Spaces to Thrive: Sarah Nelson-Woynicz on Visibility, Community, and Belonging
Dedicated to advancing equity, inclusion, and visibility of LGBTQIA+ architects, architecture adjacent, and design professionals, Sarah Nelson-Woynicz, AIA (she/her) is the founder of Pride by Design. As a Project Architect with HKS, Inc in Atlanta, Georgia, Sarah’s professional practice focuses on commercial/mixed-use markets, while engaging in HKS’ justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion work.
Sarah served on the AIA Atlanta Board of Directors and is currently the AIA Young Architects Forum Advisory Committee, Community Director. In her interview with Julia Gamolina, Sarah talks about engaging with others in crucial conversations, and safe spaces for everyone, advising those just starting their careers to explore and say yes to opportunities early.
Tell me about your foundational years - where did you grow up and what did you like to do as a kid?
I was a bit all over the place as a kid — a blend of a nerd, jock, and band geek if you had to break it down into grade school clichés. School was something I genuinely enjoyed, while also being involved in sports and in music for as long as I could remember. Outside of music, I was building things or carrying a Nikon film camera with me everywhere I went. I was interested in the arts and also was very involved within my community in Raleigh, North Carolina. I preferred to be outside, making things, and always was curious about whatever the discovery of the day might have been.
How did you choose Virginia Tech for architecture school?
I had family who lived in southwest Virginia, about thirty minutes south of Virginia Tech. While both of my parents are alumni, they were insistent on me considering all options and even going somewhere entirely different. One of the buildings in the College of Architecture, Burchard Hall, has a massive, open studio located underground — but it is not the kind of dark underground building you might envision. There are four glass pyramids above that let light in at all times of day. I remember walking into that as a seventeen-year-old and thinking, “Wow, this feels different.” I was captivated. I am not sure at that moment that I knew I wanted to be an architect, but I knew that space and the way I saw people learning was different and something that I wanted to be a part of.
Raleigh was not a particularly friendly or welcoming place to LGBTQIA+ people. I came into my sexuality really early, which made all of high school — which was already difficult — even that much more challenging. I knew early on and saw quickly that remaining in the place I had been all my life, surrounded by the same people, was not something I could do and live into who I knew myself to be. Looking back, I feel really fortunate at the privilege and opportunity that I had to leave, to start somewhere that no one knew me, to be able to find a place where I could begin by being myself. While I never could have known then that studying at Virginia Tech or studying architecture would be that place or people, I knew that I felt different when I walked into the studio for the first time and had hope that difference might continue beyond just studying architecture.
Site tour of Northside Cumberland Medical Office Building while under construction. Courtesy of HKS, Inc.
How did you get your start working in architecture?
I had a number of internships while at university, which were formative to how and where I started working in architecture. I remember the first internship I had being the moment I knew I was going to stay in architecture and complete my degree. Most of that summer I spent not just in an office, but on various job sites creating and fabricating. It was the first time that I got to translate what I was drawing into what I was creating, building, and collaborating on with others. It was also the first time that I experienced the profession beyond an office, that first moment to experience community in practice, and to begin shaping the definition of community that I wanted to be a part of. In doing so, I met an architect who was out and successfully running her own practice. That moment of visibility and belonging changed my entire trajectory, kept me in the architecture program, and ultimately got me to today.
How did you eventually get to HKS? What are you focused on there?
During my thesis year, I was working part time in Roanoke, Virginia. While it was an amazing experience to be working and studying, letting the two inform one another, I had dreams to move to a larger city that had a public transit system — so it’s a bit ironic now that I live in Atlanta. I had a previous summer internship at the HKS Richmond office, but had not been in touch consistently since then. The day I interviewed at HKS Atlanta, I was running 15 minutes late to my interview. I sent an email to let them know, and then proceeded to hit every green light from Midtown to Downtown, which I feel is unheard of in Atlanta. After the interview, I drove the seven-hour drive back to Virginia Tech for studio the next day. First thing in the morning, as I was walking through the parking lot to head to campus, I had an email with the opportunity to join HKS in Atlanta. I said, “Yes” and didn’t look back.
