Fostering Growth: Olson Kundig's Ciara Cronin on Reflection, Mentorship, and Leveling Up
Ciara Cronin - Sunset Seattle Skyline - Photo Credit - Kyle Johnson
By Julia Gamolina
Ciara Cronin is the Director of Public Relations and Communications at Olson Kundig, working closely with firm leadership to craft and implement strategic communications initiatives. In this role, Ciara translates and develops narratives for both internal and external audiences, expanding recognition and understanding of the firm and its work.
Prior to joining Olson Kundig in 2016, Ciara worked with established global design brands on a wide range of marketing and communications efforts, spanning public relations, branding, advertising, events, launch campaigns, product placement and digital communications including website, newsletters and social media. This strong foundation allows Ciara to creatively showcase Olson Kundig’s work through visual and narrative storytelling across a variety of platforms. She also guides internal communications efforts and collaborates with the Olson Kundig leadership group to support professional development and strengthen industry connections.
A global thinker, Ciara was born and raised in Ireland and also lived in Germany, London and New York before relocating to Washington State. One of the main reasons she was drawn to the Pacific Northwest was her love of nature and the endless opportunities for exploration and adventure the region offers. Outside of her work, Ciara is also passionate about animal rescue and advocacy, and volunteers with local shelters and nationally with Best Friends Animal Society. She is an active mentor to business and marketing students at her alma mater, Dublin City University, as well as early career marketers with the American Marketing Association. Ciara is also a member of Madame Architect’s National Council.
In her interview with Julia, Ciara talks about her varied and international experiences in all things marketing and communications, advising those just starting their careers to be curious, reflect, and nurture their networks.
JG: You originally studied business! What did you learn, and how did you eventually get to public relations and communications for architecture?
CC: Where to begin! I grew up in Ireland, and my Dad was a civil engineer, so it was pretty common to come home to find plans laid out across the dining room table for whichever project he was working on at the time. Even when we were going out on family day trips around the county – and further afield – he would always point out projects he had worked on, explaining their designs and construction.
However, it wasn’t really where my own academic interests lay. When I was in secondary school, I was torn between two strong interests – one was the field of business, and the other was languages - French and German. When I was considering which university to attend, I came across a relatively new program at Dublin City University that allowed me to do a double degree in parallel for both fields. So, I spent two years at DCU getting a really solid foundation in all aspects of business – accounting, economics, human resources, finance, law, and marketing – while at the same time studying the French and German languages. My third year was an Erasmus year of study at a university in Germany, Universität des Saarlandes, which was such a formative experience. Then I came back to Dublin for my final year and chose to specialize in international marketing.
Ultimately, I think what that degree gave me was a really solid multidisciplinary background and generalist understanding of how companies operate, particularly in an international setting.
From there, how did you make your way into architecture?
For the past fifteen or so years, I’ve worked in a variety of marketing roles in design and now architecture firms. One of the common threads between all those roles has been that they are all with firms led by incredibly creative founders and leaders who have visionary mindsets and outlooks. I started off early in my career working for BoConcept, the Danish home furnishings brand, and then later I worked for Chilewich, the textile design brand. Both of those roles were in the New York area. Prior to that I had been in London for a couple of years.
Martin's Lane Winery - Kelowna British Columbia Canada - Photo Credit - Nic Lehoux
Burke Museum - Seattle Washington USA - Photo Credit - Aaron Leitz
Dragonfly - Whitefish Montana USA - Photo Credit - Nic Lehoux
What did you learn from both of these roles?
Both roles had incredible variety across every aspect of marketing - one day I would be working on print advertising layouts, or the annual catalog, the next day I would be organizing store events, along with social media and PR efforts. We even did things like product placements for TV and movies, media tours with the Crown Princess of Denmark and Guinness World Record events – the list goes on and on! BoConcept is also a franchise business model, so the marketing teams around the world worked closely with franchisees in over 50 countries to ensure that the brand message was consistent no matter the country or language. It was really the first role where I had an opportunity to apply what I had learned academically about marketing, into real-life scenarios.
I have to say, I loved working with the Danes at BoConcept! I think the Irish and Danish cultures have a lot of similar characteristics like perseverance and grit, as well as a cutting sense of humor and sarcasm. I also had a fantastic manager and mentor in my role there too – Tina Pilgaard. She’s still a close friend to this day. That really set me on this path in marketing and design.
I followed that role with the position at Chilewich which had a narrower scope than my role at BoConcept. At Chilewich, I worked on public relations and e-communications, which basically encompassed anything and everything to do with digital communications. Again, I was fortunate to be surrounded by wonderful colleagues working across a variety of market sectors around the world. One of the more unusual highlights during my time there was working on a brand activation and partnership with Oakley for an installation at their athlete headquarters housed at The Design Museum during the Olympic Games in London.
