Augmenting Voices: Ennead's Molly McGowan on Culture, Legacy, and Empathy

By Julia Gamolina

Molly McGowan is a Partner at Ennead Architects, leading many of Ennead’s complex new construction and renovation projects across a range of sectors, including education, performing and visual arts, research, and commercial mixed-use. Molly’s experience across diverse typologies allows her to transfer ideas and solutions from one sector to another. The essential relationship between project management and project success is central to Molly’s approach to architecture. Throughout the planning, budgeting, design, and construction process, her management style fosters a collaborative environment marked by open communication, trust, and shared vision.

In her interview with Julia Gamolina, Molly talks about her path to partnership and building a culture, advising those just starting their careers to be open to opportunities, and to ask for what you want.

JG: We’re going to start at the very beginning. Tell me about how you grew up and what your foundational context was.

MM: I grew up in Concord, New Hampshire. My father came out of the Yale Architecture School in the 1960s and my mother was an artist and jeweler who worked with underprivileged kids. My whole life, everyone was a maker, but it was all in the context and in service of something, so my father was in architecture in service of the community – he wanted to rebuild the community and save downtown. My mother opened a gallery, not just to display art but to support local artists and get people’s work into people’s homes, so they could live with art – to make it accessible. My sister is an academic studying material culture in South Asia and her work is devoted towards advancing and understanding the intersection of material culture, politics, and everyday life.

William J. Clinton Presidential Center. Photography by Timothy Hursley.

Jazz at Lincoln Center, Frederick P. Rose Hall Public Space Redesign. Photography by Scott Frances.

How did you then get into architecture? What did you learn from your time in architecture school?

When I went to undergrad, I was in liberal arts. I knew I was going to do something with design, but I never thought I would become an architect until it became pretty clear that I could actually have the most impact doing architecture. In 1990 I traveled to Kishinev, Moldova where my father was participating in an USIA design and architecture exhibit. Gene Kohn of KPF was another participant in that exhibit. He gave me my first job after college and I moved to NYC, where I practiced for two years and eventually went to Columbia for my MArch.

I learned to put my own ideas out there, to see what comes back and then make the best of that. I learned not to be rigid, to be able to pivot. I think that’s really important in architecture; I see so many people say they want to be doing x and not leaving themselves open to other options and other opportunities.

Tell me about your time at Ennead – how did you evolve as the firm evolved?

Well, it’s a really interesting question because I think about this a lot – would I join today if I hadn’t come in when it was a sixty-person firm? And the reason why I say that is when I came in, I had just left a two-hundred-plus-person firm specifically because I wanted to have more understanding of the entire practice and I wanted to have more agency.

One of the things we continue to work on in our culture is how we can still give that agency, even though we’re larger. I showed up and I was immediately put on a team where if you were good at something, you could just do it. Jim Polshek would walk down the hall and, if he didn’t know you, he’d stop and ask your name and then he would say hello to you every day for the next week. He made sure you knew that you belonged, and because of that, there was nothing you couldn’t ask about. I mean, people might say no to you at times, but it was a pretty amazing time.

“...you don’t fix a diversity issue only by hiring, you fix it by creating a culture in which people feel like they want to stay.”

— Molly McGowan

You just celebrated your twenty-fifth anniversary at Ennead, and I have to note that you’re also the youngest partner and the only female partner at Ennead — though we do have three out of six principals that are women. What do you make of that?

That’s an excellent question, and I want to address it within context of the office culture and the legacy that Jim set. Our office has always been positioned as a very inclusive practice, in terms of who we work with, who our clients are, and who has come to work with us. If you look at every level of the firm, we’re at gender parity, the only exception is the partnership. Are we actively working to fix that? Yes. Fully.

What does “fully” mean?

Pipeline, recruitment, mentorship, communications, and agency. And not just to address gender diversity. I think many places are grappling with that right now, the issue of diversity at the highest levels.

Right, I was going to say this is not unique to Ennead.