Six years later, I am in a project architect role, collaborating with our internal and external teams, clients, and communities to bring all of the pieces together to see a building from concept through construction. Currently, I am a part of the Commercial-Mixed Use studio and been a part of an intentional shift to embed equity and inclusion into our practice. I’m excited to be a part of lines blurring between studios, collaboration and the continual sharing of knowledge, and see the studio begin to challenge previously held processes and practices as we look to listen, learn, and be a part of shaping communities striving towards more equitable futures.
“I’m excited to be a part of lines blurring between studios, collaboration and the continual sharing of knowledge, and see the studio begin to challenge previously held processes and practices as we look to listen, learn, and be a part of shaping communities striving towards more equitable futures.”
Tell me about Pride by Design! How did you start, what's the evolution been like, and what are you focused on these days?
Pride by Design has been a whirlwind and is constantly evolving. At the 2022 AIA Women’s Leadership Summit in San Jose, I had the opportunity to sit down with Yiselle Santos Rivera, HKS Principal and Global Director of Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, and bounce a number of ideas around with her. One of those was this nagging thought that had been sitting with me for over a year, about how to share the stories of LGBTQIA+ architects and design professionals. Visibility has had such an impact on my personal path. Additionally, in sharing my own story, I have started to have the opportunity to hear the stories of others, and wanted to create the space to be able to share those further. I remember our conversation so vividly. Yiselle shared that the WIELD Committee in D.C. had a website with a blog space that was not actively being used at the time. She looked at me and asked, “What if you just start writing there?”
After about a week of thinking about it, Yiselle connected me with the current committee leadership who fully encouraged and supported the sharing of ten stories through a written blog. And so, Pride by Design began. Two amazing collaborators joined in making connections and sharing stories — A.L. Hu and Beau Frail. Both of them were a part of keeping me grounded the first six months.
Visibility through storytelling is still at the core of Pride by Design, so the focus remains on interviewing and sharing the stories of LGBTQIA+ architects and designers through a blog. That being said, Pride by Design is also exploring opportunities beyond the blog and what that might look like. At their core, many of these focus on connecting and being in community, including connecting in conversations with local and student-led organizations, learning and discovering more about communities of practice and how to begin creating a space to connect with LGBTQIA+ architects and designers across the US, and climbing a steep learning curve of how to create an organization.
This story is not unlike mine in starting Madame Architect! I also began it by blogging for another organization, ArchiteXX. Looking back at it all, what have been the biggest challenges? How did you both manage through perceived disappointments or setbacks?
This is a really interesting question when thinking about Pride by Design because, compared to how challenging things at other moments have been, beginning Pride by Design has had few hurdles specific to the blog. The challenges have been much bigger than that. They are challenges of psychological safety, of being able to be visible or not because of possible impacts to one’s personal and professional lives, of striving towards visibility and storytelling as catalysts for change in a society where LGBTQIA+ people and rights are being reversed.
Some of the most challenging points of my career have come since beginning Pride by Design, with a frustration at the way decisions are made, who makes those decisions, and whose voices are not in the room when decisions are made. It is the challenge and desire for urgency in changing a system and way of thinking that is deeply entrenched and will continue to take years to change, building on the work of so many who have come before me.
Having a community and group of people to turn to to vent, run through a possible response, or get their thoughts has been critical. It’s allowed me to navigate challenges that, at times, can feel so deeply personal. I have also come to see many of these moments as part of a process to learn and discover where the greatest change is needed. When advocating and engaging in change, friction is inevitable. In knowing this as a baseline, it has allowed me the opportunity to see these challenges as the space to dig in further.
Public plaza and artwork at Norfolk Southern HQ in Atlanta, Georgia, by Pickard Chilton Architects and HKS, Inc. Photography by David Sundberg.
Northside Cumberland Medical Office Building. Photography by Garey Gomez.
Confidential Southeast Mixed-use Development leaning into equitable access and placemaking. Courtesy of HKS, Inc.
What have you also learned in the last six months?
So many things, but to highlight three — having the opportunity to use an existing space or platform as testing grounds for an idea cannot be understated. That it is an incredible privilege to listen, to learn, and to be able to share the stories of others. This space and visibility for LGBTQIA+ designers has been needed, is needed, and will be needed in the future. However, as K Kaczmarek of Mithun’s Designing Beyond the Binary research team recently said — “…visibility cannot also occur without safety.”