How did you eventually get to Olson Kundig?
When I moved from New York to Seattle six years ago, I came across a Communications Manager role advertised in the marketing department at Olson Kundig. I was of course familiar with the firm and had admired its work and projects for many years. It was just one of those “stars aligning” moments in that my arrival in Seattle coincided with the job opening and that the firm felt I would be a good fit for where they wanted their communications and public relations to go.
“This will come as no surprise to anyone working in marketing, but no two days are ever the same! You frequently have to react to situations that are within your control or outside of your control. So, in that respect it is really stimulating from a problem-solving and solutions-focused perspective.”
Tell me about your time at Olson Kundig – you’ve been there now for almost six years.
I joined the firm as Communications Manager and my current title is Director of Public Relations and Communications. I lead the marketing department with our talented Marketing Director, MacKenzie Cotters. Our team currently consists of eight wonderful, high-performing individuals, who focus on business development, marketing, comms, and graphic design. We’re actually hiring for three additional roles at the moment, so all going well, we’ll have a team of eleven in marketing by the end of the year.
That’s big!
But needed! As you know too Julia, the work is incredibly fast paced, but also tremendously rewarding, in that you can truly see the impact and results from everyone’s hard work and efforts.
The way I describe my own role at Olson Kundig is that it falls into three distinct categories. Firstly, there’s content creation. This is effectively working with the team to develop compelling visual and narrative content for Olson Kundig’s projects, people, and practice. Secondly, there’s public relations, which builds and broadens awareness for the firm’s work, staff, and culture through national and international media relations and coverage. Then finally there’s social media and leading our efforts across a variety of platforms to create venues for people to connect with the firm.
I feel incredibly fortunate to get to work on all of those areas at a firm that creates beautifully designed spaces and experiences driven by context, practicality, and function. It certainly doesn’t hurt that the firm has such a long and rich history here in the Pacific Northwest either, because it is a part of the world that I’ve really fallen in love with! On my commute to work, when I look to my left coming over Lake Washington, I get an amazing view of Mount Rainier, weather-permitting, and every now and again even see Mount Baker peeking through to my right. You just have to pinch yourself sometimes!
There’s one other aspect I should mention regarding my current position. Since stepping into my Director role almost two years ago, I am now also contributing in a greater capacity to leadership initiatives with owners, principals, directors, and associates to help support the firm’s culture, establish long-term goals and strategies, and create pathways for the team to grow and progress in their own career development. I really appreciate that aspect of working at Olson Kundig – the cross-disciplinary collaboration is always so gratifying.
Olson Kundig Marketing Team - L-R - Alyssa Gritzmacher, Cate O' Toole, Ciara Cronin, Mackenzie Toher, MacKenzie Cotters, Victoria Modugno, Lucy Shirley (not pictured, recent team addition John Nakatsu) - Photo Credit - Mikel Amias / Olson Kundig
Olson Kundig Office - Pioneer Square Seattle Washington - Photo Credit - Andrew Pogue
Where do you feel like you are in your career today?
The short answer is that I’m really pleased with how my career has progressed and where I am currently.
I’m someone who needs a lot of variety in my work, and the career moves and brands I have worked with over the years have really allowed me to get that broad generalist experience across all aspects of marketing, branding, communications, public relations, advertising, event planning, content management, and so much more. They have also all been roles that have allowed me to grow personally and professionally.
This will come as no surprise to anyone working in marketing, but no two days are ever the same! You frequently have to react to situations that are within your control or outside of your control. So, in that respect it is really stimulating from a problem-solving and solutions-focused perspective.
The other thing I would say is that aside from the projects and the firm – which are obviously incredible – I really enjoy working in the field of marketing itself because it is constantly evolving and constantly challenging you to find ways to think differently and adapt. When I started working in marketing, e-commerce and websites were only just breaking onto the scene. Over the course of my career, I’ve been able to establish social networks for brands, develop their first e-newsletters, help create their digital catalogs, and so much more. These days, we get to explore newer communications tools like social audio, AI, VR, AR, etc. I mean, how could you not be excited to work in a field that’s ever-changing and really keeps you on your toes!
I love that, I feel exactly the same way. Throughout all of this, what have been some of the biggest challenges?
There have been plenty of challenges along the way, but because it’s my most recent experience, I would have to say this past year-and-a-half - and everything that came with it - has been particularly challenging. I preface this by saying how lucky I know I am to have had the security of a job and my health throughout the pandemic.
