Pascale Sablan of Adjaye Associates | Cleveland Foundation Headquarters in Cleveland | Design Justice | Part 1
Courtesy of Adjaye Associates
Design Justice
In today’s episodes, I speak with architect, activist, and Associate at Adjaye Associates, Pascale Sablan. She shares with us her experience working on the Cleveland Foundation Headquarters as a designer at S9 ARCHITECTURE in New York. This project, located at the corner of Euclid Avenue and East 66th Street, is meant to be as open, transparent, and inviting as possible to foster an inclusive and welcoming environment.
More broadly, we discuss the topic of design justice and how that aims to challenge structural inequalities by centering marginalized individuals in community-led design practices. As Founder of Beyond the Built Environment, Pascale shares her vision of working to dismantle injustices in the built environment and advocating for equitable, reflectively diverse environments.
What is the relationship between design, power, and social justice? Join us on today’s episode as we discuss incorporating marginalized voices into the built landscape, learning more about the design process behind the Cleveland Foundation Headquarters, and Pascale’s personal journey working with S9 ARCHITECTURE.
“I was kind of told that it had to stay separate, right. That you do your architecture from nine to five and you do your advocacy from five to nine. And if I was switching into spaces, I’d have to recall which hat I was wearing. Whereas when I started talking to David, it was like, no, you’re both. We are all both. Architecture is political. There’s no staying neutral. Right. And so in that when you come into this office and when you talk about our projects or when you work collaborative with our team, I need you to bring both of those parts of your identity forward and all the other parts of your identity. You as a black person, you as a mother, you as a woman in architecture, all of that is needed and necessary.”
Courtesy of Adjaye Associates
About Pascale Sablan
Pascale Sablan graduated from Pratt and pursued a Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design at Columbia University. During this time, she found her activist voice by defending her design ideas and implementing holistic design visions for the built environment. She is the 315th African American female architect in the United States to attain my architectural license. She has been awarded with the 2018 Pratt Alumni Achievement Award, the NOMA Prize for Excellence in Design and Building Design + Construction 40 Under 40 as well as being featured on the Cover of the September 2017 issue. As the recipient of the 2021 Whitney M. Young Jr. Award, she is a champion of women and diverse design professionals. Through her work, she has greatly enhanced the profession and broadened social awareness of the built environment by calling for design justice.
Courtesy of Adjaye Associates
Episode Timestamps
2:50 – You started your design education at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Tell us about that experience and what stands out to you about it?
7:35 – Do you see your work as an architect and an activist as separate and distinct from each other, or are these ideas and inspirations intertwined for you?
9:43 – In the context of this relatively short career that you've had so far, you have honestly accomplished a lot more than most people. So I imagine that when you ask people for things you get ‘yes’ all the time because you're recognized and people know who you are. Is that the reality or is there some other truth?
22:45 – So amongst the many great projects that you’ve worked on, we're going to focus on the Cleveland Foundation headquarters. So as this name implies, it's in Cleveland. Tell us about the particular neighborhood that it's in. What are the challenges and opportunities of that site?
25:29 – Tell us more about The Cleveland MIssion. What’s their mission and what do they hope to accomplish with this project?
30:03 – As you were developing the design, what does a successful process of community engagement look like?
Connect with Pascale Sablan:
LinkedIn (Pascale Sablan)
Instagram (Pascale Sablan)
LinkedIn (S9 Architecture)
The Built Environment
Courtesy of Adjaye Associates
About your host:
Atif Qadir is the Founder & CEO of Commonplace, a technology company making it easy for commercial real estate professionals to find and use the $100B of real estate incentives given out every year in the US.
His work has been covered by Technology Review, The Real Deal, Commercial Observer, and Propmodo. He’s also a frequent speaker on the future of buildings and cities on popular industry podcasts and at conferences, including this past year at the Commercial Observer National DEI Conference, Yale AREA Conference, Columbia Real Estate Symposium, Open Data Week NYC and Austin Design Week.
About Commonplace
Commonplace is a founding sponsor of American Building. It is a 100% minority-owned, real estate technology company founded in 2020 to make financing social impact development projects across the US easier. It is funded by venture capital investors Hometeam Ventures, Park West Asset Management, New York Ventures and Shadow Ventures.
About Michael Graves
The world-famous design firm Michael Graves is also a founding sponsor of American Building. Its namesake, the iconoclastic designer Michael Graves, FAIA was a fierce advocate for people-centric design. His work defines a generation of American architecture and includes the Portland Building, the Humana Building and the Denver Public Library. The 1st season of American Building was filmed live at The Warehouse, his historic home in Princeton, New Jersey:
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