January 13, 2022

6:30 PM est

Mariam Cantelmi AIA

Mariam Cantelmi is a registered architect in New York and New Jersey currently working on residential projects. She formerly worked as a Project Architect at VOA, a 280-person Chicago-based architecture firm that was later acquired by Stantect. Prior to that she was a Project Architect at InArch where she focussed on commercial architecture and interiors.

During her career, Mariam managed project staffing for a team of 30+ architects and designers for multiple projects. Working closely with the firm principal, Mariam managed the growth and mentorship of the teams. When projects encountered turbulence, Mariam was responsible for working with the team and client to get the project back on track. Sometimes this meant encouraging young professionals and helping them find their voices. Sometimes this meant delivering direct feedback to promote growth.

Mariam has practiced in a wide range of areas including high end residential, retail, and commercial architecture. She received a B.Arch. from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City. She lives in NJ where she manages her most challenging project: a household with her husband and three teenage sons. She works as an architect to relax and drink coffee in peace.

Giving and Taking: Managing the People who Manage the Project

Part of our job as architects is to manage the various stakeholders associated with your work. For residential work this is often a direct relationship with the owner, interior decorator, and contractor. For larger projects, with bigger budgets and larger scopes, additional stakeholders such as owners representatives and specialty consultants may enter the picture.

In her talk, Mariam will walk us through her experiences navigating these relationships to ensure that the programming and design goals remain front and center. How does one push back while preserving our influence and maintaining forward movement? Mariam will discuss how, in her 20 years of navigating the architectural vision of projects, she skillfully redirected the demands of other stakeholders on the team to maintain control of impactful decisions and to protect her integrity as the design professional.