What defines a global design firm? It’s the people. Our seven new directors reflect the qualities that SOM brings to every project — international perspective, deep expertise, and an ability to work across disciplines. They are architects, engineers, urban planners, and graphic designers — an ensemble cast, much like our collaborative practice. To celebrate our new leaders, we asked them for insights on their career journeys and a preview of coming attractions.
Preetam Biswas
Director of Structural Engineering, New York
Hometown? Both Mumbai and Kolkata, India
Years at SOM? 15, almost 16 — whew!
Best career advice you’ve received?
It was from Stan Korista, my eternal mentor. I was going through a particularly difficult period in my personal life and spending a copious amount of time at the office. He said, “Do not make work the avenue for distraction; neither you, nor your work will benefit from it. Get a hobby instead!” And so I did: scuba diving. As I explored a world previously unknown to me, I gained a clarity of purpose in my professional pursuit — both the importance of what I did, and simultaneously its insignificance, became obvious.
Leadership, in my mind, is not just leading the way where none have ventured, but doing so responsibly.
What are you working on now?
A number of transportation projects—airports in Bangalore, India, and Kansas City, Missouri, as well as new infrastructure for the Long Island Rail Road concourse at Penn Station in New York City. I’ve also been working on high-rise projects, including the towers at the Manhattan West development in New York and a headquarters building in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
How would you define good leadership?
Leadership, in my mind, is not just leading the way where none have ventured, but doing so responsibly. Leaving the path to be followed a bit more enriched by your experiences, and a bit more hopeful by your vision.
Joyce Lam
Managing Director, Hong Kong
Hometown? Hong Kong and Vancouver
Years at SOM? 7
Best career advice you’ve received?
“You cannot save the world in one day… go home.”
What are you working on now?
A variety of projects across southern China, mostly high-rise and mixed-use. The new Chamber of Commerce Tower in Guangzhou is going to be the tallest steel tower in China, and the world’s tallest steel tower with an offset core. It has all the characteristics that define an SOM office building: expressive structure, atriums, a high performance facade, and a simple and elegant form. Another high-rise project, the Star River Tower in Guangzhou, is particularly exciting for me, as it’s likely to be the first to be completed of all the projects I have been involved with since 2017.
In Nanning, the ASEAN Tower is a project that we’ve revised several times due to height constraints, but with each revision, we’ve been able to provide a more efficient and suitable solution.
In Shenzhen, we’re working on a headquarters tower for WeBank. We’ve done a lot of bank headquarters, but this one is for the first privately-owned and digital-only bank in China. We’ve envisioned a highly flexible workplace that integrates technology and sustainability into every aspect of the design.
Poly Plaza in Kunming is the lowest in height of all my projects, but it’s no less structurally challenging. It has strong SOM DNA: expressive structure, simple and powerful massing, and seamless integration to its context.
How would you define good leadership?
An ability to listen, to inspire, to turn criticisms into motivations — and having the courage to make a decision at the right time.
Keith O’Connor
Director of Urban Design and Planning, New York
Years at SOM? Just over one year. Previously, I spent five years as a Principal at James Corner Field Operations; six years working at the New York City Department of City Planning with a focus on Lower Manhattan and special projects throughout Manhattan (including the High Line, Hudson Yards, and Roosevelt Island / Cornell Tech); and before that I spent nine years working in Washington, D.C. at The Conservation Fund — a national not-for-profit land and water conservation organization. I also spent a year and a half at the National Trust for Historic Preservation just before joining SOM.
Best career advice you’ve received?
From my thesis advisor, the late John R. Russell, at Ball State University: Don’t ever apologize for your work. Do your best, take pride in what you do, and accept full responsibility for it — for better and for worse.
From my landscape architecture professor at Harvard GSD: If you want to build exceptional open space projects, don’t focus presentations on your idea or aspirational notions of what you are trying to achieve; focus instead on how the project is dealing with stormwater, how the proposed design is cost-effective, how it will be constructed and maintained on time and on budget. Save the design rhetoric for reflective discussions with colleagues, or publications in an academic journal.
From my first boss out of graduate school, following a particularly tense meeting between a client and our consultant: Don’t panic. Take a deep breath. Proceed with caution, confidence, and humility.
What are you working on now?
Our City Design Practice has a mix of domestic and international projects underway. Our current work in the northeast ranges from open space design for a 22-acre mixed-use development in suburban Boston to longterm master planning for a new 200-acre Lake Campus at Princeton University. It also spans the New York City area waterfront — from an intensive urban design study for 26 acres on the East River in the South Street Seaport Historic District, to a longterm resilience and redevelopment effort in Hoboken on more than 50 acres of the Hudson River waterfront.
Internationally, we are working to develop a vision for an amazing 740-acre site surrounding a UNESCO World Heritage site in Turkistan on the ancient Silk Road, completing master planning work on an ambitious 61-acre waterfront site in Bahrain, and just starting work on a new airbase in Kuwait.
