The Long Game: Dovetail's Susanna Sirefman on the Right Matches, Design Excellence, and Dreaming Big
By Julia Gamolina
Susanna Sirefman is the founder of Dovetail Design Strategists, the leading independent architect selection firm in the United States servicing developers, civic, cultural, and educational institutions looking for world-class architecture and design excellence. Trained as an architect, Susanna draws from extensive knowledge of the latest design and building trends and unmatched access to both emerging and acclaimed talent in the architecture field. Her signature methodology and competitive selection process, tailored to each project, thoughtfully leads its clients to inspired architect shortlists and winning designs as they prepare for growth and enhanced visibility.
In her interview, Susanna talks about how her training as a cellist informed her rigor in architecture, and the need for clarity and guidance in selecting the right architecture firm for the right project. She advises those just starting their careers to have the long game in mind.
JG: How did your interest in architecture first develop?
SS: I was always very visual and keenly aware of my physical environment. As a young child, I loved to draw, paint, and create intricate plans for pretend buildings and imagined neighborhoods. From a very early age, I was also a serious musician, studying cello at Juilliard Pre-College. This eventually led to my studying cello at a professional level in London. My musical education was geared towards a solo career, and much like an athlete’s training regimen, it was all-consuming. During this time in London in the late 1980’s, a friend introduced me to the Architectural Association School of Architecture in Bedford Square.
Having become disillusioned with the insularity of the classical music world, I was fascinated by the extraordinary range of topics that the study of architecture encompassed. Students and tutors at the AA, as the school is known, were exploring so many intriguing ideas and ways in which to positively impact people’s everyday lives. It is surprising to look back at now, but after I decided I wanted to train as an architect at the AA, I went directly to the school without an appointment or a drawing portfolio, and asked to speak with the Chair, who at that time was Alvin Boyarsky.
Fortunately, he met with me one-on-one. We had a wonderful conversation centered on my career as a young cellist and he gave me a design assignment. A week later I presented my solution and was accepted into the school.
“I spent most of my childhood as a serious cellist.” Image: Steve Hockstein
That’s an amazing story. What did you learn about yourself in studying architecture, especially after your classical training?
The AA at that time had an ideological mission that an architect’s work needed to address not only form and function but be analytical and critical of society. I thrived on this focus of marrying the theoretical and pragmatic in my architectural training. The experience unlocked my deep fascination with the built environment and my lifelong exploration of how and why our surroundings affect us so profoundly.
International travel also influenced my outlook. I took multiple trips abroad with my AA peers to cities, neighborhoods, buildings, and sites for future projects each semester. These experiences cemented not only my passion for seeing the world, but my fascination with how diverse cultures, values, and customs, and each particular moment in time informs every aspect of a building. Intrepid travel has been a part of my career since my student days.
How did you then get your start in the field?
During the summer break before my final year at the AA, I was commissioned to write a book on contemporary architecture in Chicago. I walked and rode the “L” all around that great city, looking for the best examples of new, innovative architecture I could find, exploring over 228 square miles, and meeting with almost every single architect in my book, which featured 100 buildings all built within the previous decade.
The following year, I was commissioned by the same publishers to write a book on contemporary architecture in New York City following the same format. I spent another summer walking all over New York City’s five boroughs and again met with almost all the architects my book featured.
The books, which were very successful, were designed to fit in your pocket so you could bring them along as you viewed each building, and were filled with my thoughts and critiques of each project. Although I did not realize it at the time, those first books, two of the five books I subsequently wrote on contemporary architecture, laid the groundwork for founding my company, Dovetail Design Strategists, many years later.
“When people have a legal problem, they hire a lawyer, when they have a medical issue, they go to a doctor. This is not always the case for architecture. Architecture is often mistakenly thought to be expensive, frivolous, and only for the wealthy. This is simply false.”
Yes, tell me how Dovetail came about after that.
When I returned to my hometown of NYC to write the New York guide, I taught at both Parsons and City College while practicing architecture with a colleague from the Architectural Association. I was also writing for all the major trade magazines, traveling, visiting projects, and meeting architects from all over the world.
People were constantly asking me which architect they should use for their projects. I understood that you cannot just make a recommendation, like a doctor referral or a restaurant recommendation, but that selecting the right architect must be a process. So, I founded Dovetail to fill this gap—the need for clarity and guidance in selecting the right architecture firm for the right project. And of course, this is all driven by my deep belief that design excellence really matters.
Where are you in your career today?
Architecture is on elephant time. Large-scale, complex projects can take several years to complete. Right now, is an exciting moment for Dovetail as many of the high-profile projects that Dovetail’s work shaped very early on are now built. Whenever I see a new Urban Umbrella scaffolding pop-up around NYC, the result of the international design competition Dovetail created and led for the City of New York, it makes me smile. My company has an incredible track record with over $1 billion worth of projects constructed and more in-progress.