On the work front, I’ve described this past year-and-a-half as this uninvited pressure test for me personally and for the team. Aside from the general uncertainty and unpredictability we were all facing no matter our industry, there were also the unavoidable consequences of switching to remote work. We had to figure out new modalities to collaborate, exchange ideas, and stay connected. We also had to figure out how to onboard new team members, who had never set foot in our office, to ensure they felt welcomed, supported, and integrated into the office culture, albeit virtual in format. Finally, and most importantly from a leadership perspective, we had to make sure we were even more connected than ever before with our teams to know how they were doing, what they needed in terms of support, and to ensure they were holding up okay. That’s the kind of stuff that will really keep you up at night!
It’s times like these, though, that you truly appreciate the importance of not only a talented and creative team, but also teammates who genuinely care for one another and are fiercely protective of each other. I could not be more grateful for each and every one of them!
“...never lose focus on your clients by being too preoccupied by the projects themselves. I think that is really critical to keep at the core of everything you do. Clients should be your North Star, day in and day out.”
What have been some of the highlights?
When I think about highlights over the course of my career, it always comes back to the relationships and the people. I’ve worked with tremendously smart and inspiring colleagues, who have supported one another through thick and thin, helped foster growth of individuals as well as brands, and who generally make you want to bring your very best self to work, day after day.
I’ve also really enjoyed the relationships I’ve developed with partners, agencies, and clients throughout the years. In my current role, I’ve had an opportunity to work closely with our non-residential clients in particular, due to the fact that communications planning for those projects often spans a number of years and is more complex nature. That type of deeply collaborative and focused strategic planning is definitely a highlight for me.
Some recent projects and clients in that realm are The Space Needle, The Burke Museum, 8899 Beverly, Bay Area Discovery Museum, ANOHA⸺The Children’s World at the Jewish Museum Berlin, and Martin’s Lane Winery, amongst others.
On a more personal note, a recent highlight was being awarded “Mentor of the Year” by Dublin City University for my work with their 2020-21 Structured Mentorship Program. It is a program I feel really strongly about supporting in any way that I can, and the award meant the absolute world to me!
What advice do you have for architects in general when it comes to their brand development and PR efforts?
There are two things that come to mind. The first is pretty rudimentary but nonetheless essential, and that is to never lose focus on your clients by being too preoccupied by the projects themselves. I think that is really critical to keep at the core of everything you do. Clients should be your North Star, day in and day out.
The second thing is a phrase I was reminded of recently through a classic brand positioning book – thanks to Musa Tariq’s Marketing Book Club! The French phrase is “cherchez le creneau”. The basic idea being that you intentionally position yourself in the marketplace with a differentiated offering to others, i.e. fill the gap. I think it’s really important for any firm or brand to figure out what that means for them. What are the unique attributes they possess that will resonate with clients? Or what problems are they solving that others can’t in the same fashion? This will necessitate deep self-reflection, but will reap rewards in determining an authentic brand position, and how to market and communicate in support of that.
Ciara with Kaya her Siberian Husky - Snoqualmie Pass Washington
The Space Needle - Seattle Washington USA - Photo Credit - Hufton & Crow
Who are you admiring right now?
So many of our clients are doing inspiring work, but there are two in particular based here in the Pacific Northwest that I would highlight.
The first is Katrina Spade and Recompose. Katrina was actually part of a residency program at Olson Kundig a few years back and her Recompose project is just incredibly groundbreaking and inspirational. Recompose is defined as natural organic reduction that gently transforms human remains into soil. If you compare that process to burial or cremation, it saves about a metric ton of carbon dioxide from going into the atmosphere. Katrina was part of making Washington State the first to legalize that process and is now working to legalize it in other states. In my mind, Katrina is a complete trailblazer!
The second is a group called Sawhorse Revolution, who Olson Kundig has also worked with for a number of years. The non-profit connects with underserved high school students and introduces them to the power of carpentry and craft helping them build confidence and skills. They pair professionals in the industry – and that can be from architecture, construction, or other services – with a group of students, and they build houses or community projects for organizations around Seattle. One project that they recently completed is Estelita’s Library, which is a social justice and community library and bookstore.
What would you say is your personal mission with your work? What is the impact you’d like to have on the world?
In a professional context, my mission is to contribute towards the leveling up of the firms I work with, to lead progressive marketing and communications strategies, and have a positive impact on colleagues and clients along the way. Aside from those professional goals, there are a couple of initiatives that are really near and dear to me personally, namely volunteering and mentorship. I’ve been part of a mentorship program with my alma mater, Dublin City University, for many years now. The program pairs alumni with second year students to help them with their personal, academic, and career development growth.
