Tech. I got to spend a lot of time with Lake Flato, who we collaborated with, and I learned so much from them in the process. I learned so much from Georgia Tech too, and from Howard Wertheimer, who was their campus architect at the time.

I’ll never forget — I did a detail of this steel bench that went under a stair, and it didn’t quite fit just perfectly. Howard told me, “As an architect, you only get so many mulligans.” And it was at that moment that I was realized, “Wow, I have to be super attentive to every little thing.” I think I stay so high level that it’s hard for me to get into the details and into the weeds, and it was at that moment that I realized that you really do have to go outside, inside, deep, high, all of it.

“My kids are part of my creative energy more than ever. When you have two children that are the next generation of learners, you have to make sure that what you’re doing is supporting their lives, their future, and their future kids.”

— Lesley Braxton

Who are you admiring right now?

Jennifer Ingram. She is a thirty-year-old, uber talented, young architect. She’s studying disaster relief, and has been working with the CDC, FEMA health professionals, and other innovative startups around the world trying to figure out how to create relief housing after natural disasters. She has been studying 3D printing and opportunities for more housing resilience, and leads these incredible work sessions where they have a limited amount of materials, and ask themselves if they only had certain available materials, what could they build. Jennifer was in my studio at Perkins&Will, and I always told her that one day she would be my boss, and that I can’t wait for that day.

What advice would you give to those starting their careers in the industry? And, would your advice be any different for women?

Be curious. I think that’s the biggest thing. Moving around is also good. Don’t stay in one place too long. When you move around, you get to see different processes and ways of doing things, as well as different ways that people talk — to each other, to their clients, and about their work. It’s like going to school, taking a bunch of different classes, and then figuring out what your own philosophy is.

Finally, I’ve heard you talk about grace a lot. Tell me about grace. What is that about for you?

I think grace is about giving yourself space to make decisions to fail, and also to celebrate your successes. It’s OK not to have everything locked down. But, you also have to give grace to other people and make space for them to do the same. Have grace for yourself and for others.