Provocating the Field: Latent Design’s Katherine Darnstadt on Entrepreneurship, Relationships, and Lifelong Mentors
By Julia Gamolina
Katherine Darnstadt is the founder of Latent Design, a progressive architecture and urbanism firm leveraging civic innovation and social impact to design more equitable spaces and systems. Since founding her practice in 2010, Katherine and her firm have prototyped new urban design systems to advance urban agriculture, support small business through Boombox, created spaces for youth makers, advanced building innovation though Blank Box, and created public space frameworks through Design Trust Chicago.
In her interview with Julia Gamolina, Katherine talks about the challenges of transitioning between typologies, celebrating smaller-scale impact, and having mentors at all stages of your career. She advises those just starting in the field to find their networks of professional support.
JG: How did your interest in architecture first develop?
KD: My dad was an electrical engineer and contractor, and he had his own company. When I was a kid, he would go into the office on Saturdays - I got to know what entrepreneurship meant early [laughs]. Saturdays were also his day to watch me, so I would go to the office with him. The focus on the built environment was always embedded in my life and, but I didn’t realize that it could be a career for me later in high school.
What did you learn about yourself in studying architecture?
I initially went to college in Chicago for English and Philosophy and then I switched to Architecture. The switch was a very welcome one for my parents - they were basically like, “What took you so long?!” Having a supportive family is key to going on this architecture journey for sure.
When it finally clicked that architecture was a career that’s of interest to me, I realized also that the access to entrepreneurship, and being around an environment of entrepreneurship early on came in handy later as well, when you’re at that moment of asking yourself, “Can I do this, can I start my own firm?” I had some idea of the level of working commitment at that point - and of course, it’s actually times two [laughs].
McGaw YMCA Meta Media (with Wonder), photography courtesy of Latent Design
Oh, that was definitely the rule and lesson in architecture school. If you think a model will take two hours to build, you always tell yourself that it’ll actually be four [laughs].
The main takeaway from architecture school for me, especially in running my own business now, is how big of a gap in knowledge there was between what we learn about design to what we actually use now, day-to-day. The design process and terminology, all of that is still there, and has been refined, but the other half of my day is all about a non-existent experience or education in school. I think this has since shifted, and there are more robust professional practice courses and more relevant conversations as well as studio programs, but this definitely wasn’t the case when I was in school. We still had professors telling women that they should marry rich.
Unfortunately some still do. Tell me about how you got your start.
I had various architecture and non-architecture jobs throughout college. Mostly non-architecture jobs because they paid better, and you have to live! So I may have been a little bit behind my professional practice experience level when I finished with my B.Arch. I worked two jobs right after I graduated, one at a small high-end architecture firm, where three of us did everything together. I learned everything there - how you put together a drawing set, how you talk to clients, how you craft an email to them. And then at night, I worked at a bar!
That is excellent “people” experience. And experience that is really needed for architects.
Such good people experience. I feel like I gained all of my social skills there - how to relate to people, how to not be afraid of talking to someone. I also learned how to explain what I do to my customers, because they would always ask what I did besides bartending. Let’s just say that explaining architecture to drunk people for two years was really good training [laughs].
“...being around an environment of entrepreneurship early on came in handy...I had some idea of the level of working commitment at that point - and of course, it’s actually times two.”
[Laughs] Talk about relating to the masses. That’s a great skill. I’m bummed I didn’t have jobs like that - since I’m Canadian, all the jobs I was able to have had to relate to architecture and be in architectural offices. I never worked retail, or as a barista, and I wish I did! I’m sure I would have been a lot more extroverted earlier on. Major fomo.
Don’t worry - you gain good life skills, but it is also hard work. You’re on your feet...it’s a different type of hard work than architecture.
How did Latent Design come about?
So I worked at this small firm while coexisting as a bartender for a couple of years, and then I moved to a larger firm. I learned a lot of professional aspects of larger projects, firm culture, and formalizing some of these things. They had a hierarchical system though, being so large, and unless you were one of the principal’s or partner’s protege, there was information you couldn’t even have access to on the server. So when the office was transitioning to Revit, they only allowed two people to use and get trained in it, even if others were interested.
Most of the women left, so I felt like I was starting to lose some of the mentorship that I had needed. I did make a lot of lifelong friends there, that were of the same age and experience level, and had some of the same concerns. I still stay in touch and collaborate with many of them today. One of the lessons learned is that if you know you will stay in one city, and you know others that will stay in that city, you are absolutely going to overlap. Eventually, the junior architects will become the senior architects, and then the firm owners, so you want to maintain good relationships with everyone.
I continued to be at this firm for part of the 2008 recession, and then went to go work for a developer, ironically getting laid off from there - but that’s how Latent Design started! I had just gotten licensed, I had just found out I was pregnant, and I really started it because I had all of these significant milestones happening, and no job [laughs]. I truly thought it would just be a stop gap.
Arthouse Gary (with Mir Collective), photography courtesy of Latent Design
How did you keep going with it?
I knew no one was hiring architects right then, and I just needed a job I could do. I was also pregnant and coming out of firms where one of the Partners had yelled at an administrator when she had revealed that she was pregnant. So my view of architecture was, “Shit, I can’t show up pregnant to a job interview...but maybe I could figure out how to do work and make income for a year.”
