Building Better: Alloy's Tara Mrowka on Creative Marketing, Community Integration, and Speaking a Little Louder

By Julia Gamolina

Tara has been working in the fields of architecture and real estate for over 14 years. As an architect and senior director at Alloy, Tara manages various stages of the design and development process and oversees all marketing and sales efforts. Prior to joining Alloy, she worked at the NYC Department of City Planning and as a real estate consultant in Brooklyn.

She holds a B.A. in Urban Studies and Economics from New York University and a Master of Architecture from Parsons School of Constructed Environments. Tara is a registered architect in New York state, a member of the American Institute of Architects, and a Licensed Real Estate Salesperson. In addition to her desire to make better buildings and spaces for those living in and around Alloy’s developments, Tara is a mother to two young children. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two boys, who she is raising to be stewards of the environment and to positively contribute to the great city we live in. In her conversation with Julia Gamolina, Tara talks about learning from Brooklyn’s real estate boom and creative anti-marketing marketing efforts, encouraging those just starting their careers to look beyond the traditional paths and to make their voice heard.

JG: We’ll start at the very beginning Tara - tell me how your interest in architecture developed.

TM: My interest in architecture really began when I moved to New York City to attend college at NYU in 2000. I became really enamored with the city, its complexity, its diversity, and its ever-changing nature. As a young adult, I wasn’t really entirely sure of what I wanted to be at that point but I knew it would involve cities in some way. I ended up majoring in Urban Studies and Economics – NYU didn’t have an architecture program – and I landed my first real job working at the New York City Department of Planning in the Zoning and Urban Design Division.

There, architecture was first exposed to me; many of my colleagues there were already architects or trained in architecture themselves, and the impact that buildings and major urban projects had on the culture and vibrancy of the city became increasingly clear to me. Working there opened my eyes to the length of the bureaucratic process [laughs] and the long lead time of a lot of these projects – we were working on the High Line, the 9/11 Memorial – a lot of those projects wouldn’t be realized for a long time after I was there and at least a decade of time.

I know you did eventually study architecture. When did you decide to do that?

When I first graduated from college, I ended up working at a start-up real estate consulting company in Brooklyn. I witnessed that first real estate boom that Brooklyn had. There was a lot happening – Brooklyn was certainly making a name for itself then. I started learning more and more about real estate development, but I really knew that I wanted to go back to school, continue studying and move on to having a more meaningful and direct impact on the city that I really grew to love. So, I wavered about going back to grad school for planning or for architecture and ultimately enrolled myself in Harvard’s Career Discovery Program, which is a summer intensive architecture program, and that experience cemented my passion for architecture and architecture’s limitless potential – the ability to use design to solve problems that cities face.

I went on to get a Master of Architecture at Parsons’ School of Constructed Environments, where New York City was our laboratory. From there, I got an offer to work at Alloy. I had this background in real estate prior to going back to architecture school and it was a perfect fit for their practice. So, that’s how I got into architecture and then ultimately landed in architecture and development.

What was it about Alloy that resonated with you and vice versa?

The opportunity came about through LinkedIn, in its early days! I knew Jared Della Valle through my previous work – he was a studio critic on some of my projects, and he reached out to me and said, “We are looking for somebody at Alloy.” Alloy was still pretty nascent, only a few years into its real existence at the time and I was super excited to be part of a small team which had huge ambitions for architecture and doing better development. So, it was a clear choice to work for Alloy and I’ve been there ever since. Alloy is an amazing place to work. There’s not a dull day that goes by because there’s just so much happening and so much to learn and so much to do.

“...helping market Alloy and working on the sales end of our projects, was a natural evolution. I really enjoy getting to see the project from the beginning, when I’m helping figure out layouts, to the end result when people actually move into the spaces and occupy them.”

— Tara Mrowka

Tell me how you evolved into the Director of Sales and Marketing role as an architect.

When I started out at Alloy, there were only a few other employees and we were all hands on deck – you were a Swiss Army knife and you did whatever you needed to do to get projects built. Everyone at Alloy has a little niche that they focus on - we’re pretty much all architects at Alloy but everyone has another interest or something that they tend to focus on, so my focus on marketing kind of evolved naturally.

We’re super focused on our own marketing and are kind of like the anti-marketing firm – we turn down opportunities because we care a lot about how we are viewed. We’re super open and transparent and we try to be creative in the ways that we market ourselves. We also have a brokerage company, and I did have experience in real estate previously, so it was kind of a natural evolution to help market Alloy and also work on the sales end of our projects. I really enjoy getting to see the project from the beginning, when I’m helping figure out layouts and things like that, to the end result when people actually move into the spaces and occupy them, so it’s really rewarding in that sense.