I typically work with female business students who are preparing for year-long internship placements in their third year. Over the course of the academic year, we meet regularly - virtually in my case due to my location in Seattle - to discuss a range of topics like CVs, cover letters, interview techniques, continuing education, goal setting, best practices, and more. To know that I have hopefully helped in some small way to give these young women the tools to succeed in securing intern placements, as well as a framework for success as they embark in a professional setting is incredibly rewarding. In fact, there’s really nothing like seeing their confidence build over the course of the mentorship program. That’s an impact I strive to have!
Another passion of mine is animal welfare. I volunteer weekly at local shelters with dogs, as well as volunteer virtually with Best Friends Animal Society (BFAS). I just wrapped up a large, national SEO project that we were working on for a number of years. I’ve also travelled to the BFAS Sanctuary in Utah a few times. In fact, it was my first post-Covid flight and trip earlier this year! I was there for four days on-site volunteering with their dog program. It’s an incredible place and I highly recommend anyone passing through the area (just east of Zion National Park) to take a tour or volunteer in one of the many different animal areas! I got to do a shift with the pigs the time before last – that was so much fun!
You post so many amazing photos with doggos.
[Laughs] I have to force myself to curtail the dog content from taking over my Instagram account completely. I try to balance it out with a few PNW nature photos every now and again!
Dog posts do so well on Instagram. Even Zaha Hadid – they post photos of puppies in front of their projects. They know what they’re doing [laughs]. I’ll show you this one post I remember. I also remember Jenny Schecter, our Marketing Director here at Trahan, saying dog posts do really well, and then we saw the Zaha post and were like, “Yep, that’s the strategy!”
I’ll have to share a photo of this, but early one morning on a photo shoot Matthew Millman managed to photograph a fox passing in front of one of our residential projects in Jackson Hole, Wyoming – that was a first for us! It could make for a good series or book: most unusual animals photographed at architectural projects!
“You’re in the driver seat for your career. If it’s not going where you want it to, think about ways you can change direction, get advice, ask for help, observe others who inspire you, realign your situation with your own personal values, and make the changes you need to accomplish the career fulfillment that we all strive for.”
I’d gift that book to everyone. My last question for you is for anyone just starting their careers, what would be your advice?
There are definitely a few things I would recommend. The first is to be curious. Be a perpetual and intentional learner. Personally, I get so much inspiration from things unrelated to architecture when it comes to marketing and management such as newsletters, podcasts, marketing book clubs, articles, interviews, thought leaders, and more. Somewhat related to this idea is the concept of making time to be “bored” or not stimulated by task-based concerns. The best ideas will come to you when you’re out for a walk or simply letting your mind rest.
Secondly, I recommend reflection. That is to say, reflect and assess your goals regularly and adjust as needed. You’re in the driver seat for your career. If it’s not going where you want it to, think about ways you can change direction, get advice, ask for help, observe others who inspire you, realign your situation with your own personal values, and make the changes you need to accomplish the career fulfillment that we all strive for.
Thirdly, don’t underestimate the importance of networking and a deep, multifaceted network around you. Whether you build that through existing contacts, industry organizations, networking groups, or a combination of all of those things, it is one of the best investments you can make in your career and something you should make time to nurture regularly.
Finally, and I’ve spoken to this already, but it’s the theme of mentorship. I’ve always thought the best mentors are people who see in you what you might not be able to see in yourself. They’ll encourage or push you to do things that you didn’t think you were capable of, but once you do them you have the building blocks to increase your confidence and grow your skillset. This is so vital early in your career, in particular. Mentors can be leaders or peers inside or outside the industry. They can also be family and friends. I believe mentors come in a wide variety of forms at various stages of your career. I personally wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t had that type of encouragement and support.
Reciprocally, I would encourage people to be a mentor back to the next generation coming behind them. Share your lessons learned, create those shortcuts for mentees, and lift them up! There’s nothing like seeing the positive impact mentorship can have on a student or young professional’s trajectory.
On that note, thanks so much to you, Julia, for everything you’re doing for the industry in that respect. In one of our recent conversations, we chatted about Madame Architect being a “virtual mentor” for women and others in the industry and it just keeps going from strength to strength. I think it’s such a valuable tool and so incredibly powerful.
Ciara, that means so much to me. Magazines were my mentors growing up because we moved so much, that any trusted network of people that we had, especially before internet messaging and things like Facebook and Instagram, were out of reach. I read a lot of magazines.
I’ve found that a lot of people say that, particularly if they grew up in non-metropolitan areas where they might not have had access to institutions or events, but their local library and those magazines would provide a source of connectivity and inspiration. Now, thankfully, more people have those things at their fingertips.
Thank you so much again for everything you’re doing through Madame Architect, Julia. I’m honored you invited me to join the National Council to help support your work, and genuinely appreciate the opportunity to share my perspective of a “non-architectural” role within an architecture practice here with you today.
Thank YOU!