The recent opening of the New York Public Library’s Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library is yet another example. Dovetail crafted and led the design team selection process for the re-imagination of NYPL’s Mid-Manhattan Campus. Dovetail introduced the library’s leadership to both the Dutch firm Mecanoo and the New York-based firm Beyer Blinder Belle through our signature, invited architect selection process. It is no surprise that this remarkable team, led by two women, Francine Houben and Liz Leber, have designed an extraordinary civic library, complete with the first free, public roof-terrace in midtown. It is gratifying to know that Dovetail has brought design excellence to so many places and especially to the public realm.
Touring NYPL’s reimagined Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library with the architect Francine Houben and Dutch Consul General Herman Quarles von Ufford. Image: Dovetail Design Strategists
Looking back at it all, what have been the biggest challenges?
This is a great question and I’d like to speak to one of the biggest challenges not just in my own work, but for the design industry as a whole. I am talking about the persistent misperception that architecture is a luxury and not a necessity. There is no other field that suffers from this. When people have a legal problem, they hire a lawyer, when they have a medical issue, they go to a doctor. This is not always the case for architecture. Architecture is often mistakenly thought to be expensive, frivolous, and only for the wealthy. This is simply false.
Great architecture and therefore design excellence is not about spending a fortune and it is not impractical. In fact, design excellence is the exact opposite. Good design is good business. Functional, resilient, and empowering, great design represents a tangible investment in people and in the future.
What have been the highlights?
I have had the privilege of collaborating with a wide range of inspired clients - institutional leaders, developers, civic decision-makers, and private individuals who truly value and understand the importance of design excellence. While I adored the theoretical and intellectual aspect of my architectural training, I love the boots-on-the-ground work of setting the stage for clients’ projects to be completed in a timely, cost-efficient way.
Another highlight has been spotting and giving new talent opportunities. It is a joy to watch the rising careers and see the formidable work product of these young, emerging architects, frequently either women architects or architects of color, that I have either written about or invited to compete in a Dovetail-led selection process.
“Good design is good business. Functional, resilient, and empowering, great design represents a tangible investment in people and in the future.”
Who are you admiring right now and why?
Right now, like much of America, I am admiring Vice President Kamala Harris. What an incredible, powerful, and elegant woman. It was thrilling to see the VP standing next to the Speaker of the House during President Biden’s Address to Joint Sessions of Congress. As the president said, “It is about time.”
I am also intrigued by MacKenzie Scott, who is using her platform of unimaginable privilege to reframe philanthropy. Through her large-scale, rapid, no-strings attached giving, she is assisting in the call to attention for this country’s real need for structural social change. I am inspired by her signal of trust in the institutions she has selected to support by not requiring updates, reports, or a prescriptive outcome. I hope this sort of altruistic philanthropy takes hold in a big way.
Finally, I am obsessed with learning as much as I can about the late American architect Hilyard Robinson. The first African-American to earn an architecture degree at Columbia, Robinson went on to design some of the most extraordinary public housing ever built in the States. Robinson’s International Style Langston Terrace Dwellings, completed in 1938, was the first federally funded public housing project and was built at a time when segregation and racism were endemic in DC. Robinson’s socially-conscious, thoughtful, and beautiful housing was designed to create and sustain community. It seems to me that studying his work and in particular, Langston Terrace, should be a requirement at all architecture schools around the globe.
Being interviewed at the opening of the public Concept Design Viewing at the Orange County Regional History Center for Dovetail’s National Pulse Memorial and Museum International Design Competition in Orlando in 2019.” Image: Scott Bowman, onePULSE Foundation.
What is the impact you’d like to have on the world?
I believe that design excellence is a universal right. I hope to be able to continue bringing great architecture and design to as many people and places as possible.
Finally, what advice do you have for those starting their career?
Always have the long game in mind. Dream big, and be persistent and tenacious. Jump in, keep going and even when things seem impossibly tough, move forward as best you can. The most satisfying careers are not created by a mad dash to the finish line. The saying, “slow and steady wins the race” is an ancient pithy maxim for a reason. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, one of our greatest female icons said: “Real change, enduring change happens one step at a time.”
Be confident, but also be open-minded and able to listen to those around you. Communicate clearly and value learning. That is the beauty of our industry; there is always room for expanding one’s horizon’s and really getting to know someone else’s perspective. Approach every project as a way to not only provide expertise but as a cherished avenue to expand your own expertise and never be afraid to take something on because it seems too challenging. Nothing worth doing is not challenging!
Would your advice be any different for women?
Because sadly, although we are moving in the right direction, we still do not live in a world where gender or race equity fully exists, the only different advice I would give women, is to make sure that you never let anyone make you doubt your value, your expertise, and how vital it is that your voice be heard.