What are the creative ways in which you market yourselves?

We worked with an artist to plant a field of clovers in our John Street project, pre-construction, to bring awareness to the project. We’ve also donated spaces in some of our buildings prior to construction starting so that places like Recess Assembly could have a space to work without rent and to help some of these smaller community organizations get their feet off the ground. In One John Street, we donated space to the park which will always be a public facing space. At the time, it was an annex to the Brooklyn Children’s Museum and we helped design and fit-out the space.

We try in each of our projects to have a community focus component, but in 168 Plymouth we didn’t really have the same opportunity because it is primarily a residential condo building. Instead, what we did is we came up with this donor-advised fund called the Better Brooklyn Fund which we’ll seed, and it will be part of 168 Plymouth. It’s in collaboration with the Brooklyn Community Foundation – they will help oversee the fund and, essentially, people who move into 168 Plymouth will have the ability to figure out where those funds get allocated as long as it’s serving a disenfranchised community within Brooklyn through Brooklyn Community Foundation’s non-profits and resources. It’s a nice way to have people moving into a new community, a new building, but to also be supporting the existing local community that is already there. We’re hoping that models like the Better Brooklyn Fund could live on in other projects.

Personally, where do you feel like you’re in your career today?

I’m really happy with where I am at the moment – I’ve been at Alloy for nine years now, and it’s been really valuable for me to see where Alloy has come and how it has grown. I think we’re at a really exciting time, especially with our next project, 100 Flatbush, which is coming down the pipeline. It’s going to be one of the most sustainable blocks in Brooklyn with the city’s first all-electric skyscraper and first passive house. Right now, this project is one of our largest to date and I’m really excited to see it go through.

Throughout all of it – not just at Alloy, but throughout your entire career and some of the pivots you’ve done – what have been the biggest challenges?

As I’m sure most women in this field will say, two of the biggest challenges that I’ve faced over the years are working in a primarily male-dominated field of real estate development and architecture…

Do you feel it more in real-estate?

I do. I think architecture is catching up – it’s getting to be a little bit more equal, and I remember when I was actually in that career discovery program, they were saying that there were more women enrolled than men at the time. It was the first time that they had seen that shift.

“...make your voice heard, even if you need to repeat yourself or speak a little louder.”

— Tara Mrowka

Yeah, we definitely have the pipeline in a good place. We just need to make sure that now more and more women are in leadership positions, which is also happening –

Yeah, that is true. But real estate is traditionally a very male-dominated field. I’m also a mother raising two young boys so that has been another factor, but I have a super helpful husband to share all of our responsibilities and Alloy has been very supportive of my family and those challenges.

What are some of the ways that Alloy has been supportive?

They’re super understanding if I need to drop the kids off to school before I come in and things like that. They’re very happy for me and my family. Jared and AJ both have kids themselves so they understand what comes along with that, which has been helpful, but I think it’s definitely challenging – sometimes you want to do certain things but you also have other responsibilities.

168 Plymouth, courtesy of Alloy. Photography by Pavel Bendov / ArchExplorer.

Of course. Well, I’m happy to hear that you feel that they’re supportive. I think that’s becoming better and better just all across the board as well. Who are you admiring right now – who’s out there in the world doing amazing work that you want everyone to know about?

Kamala Harris and every other woman who is breaking barriers. It’s hard not to look up to her because she’s been such a huge source of hope and admiration, I think, for so many people today and it kind of makes me think of my mom always telling me that when she graduated college, there were only three professions available to women at the time – you could be a secretary, a nurse, or a teacher. She ended up teaching woodshop and was kind of breaking her own barriers in the field because there weren’t any female woodshop teachers at the time.

Now we’re getting to the real seed for your interest in architecture [laughs]. Go mom!

[Laughs] Yeah, it’s really amazing to see the progress and hopefully we’ll keep that moving forward.

Fantastic. My last question for you is what advice do you have for those just entering the industry, whether it be architecture or real estate, just the built environment at large, and would your advice be any different for women?

My advice to those just starting a career in architecture would be to expand your options beyond just traditional architecture practice because there’s really so many different avenues for architecture majors to exercise their skills and to learn and grow. My advice for women would be to make your voice heard, even if you need to repeat yourself or speak a little louder. I think it’s really important to make your voice heard. Lastly, I think it’s important to keep in mind that the buildings and spaces that we are creating today are going to be around for a very long time and, as architects and developers, we have that control to make them more resilient and to really think about how we can build better for the future.