How would you define good leadership?
The ability to inspire action, empower people, elevate discourse, and achieve excellence.
Aaron Mazeika
Director of Structural Engineering, Chicago
Hometown? Oundle, England. The ‘ou’ is pronounced as in ‘loud.’ Cambridge would be the nearest place familiar to those not born within 20 miles.
Years at SOM? 8 in San Francisco, and now 11 in Chicago
Best career advice you’ve received?
Find work that you love. Success is built upon a considerable investment of time and effort, so it is critically important that you are passionate about whatever work you choose to engage in.
Be a lifelong learner. We do not graduate from university with the knowledge that we need to perform our work, but instead develop the learning skills that we use to grow throughout our careers.
It is not your job to provide the answers, but to ask the questions that help others find the right answers.
What are you working on now?
Project-wise, the team is finishing up the design of two 500-meter towers in China (in Nanjing and Xi’an). We are also getting started with the construction administration of 800 West Fulton Market, a 20-story office building in Chicago’s West Loop, and a fantastic example of the integrated, structurally expressive architecture that we so passionately believe in.
How would you define good leadership?
Motivate and empower. Understand that it is not your job to provide the answers, but to ask the questions that help others find the right answers.
Meredith Bostwick-Lorenzo Eiroa
Managing Director, New York
Hometown: Atlanta, Georgia
Years at SOM: 8 years, 9 months
Best career advice you’ve received?
I’ve had three great mentors in my life: two are architects, one is a social activist. I met Cornel West during my time as a student at Princeton University, not out of circumstance but in seeking a voice outside of the architectural discipline. Cornel taught me to question the individual perspective, as a critique of how most architects approach a problem from one perspective — “I.” Our conversations led me to actively approach my work through the perspective of the “other.” This has had the single greatest influence on how I approach design — as a collective process.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on several collaborative efforts for education, from K-12 to universities, and working across offices from New York to D.C. to Chicago (and at times, London, San Francisco, and L.A.). From the site development for the first phase of Cornell Tech, to Barnard College’s The Milstein Center for Teaching and Learning, to the renovation and new addition at Wellesley College’s Science Center, and the master plan for Princeton University’s Lake Campus and East Campus Entry, each project is an example of our bespoke approach to seeking out an architecture that is defined by an institution’s unique culture, place, and experience.
How would you define good leadership?
The ability to open up and find potential together as a collective.
Benton Johnson
Director of Structural Engineering, Chicago
Hometown? Bemidji, Minnesota
Years at SOM? 12
Best career advice you’ve received?
Things won’t always go your way. Learn what you can when a project or new concept fails — and keep moving forward.
What are you working on now?
The usual — a mixture of projects, competitions, and research. 330 North Green Street, an office development in Chicago’s Fulton Market district, is expected to start construction in early 2020, and we are about to start work on the new O’Hare Airport concourses. I am also working on a number of competitions in the U.S., China, and Australia. Recently, for the Chicago Architecture Biennial, we opened Stereoform Slab, a concrete pavilion which showcases some recent research I have been helping with. We used automated construction techniques to create a full-scale prototype of a future building system that shows a more sustainable way of building with concrete.
How would you define good leadership?
Setting a clear vision or goal, and then empowering those around you to achieve it.
Lonny Israel
Director, Environmental Graphic Design and Branding, San Francisco
Hometown? Papillion, Nebraska (our high school mascot was the menacing Monarch butterfly!)
Years at SOM? Having passion for what I do has made time pass quickly.
Best career advice you’ve received?
There have been several important moments. I first started working in SOM’s Chicago office and was taken under the wing of a talented designer in the Interiors Department who persuaded me to transfer to the San Francisco office’s environmental graphics group. It was here, in San Francisco, that I received invaluable mentorship.
One of the more significant pieces of advice I’ve received came from one of my clients, a senior vice president for Charles Schwab, who taught me the importance of understanding and engaging the client to be an active part of the entire design process.
Good leadership involves curiosity, openness, empathy, and commitment.
What are you working on now?
Locally, I’m continuing to work with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Asian Art Museum, Contemporary Jewish Museum, the San Francisco International Airport, and several residential projects. I’m also developing a special exhibition for the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank.
I’m involved in several other projects on the West Coast, including a commercial development in Los Angeles, the Long Beach Civic Center and Library, and the new SeaTac International Arrivals Facility. On the East Coast, I’m engaged in two large-scale civic projects. My work internationally includes projects in Saudi Arabia and China.
The diversity in these projects keeps me inspired and gives me broader experience to draw from to better serve the needs of my clients.
How would you define good leadership?
Good leadership involves curiosity, openness, empathy, and commitment. A good leader selects and builds a team that shares these qualities while also helping to fuel projects with passion and inspire teams and clients to create a positive impact.
What’s important at the end of the day — and what’s most exciting for me — is being able to see a project all the way through, and to deliver a result that’s powerful and resonant.
Read more perspectives from people at SOM:
