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 our mission statements, our proposals, and our presentations. But community engagement as a structured, billable part of a firm's work? That's rare. Most of the time, it gets absorbed into pro bono hours or someone's passion project, which quietly disappears when the project ends.

The team at Architects FORA decided that wasn't good enough.

In Episode 230 of Practice Disrupted, I sat down with Leah Alissa Bayer, Kate Conley, Sarah Vaccaro, and Nicole Little to hear how they built Engage Fora: a full-service community engagement practice that is billable, repeatable, and structurally embedded in how the firm operates. Nicole, whose background spans architecture and urban planning, seeded this work through the firm's 20% research-and-passion-time policy. She grew up in housing that actively harmed her family's health. That experience became the professional catalyst for building a framework that changes how communities experience the design process.

This is a firm doing something the profession talks about and rarely delivers on.

🎧 Listen to Episode 230: https://practiceofarchitecture.com/2026/04/09/230-claiming-the-room-how-fora-built-a-business-architects-kept-walking-past/​

One more thing: I'm beginning a new chapter as Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Michigan's Taubman College. As part of that work, the professional intensive I've been developing with Larry Fabbroni and Bryan Boyer, Innovation in the Built Environment, is now open for enrollment. Newsletter readers save $400 with code SAVE400 at checkout.

Visit beradicallybetter.com to learn more.

If community engagement is something your firm says it values, what would it take to make it something your firm actually prices?

Keep learning and growing,

Evelyn M Lee, FAIA | NOMA Founder, Practice of Architecture Host, Practice Disrupted & Fractional COO

/// PoA Podcast - Practice Disrupted ///

Claiming the Room: How FORA Built a Business Architects Kept Walking Past How much of what architects claim they value actually shows up in how they practice, especially when it comes to community engagement? listen here

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