This is not unique to Ennead. One of the things we are really focusing on right now is that you don’t fix a diversity issue only by hiring, you fix it by creating a culture in which people feel like they want to stay. When I had my kids for example, many of the partners had small children, or other commitments outside of the office, and all of them were super supportive. We also support people who teach, or participate in other organizations or activities. It’s a little like the Google culture, if you support people in what is important to them there is the boomerang effect, it will always come back. Ennead Lab, our research and development group, is the same thing – it's the notion that if people are doing what they love, they’re going to give more back.

We've always had that culture; people have always wanted to stay here. But of course some will leave to go out and do something on their own. They're starting practices – think of Nina Cooke John, think of Suchi Reddy, think of Susan Rodriguez, one of our former partners! These are amazing people leading practices doing incredibly important work.

Apple Scottsdale Fashion Square. Photography by Hufton and Crow.

The Westminster Schools, Barge Commons. Photography by Jeff Goldberg-Esto.

New York University, Center for Genomics and Systems Biology. Photography by Jeff Goldberg-Esto.

What have been the biggest challenges for you, personally, as your career developed?

Balancing who I want to be as an architect. I say that because there is great pride in being a designer in a design-first firm. Do you have to give that up to be a project manager or a Management Partner? One of the things that has been really amazing for me over the last five or ten years, and that came with maturing as an architect, is recognizing that I never lost it; I was just practicing design in different ways. Whether it be the design work I do through strategic thinking, innovative endeavors, new delivery methods, or with my design partners who welcome my contributions and the design work and critique I give our teams – it's just modeling a different way to be a management partner.

It’s been really interesting to see what a title does, and I say this because our firm really believes that you shouldn’t need a title to garner respect or to be able to do your job. In fact, we usually reward people for a job well done with the title. We encourage contributions and comments from all directions, people in our firm are incredibly collaborative. It has been interesting, and I hate to admit this, to have the word “partner” next to my name, and the notion of what my responsibility is as a woman in the firm.

Can I just say here – that is so frustrating to me because, do you think men ask what their responsibility is as a man at the firm? Maybe they do now…

Exactly. I've struggled with it because I’m not a “woman architect,” I'm an architect. I'm not a “woman partner,” I'm a partner. The minute you put a qualifier on something, it makes it less than, but you can’t ignore the fact in our profession we need more women in the highest levels of leadership.

One of the things we’ve talked about is if I should be one of the partners leading our DEI practices, an effort supported by all of the partners. I have only now, maybe in the last six or twelve months, become more comfortable with it because I have found the thing that I want to do, which is augmenting voices. I try not to talk just about augmenting “women’s voices” but about augmenting voices in general. I'm augmenting experiences, augmenting different ways of responding to things, and one of my favorite examples is mentoring people who may not have some of the qualities society typically equates with leadership, but are actually really wonderful leaders.

“...you need to ask; don’t wait or assume someone else is going to lay it all out for you. Ask so you can understand what the firm needs, what you can do to contribute to it, and what the firm can do to support you in that.”

— Molly McGowan

What advice do you have for those striving for a leadership role like yours?

I’ll say this to anyone in any industry – you need to ask; don’t wait or assume someone else is going to lay it all out for you. Ask so you can understand what the firm needs, what you can do to contribute to it, and what the firm can do to support you in that. And, when you’re making an ask, you have to do in such a way that it’s not just about you, it’s about the firm too.

About 10 years ago I came to the partners with an ask. I told them what I would like to do and the opportunities I saw specifically at Ennead. I walked out of the meeting, which was with five partners at the time, and one of the partners who helped coach me a little bit told me I nailed it because I didn’t make it about me. If you think about it, it’s a relationship between you and the firm, and it has to be based on mutual respect. I know we often say don’t ask for permission, just do it, but my advice on this is: engage leadership, see how much further you can get with their support. And don’t think they won’t listen; don’t leave a firm without trying to make your current situation work; invest in the relationship, invest in making your place what you want it to be.

