Member Spotlight: Ethel Rubio
This year's AWA+D Symposium, Next Generation: Engage, Empower, Elevate, is less than a month away! All are welcome as we gather to connect with each other and uplift one another as we explore all the paths the world of architecture and design have to offer. We will be joined by fantastic speakers, listen to insightful projects, and be guided by thoughtful community leaders, all while meeting new people and discovering the places architecture, art, and design can take us. Walk away with career or personal prospects ahead - you don’t want to miss it!
Andrea Carlson (b. 1979) is an indigenous artist whose work interrogates access, denial, art historical narratives, Mondo films, repetition, indigenous knowledge, and repatriation. In October 2025, the first museum survey of Carlson’s work opened at the Denver Art Museum. This exhibit brought together an incredible breadth of work spanning the last twenty years of her career, and culminating with a new work commissioned for the museum, The Constant Sky, for which the exhibit is named. I had the chance to connect with Carlson, who told me to not to quit architecture when I joked that she inspired me to become a visual artist instead. As a compromise, I asked for an interview about her work, and how to contend with museum architecture.
Aryana Leland
In the short time that Antoni Gaudí had to devote his life’s work to Sagrada Família, he undoubtedly earned himself a place in the architectural canon. Despite meeting God via public transit, Gaudí could not have predicted that a viewer’s first impression of the church might be emerging from a dark Metro station, squinting at Google Maps in front of the Passion Façade. Today, the neighborhood surrounding Basilica de la Sagrada Família is entirely obsessed with Antoni Gaudí, lined with shops like “Sweet Gaudí” and “Gaudí Shopping.” In its century-long construction phase, it seems that Sagrada Família has had two distinct lives: one under the watchful eye of Gaudí, and one with the city of Barcelona.
Aryana Leland
In October 2022, Frida Escobedo gave the first of a series of talks on “Designing Tomorrow’s Met” in New York. At the museum, her studio had recently won the commission to design the Oscar L.Tang and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing for Modern and Contemporary Art. With a practice based in Mexico City, Escobedo’s first lecture gave patrons a glimpse into her design process. Earlier this year, Escobedo’s vision for the Tang Wing was unveiled, expertly navigating the museum’s stakeholders, a challenging set of existing conditions, and its users
