2026 Hello Reader, This past week was a slow one, and I mean that in every sense. We lost Maxwell, our 15-year-old family dog, on the flight home from vacation. I came home sick. I'm still not fully back. Some weeks just are what they are. But I also came home to a question that wouldn't leave me. One that came from the conversation I recorded for this week's episode. How much of what architects say they value actually shows up in the way they practice? We talk about community. We use it in...
10 days ago • 1 min read
2026 Hello Reader, This one is coming to you a day late. Spring break has a way of reminding you that rest isn't optional, and this week it did exactly that. We also came home to some hard news, the kind that slows everything down for a day or two. Life happens. You pick back up. Full transparency: I'm actively working toward automating this newsletter with the help of AI. The goal is to have it draw from my weekly notes and come together largely on its own, in my voice. I'm not there yet,...
16 days ago • 1 min read
2026 Hello Reader, I'm writing this from Spring Break, and I'm keeping it short. (Apologies in advance for slow email responses this week.) Here's the question I keep coming back to: are architects going to figure out startups first, or are startups going to figure out architecture first? That's what's at the center of this week's episode of Practice Disrupted. I sat down with Bryan Boyer, founding director of the BS in Urban Technology at the University of Michigan's Taubman College and...
24 days ago • 1 min read
2026 Hello Reader, The architecture profession has been asking the wrong question about technology for a long time. Not "which tools should we use?" but "what kind of practice are we trying to build?" And underneath that: do we even have the vocabulary for that conversation? I've been thinking about this a lot this week, partly because of what's happening at the University of Michigan's Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. Dean Jonathan Massey wrote about a new Master of Urban...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
2026 Hello Reader, This week, I have been sitting with a question I cannot quite shake: What would change if architects applied the same rigor to their business model that they bring to their buildings? Not as an abstract exercise, but as a real design problem with real stakes. The profession is full of people who are brilliant at the work but have never been asked to question the structure around it. The billing logic. The revenue model. What it actually means to build something sustainable,...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
2026 Hello Reader, Happy International Women's Day. I've been thinking about what this day means to me personally. Growing up as the daughter of two Chinese immigrants, the formula was clear: keep your head down, work hard, and you will be rewarded. For years, I brought that same formula into my career. I believed if I stayed quiet enough and let my work speak for itself, I'd be valued. What I didn't understand then is that staying invisible isn't humility. It's a habit. And habits can...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
2026 Hello Reader, There's a post that's been circulating for the past few weeks, and I keep coming back to it. AI entrepreneur Matt Shumer wrote an essay called "Something Big Is Happening," and it has nearly 70 million views. His opening line: "Every time someone asks me what's going on with AI, I give them the safe answer. Because the real one sounds insane." I've been thinking about that framing a lot. Because I've been giving the polite version, too. Here's what I want you to sit with:...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
2026 Hello Reader, Happy Lunar New Year. The celebration was just this past Tuesday, and the season's message is still fresh. Renewal. Intention. Permission to carry forward the lessons while setting something new in motion. Growing up as the daughter of two Chinese immigrants, I was handed a very specific formula for success: keep your head down, work hard, and you will be rewarded. It took years in my career before I realized that formula, while well-intentioned, was also quietly keeping me...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
2026 Hello Reader, A few exciting updates this week. First, congratulations to all those who earned their AIA Fellowship this year, especially friends of the Practice of Architecture, like Jennifer Kretschmar. If you're reading this and were elevated to the College of Fellows, reply and let me know. I'd love to feature you in an upcoming social post on PoA Socials. Speaking of social, we've finally made the jump to YouTube. You can now subscribe to the Practice Disrupted podcast there, and...
2 months ago • 1 min read