[Laughs] It’s always, “I’ll just do this for a year.” I had talked to Kim Yao of ARO recently, and she also thought that she’d just intern at ARO for a few months. And then, decades later, there she is.
Totally. My plan was to wait it out during the pregnancy, and then get hired by another firm. Pick back up right where I left off. Best laid plans! What I had planned to be one year though became eleven.
Tell me about the years.
The first year was just about getting through it. The second year I was still not getting many interviews - I was certainly meeting people, and developing relationships with them, but not getting hired. That’s when I had to make the decision between doing this for a little bit longer, or taking any job that could soon come up.
I decided to continue because I liked the projects that we were working on and I liked the people that we were working with. I also found myself in a peer and client culture that looks more like me, working with women of color who were my clients. Coming out of the offices I was working with, that were toxic in some ways, it was a wildly different experience for me. I asked myself, “Is this what architecture could be like?”
Still to this day, there are naysayers who say that the work that we do isn’t architecture, but we are building buildings, we’re doing affordable housing, we’re putting up structures. Yes, it took a while to get to what most of the industry considers architecture, but the tactical place-making and small scale projects were just as revolutionary and impactful as a high-rise that we’re working on now.
“Eventually, the junior architects will become the senior architects, and then the firm owners, so you want to maintain good relationships with everyone.”
I’d love to talk to you about motherhood - our readers are always really curious how architects who are also mothers best integrate the two.
Motherhood was definitely a driving factor in getting my own firm off the ground - we weren’t planning it by the way [laughs], my first pregnancy was a shock to us. Becoming parents was definitely in our ten-year plan, but not in our few months plan. My husband and I had just gotten married, we wanted to enjoy our twenties and figured we’d talk about kids later, and then it was like, “Guess we need to talk about it right now!”
The integration was definitely tough. Yes, having your own practice gives you the flexibility to do what you want when you can, and make time for your child, but I didn’t have this motherly instinct right away, I didn’t know what I was doing, and everything was very stressful. The idea of work-life-motherhood balance while starting your own firm...I don’t think I got even close to that until the last couple of years.
No one has - every single person I’ve interviewed says what you just said. Everyone is just hanging in there. Where are you in your career today?
We had our decade anniversary in 2020 - it was a big number during a big year. I’ve been thinking about it the whole year before. I couldn’t believe it had been ten years - in some ways it felt like getting to where we are now took forever, but in other ways it felt like no time at all.
I spent a year having a lot of conversations with people about what’s next - is it growth, is it bringing on a new partner, those kinds of things. I started the firm by myself, and am the sole owner. I don’t recommend starting an architecture firm by yourself, that would be Business 101 advice from me.
Boombox (Wicker Park Location), photography courtesy of Latent Design
Why?
You just can’t do it all yourself! And, if we as an industry want to keep pushing against this idea of a sole owner or sole genius in design, why do we still allow sole ownership? It’s the same mentality and the same pitfalls that way. So, I’ve been thinking about that, as well as selling the firm, merging with another studio, things like this. Or, do I take another career! I’ve been doing this for a long time, but I can also do a lot of other things. What would it look like if I worked in the apparel industry, for example?
I spent some time doing that, looking at all of my options, and in the end, my mentor - and, by the way, you have mentors your whole life, not just at the beginning of your career - said something like, “Have you ever done just your job? Have you ever just had one job where you just work on the architecture firm? What if you did that and gave the firm all of your attention?” Because I had also been teaching, and working on and with other start-ups and things like this. And I just thought, “Wow - that’s a pretty simple but revolutionary idea, I’ll sit with it for a while.” And then the pandemic made me sit with it for a while! The focus on just the firm, and having more brainspace for it, allowed us to grow.
“Yes, it took a while to get to what most of the industry considers architecture, but the tactical place-making and small scale projects were just as revolutionary and impactful as a high-rise that we’re working on now.”
What have been the biggest challenges for you throughout your career?
The biggest challenge has been shifting how the firm is known. Early on, we were known as the firm that did these tactical public space projects, and that is still some of our core work, along with community engagement, but I think it became harder when people wanted a “traditional” architecture to build a building or a community center. We weren’t on those shortlists. Going from what are perceived as small projects to larger projects was the hardest piece, and still is, really.
If you want to do new things, you first have to understand what the perception of you is within the industry and within your own city, and then you have to try to modify that. That’s a definite challenge, and we’re working on that.
What advice do you have for those just starting their careers in the field?
I still think people should shift this industry as much as they want, and feel the confidence to do so. I joke within the firm that we’re a great firm to work with if you’re thinking about leaving architecture [laughs], because there is a lot of support that comes personally from me, but also from everyone within our network, to push people into different ways of thinking about architecture - especially future founders, and especially women of color. Go and be provocative, go be a thorn in the industry’s side. All of these things are necessary because we need to continue to evolve what is thought of as architecture. We need to make possibilities for both ownership and design leadership available to young people.
I know that that comes with a great deal of privilege and support, so I think as you’re then starting in the industry, figuring out who that network will be for the next five or ten years is important because those are the people that will support you every step of the way, in a way that’s different than the way your family or close friends support you. They will talk about your new firm, help give you advice on how to get promoted. This is all so important, and especially when those are the people that are being provocative in architecture with you.