Her Own Version of Practice: Nina Kinoti-Metz on Staying Positive, Finding the Lessons, and Expanding Your Skills
By Julia Gamolina
Nina Kinoti-Metz is partner at Studio Parallel, a full-service architecture and design firm, along with her husband Christopher Metz (AIA). Collectively they have extensive experience in hospitality, commercial and retail, residential and educational typologies. Her interest in equity through housing has powered her design for affordable and supportive housing projects in NY.
She believes in providing excellent services no matter the size, type of project, or client, and she engages on an individual level to address project needs by curating the team and expertise expressly. Her ethos is to be a “big” small firm with a grounding philosophy that great design isn’t a product of budget but of creativity and joy.
Nina’s graduate degree is from Pratt Institute (2006) and undergraduate studies at Binghamton University (2001) and previously worked at FXFOWLE Architects (FXCollaborative), Dattner Architects, Clodagh Design, and TEK Architects. In her interview, Nina talks about advancing agendas and staying inspired, advising those just starting their careers to continue to stretch their imaginations.
JG: Tell me about your foundational years - where did you grow up and what did you like to do as a kid?
NKM: I am the third of four children raised in Kenya, where my parents are from. Because of my father’s job as a pediatric surgeon working in the public health sector, we moved around to a few cities and other countries in Africa. Between the ages of 10 and 17, I lived and went to school in Nairobi the capital of Kenya, Nyeri a smaller town closer to Mt. Kenya in the east, then on to Arusha a very small town in Tanzania. For my final high school years, we made a big move to Maseru, which is the capital city of Lesotho, one of two small kingdoms in South Africa.
As a kid, I loved meeting new people, making new friends, and playing outside, but I mostly enjoyed alone time which I spent drawing. We mostly lived in small little towns with not much to do by way of entertainment and extracurricular activities plus not having a lot of extra money. So I taught myself to draw from my comic books. It was great, I would show my family my drawings in an art exhibition style, and I also created little story books that I illustrated and then dramatically presented to my audience. Sometimes I put on little fashion shows tied to the stories. At that time, I wanted to grow up to be a famous artist.
German School Brooklyn facade. Photography by Bernadett Pava.
Ciao Gloria Cafe high bar. Photography by Bernadett Pava.
How did you choose where you studied architecture?
I was enamored of becoming a fine artist, hence my undergraduate degree in drawing and printmaking. I was very dedicated and passionate and for a few years, I showed my art and also worked in an Art Gallery in Washington, DC. I loved it all, but it was hard to make a great living and having been raised by my very driven African parents, it was not going to be enough.
While I was figuring out my next move, I changed jobs and began working at a high-end furniture shop with a design arm led by a licensed architect and an interior designer. It was a revelation. I was really good at selling the designer goods, but even more, I was very interested in creating the spaces that all these goods and these people lived in. In a roundabout way, I think my journeys and adventures as a kid, then my starving artist attempts plus working to sell art, were always leading to this exact moment.
I decided to attend graduate school and study design and architecture. I definitely wanted to be in New York City, where I was born. I applied to several schools in New York, and the best fit for me was Pratt Institute since I wanted to live in Brooklyn and the school had robust programs in Architecture and Interior Architecture.
“Learning these lessons and finding a solution that I can take with me onto the next project is a very positive perspective...after the requisite time of frustration, I try and pick myself up and use that to propel me forward.”
Tell me how Studio Parallel came about? What are you focused on these days?
Over fifteen years ago, my husband was on a quest to diversify his experience and his work since he really felt pigeonholed at the architecture firm he was in. This was after graduate school for me, and I was working at a big-name firm that I loved in Manhattan. Once licensed, he created an LLC and Studio Parallel began as a “work on the weekends” endeavor for us both. Over the years, we worked together mostly afterhours and did small residential and retail work. Initially, I wasn’t very keen to “own” a firm, but I enjoyed collaborating on different projects with my husband, and since we both had full-time jobs, it felt very low stakes to have our own company on the side.
Around 2010, while we both had worked at several architecture and design offices garnering experience, we decided to start a family. At this point, I wasn’t as enamored of my working situation and was very worried about how I would continue my career and become a mother.
I wanted a better work-life balance and to not be tied to working for someone else mainly because of the daily demands of working in a corporate environment. We discussed making Studio Parallel our permanent thing. However, the 2008 recession had really scared us as it relates to overhead and expenditure, so I decided to create a modified working structure that did not require a heavy investment in the traditional brick-and-mortar office space and having salaried employees.
My model was to work out of my home office and collaborate with freelancers, former colleagues, and friends if projects needed more people and for me to be a full-time mother. It was really hard and at many moments I was not convinced this was for me, but after several stops and starts, I streamlined this work methodology and have been doing it this way ever since. We have done all typologies of projects. Lots of high-end residential, retail spaces, cafes, restaurants, and several schools including our recent ground up K-12 project in Brooklyn. These days, we are mostly focused on commercial and retail projects and recently have begun doing more multi-family building projects in the space of affordable and supportive housing.
Leota Showroom and Office. Photography by Dan Jenney.
Harlem Restaurant. Photography by Bernadett Pava.
Looking back at it all, what have been the biggest challenges? How did you both manage through perceived disappointments or setbacks?