Absolutely. What are you most excited about right now?
There are so many things. In my day to day, I am really excited about the opportunity to be a part of supporting the learning and growth of the teams I am a part of. I am currently surrounded by some incredibly talented and brilliant people, many whom are earlier in their careers and at such an important place of learning in real time on projects. I myself was in their seat not too long ago, and I remember how that was for me. There were amazing mentors I was surrounded by, while also remembering that question of, “How could I do this differently if given the opportunity?” I am living that now.
Everything with Pride by Design is probably what I am most excited about. It is what energizes and gets me out of bed every day. For the first time that I have seen, LGBTQIA+ architects and design professionals are making the space to connect across the country. This has occurred in various instances previously, but not with the growing momentum that is presently here. The conversations within AIA LGBTQIA+ Alliances, within firm employee resource groups, within the opportunity to interview through Pride by Design are opening doors to look around and actually see queer architects. If you had asked me five years ago if this is where I thought I would be, I would have immediately told you, “No way, that is not possible.” Yet we are not only here, but advocating, creating programs, building community and visibility, speaking at conferences, changing policy, and influencing business decisions within firms. Our evolution with Pride by Design is beyond exciting, incredible, and humbling, and is something I am excited to continue to navigate and discover.
“When advocating and engaging in change, friction is inevitable. In knowing this as a baseline, it has allowed me the opportunity to see these challenges as the space to dig in further.”
Who are you admiring now and why?
Every trans and non-binary designer, architect, and person who continues to show up as they are able to each and every day. Per the ACLU, as of this moment, over 490 bills targeting LGBTQ rights have been introduced across the US — compared to around 260 bills in the 2022 legislative session. The nearly doubling in numbers alone is staggering, much less the hateful rhetoric and culture that has been evident. As a cisgender woman, I carry an inherent privilege when I walk into any space. Colleagues, peers, and friends who continue to navigate the world and the workplace today — bringing their challenges, worries, fears, and yet also joy and advocacy for change will continue to not only be a part of making the profession of architecture, but also the communities we shape, better places.
And speaking of making our communities a better place, a particular admiration for the AIA Chicago, Dallas, Austin, New York, Georgia, and Boston LGBTQIA+ alliances and networks. In a large professional organization that can, at times, feel like decades will pass before there is change, the leadership and people in these alliances are creating community and grassroots change every day in everything they touch. We could all stand to listen and learn from them.
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?
Pride by Design began as an avenue to amplify and bring visibility to the stories, experiences, and work of LGBTQIA+ architects, designers, and creating places and spaces in the built environment. At the same time, it is important to recognize that the voices of LGBTQIA+ professionals are not often heard or have space — and many times, the safety — to be shared. I see part of my purpose, the guiding purpose of Pride by Design, is to change that, to begin with visibility through storytelling as one of many steps towards a more equitable and joyful future for LGBTQIA+ people.
For a community that has been disenfranchised and othered for decades, when that otherness begins to diminish, when the dialogue and policies begin to shift, when there is not the question of, “Where are other queer architects,” because there is visibility and the safety to be visible that must walk alongside that, then maybe that will be a moment where we begin to see change towards a more equitable future. This is not just about success, this is about existence, the space to belong, and the space to thrive.
The Soul of Reynoldstown, by Aysha Pennerman, created by a collaboration between YAF of Atlanta, NOMAtlanta, and the Reynoldstown neighborhood in celebration of the 150th anniversary of Reynoldstown. Photo by Brian Reeves.
Finally, what advice do you have for those starting their career? Would your advice be any different for women?
Saying yes early on to a broad range of exposure and experience is good. Be curious, learn what questions you did not know you had, but also know and learn when to not just say no, or when to say, “Actually, another person might be great for this.” There is so much opportunity in your “no” being the amplification and opportunity for another’s “yes”. And when something is a “hell yes”, then it is something that you should be doing, that aligns fundamentally with your core values and passions, and is something that you would change how things currently may be to be able to show up fully.
My advice for women would not be different, but I will add for women and for those who are LGBTQIA+ who are reading this — you have a space and place in architecture. The communities architects and designers are a part of shaping needs you, your perspectives, your voice. There are so many who have been and will continue to work towards not just a more equitable practice, but a more equitable and inclusive profession and world.