The other piece of advice, is that it’s really important to find subsets. If you are a young partner, you need to be thinking about the future of your firm; where you are headed as a practice and who your future partners should be. Another example is being a parent; it’s incredibly challenging and rewarding and I do think that being a parent can actually make you a more efficient, compassionate employee.

So many people have said that parenthood gives you so much back.

It really does. It doesn’t even have to be parenthood that gives something back and enriches your work, it just has to be an outside interest, something you are engaged with. A theater group, outdoor activities, cooking – whatever enriches you.

What are some of yours?

Anecdotally, facing some personal challenges ten years ago, I trained for and ran races; first 5,10k, then a few half marathons and eventually two full marathons. I needed to regain a sense of control and accomplishment and running did that for me. I found running plans, I mapped out all my runs, made time for myself to follow through and was able to achieve something remarkable. The big thing is to get a running group. I don’t necessarily run with people, but we do races together. It’s super fun, and then you go out to brunch after.

My kids though were ready to kill me during COVID because I was on a DIY kick. I designed my apartment, we did all the built-ins. I borrowed all the office equipment – circular saw, bandsaw, all the Festool equipment, those tools are amazing. I built all these things during COVID, and I had sawdust everywhere. When I ran out of projects, I went up to the roof and asked the building if I could plant stuff there. Now I’m obsessed with what can grow on a New York City rooftop - it’s actually amazing, what you can grow in the middle of the city.

Princeton University Environmental Studies and The School of Engineering Applied Science. Image courtesy of Ennead Architects.

Who are you admiring right now?

I don’t have a person, but what I'm most fascinated by right now is the value of the plurality of voices and how it can build trust, because I believe that without trust you can’t really get anything accomplished. You can’t convince your client to do something transformative unless they trust you. How are you going to build that trust? You can walk into a room and show them you’re brilliant – “Look at all these awards I've won, look at all these people writing about me,” and so on – but that doesn’t actually make people trust you. What makes people trust you is when you build a relationship with them and you listen to them and you bring information to them that they want as opposed to selling them an agenda.

Business development! Forget about needing to impress everyone and needing them to hear your message –

You need to build a relationship.

Exactly. What are you most excited for right now? What is the impact you’d like to have on the world?

I'm super excited for my kids to go to college and to have that extra bandwidth again. Covid was hard on so many people, and parenting kids in public school, living in a small city apartment, all of it, was challenging. My kids are both launched and happy, and I'm really excited to get that additional brainpower back.

My mission right now is a hundred percent trying to give room to more voices in the profession. It’s helping someone in the office find her voice so she can connect with clients. Helping someone who feels uncomfortable in a firm to find a way that they can stay and feel more included. Helping people understand that you can go through bias training and helping them see when they have biases. That's what I'm really interested in because I do believe that with more of those voices, the outcomes are going to be better. The other thing I would say is about acknowledging that everyone has their own experiences.

I read this amazing article about how you can never truly empathize with someone because you haven’t lived their experiences. But, what you can do is believe them when they tell you about themselves.

I saw a great cartoon of someone sitting at the bottom of a hole and there was a ladder coming down to it. Empathy is when someone climbs down the ladder and sits with the person. The opposite of empathy is the person at the top saying, “Can I get you a sandwich? When are you coming up?” The person in the hole has no language for that; they don’t know what they need. They just want someone to sit with them and to be with them when they’re ready to climb up the ladder.

And to close on that note, what is your advice to those just starting their careers?

Don’t be dismissive and say, “I’ll never do that.” I’ve been to so many panels with architects that are women and I’m still somewhat disappointed at the fact that they always only put designers on them. They only put women who have small firms up there. I get the allure of starting your own firm , but bigger firms can provide you with opportunities that you may never get. I was given really good advice, which was: “Don’t think you have to jump ship to get the opportunities you want. You don’t know until you’ve asked. Pitch it, see if you can do what you want to do.”

My last piece of advice is to make sure you live your full life and don’t make it all about your job. I mean that, because you’re a better employee if you bring other experiences to the table. You’re a better employee if you engage with the world because that’s what architecture is all about.