My biggest challenge over the years, as a mostly solo practitioner, has been not to get disillusioned or exhausted on this very particular path I carved out. I didn’t actually set out to own a small business, run it, and all the while raise a family and both live with and work with my husband. Going out and getting the projects is hard. Finding and keeping collaborators in a freelance and sporadic manner—that I enjoy working with and that help me learn and grow—is hard. Life is mostly great, but finding inspiration and stretching my imagination constantly on projects given the world we live in now is hard. So wearing the different hats and continuing to juggle them can be draining.
For me the biggest challenge continues to be staying positive, driven, and finding a reason on every project to fall in love with this path and stick with it. My husband always tries to remind me that when something goes wrong on a project, there is an inherent lesson in it. Some lessons are hard, like losing projects or jobs dying midway after a lot of time and effort. Realizing you have to let a client go because there is no way to make the relationship or project itself work. It is incredibly hard as the principal to be perceived as being responsible for the contractor and schedule even though those two things are not in your control. Working with people that let you down is the worst, especially if they don’t have as much urgency to do the project well.
Learning these lessons and finding a solution that I can take with me onto the next project is a very positive perspective and as difficult as it is, after the requisite time of frustration, I try and pick myself up and use that to propel me forward.
What have you also learned in the last six months?
The last six months have been great for Studio Parallel truly, but we have had to have some difficult conversations with new and current clients around overall cost and schedule on projects. These types of conversations are always difficult since in our field we, as the designer or architect, are the bridge on all things to get projects built. With inflation and shortage of good quality construction labor, so many of our trusted and repeat contractors are folding their businesses or just not taking a certain type of project within a certain budget. It is tough out there these days for clients that are not super wealthy or backed by a developer, which in turn makes it harder on us architects and designers that want to take on these projects.
We have had to figure out different ways to preemptively set up the projects so that the collaboration between ourselves, the clients and contractors is transparent and clear so that we don’t get caught in the stress that always crops up around perceived schedule, the dynamics of building in New York, meaning the DOB with all its machinations and also client expectations. Unfortunately, also learning and knowing when we cannot execute a project due to any or all the above issues and just saying no. I have learned how to say no.
“I am incredibly proud that my kids attend a school that their parents designed, constructed, and put so much effort into during and right after a pandemic. I think it is a great example for our kids and their friends when they step into the building every day, that one can achieve hard things.”
What are you most excited about right now?
I am excited that the city is engaged in discussions and efforts around affordable housing. I am so happy to see that so many firms and politicians and developers are trying different strategies and planning different approaches to tackle this very salient issue. It is a very long road to equitable housing, and we are certainly not there yet but I am happy to be part of this in some of the work we are doing.
I love that women are getting a lot more of the center stage in our field as it relates to accolades, promotions to leadership roles, and organizations that are mentoring younger women designers, encouraging them to forge their own path. I think it is critical that people learn early that it does not have to be a cookie-cutter way of getting to a successful career in any creative field.
On the personal front, I am incredibly proud that my kids attend a school that their parents designed, constructed, and put so much effort into during and right after a pandemic. I think it is a great example for our kids and their friends when they step into the building every day, that one can achieve hard things.
Who are you admiring now and why?
I have been very inspired lately by the work being done in advocacy. A former colleague of mine from many years ago Pascale Sablan, the current president of NOMA has been doing the hard but great work of bringing attention to diversity in our design community and also advocating for equity in the built environment. It is incredible to see a licensed practicing architect, who is also a mother, and a woman of color, out in the world doing this work so elegantly and poignantly.
Lofty Pigeon Bookstore. Photography by Bernadett Pava.
Upper West Apartment Kitchen View. Photography by Dan Jenney.
What is the impact you’d like to have on the world? What is your core mission? And what does success in that look like to you?
My ambition overall is really quite simply to be a good role model for my kids and any person out there that wants to create their own version of a practice, do the type of work they themselves find interesting, and find their version of success.
To me success in life and work is making a wish list of goals and achieving them. These can be very simple and for the immediate future or complicated and long term.
Examples of my check list: I want to spend time with my kids and be their primary care giver – check; Make enough money to sustain my practice and support my family – check; Practice different types of architecture, design and build a school, design a restaurant, work in affordable housing – check; Spend time with people in my design community and collaborate with them – check.
Finally, what advice do you have for those starting their career? Would your advice be any different for women?
It has been said time and again, but I think there is still such a great fear around not following the traditional prescribed path that is generally perceived to be the only acceptable path. School leads to internship, which leads to a job, which one stays in for an undeterminable amount of time, wherein somehow you will be presented with the path to climbing the ladder into roles and positions that telegraph a successful career. This is a viable path for some but not the only one, and certainly not for many women who live in an ever evolving personal and familial landscape.
I think young people starting out should try as hard as possible to be curious and adventurous in their choice of studies and explore different types of design. Find and try many different kinds of internships. Spend time discussing work with engineers, acousticians, lighting designer, landscape architects, and artists. Don’t be afraid of this discourse and certainly ask a lot of questions and give your opinion. Challenge your current status quo and make moves.
Now I am not saying be the quintessential "jack of all trade, master of none." I am saying that if you are no longer learning or expanding your skills or creativity, find somewhere new to grow. If you have the means, move to a new city or travel to new places often. Explore jobs in parallel design fields. Join organizations that can provide mentoring to you or even just fun opportunities to engage with people in our field. Design a version of something for yourself. Demand that the organizations you work for provide a path to advancement and individual growth. Believe that you can be and do multiple things at once. Eventually once you are ready to pave your own way, be brave and take a chance.