Quinn Evans team members Lauren Strauss, Rachel Pisano, and Claire Antrassian are featured in the 2023 Winter Edition of the Challenge Detroit Newsletter spotlighting Women in Architecture. All three are alumnae of the Challenge Detroit fellowship program who completed their Fellowships at Quinn Evans and are currently working in Quinn Evans’ Detroit, Michigan, office.

Challenge Detroit brings a unique opportunity for emerging professionals to get hands-on experience in their field four days each week while taking an additional day to support the local community through nonprofit involvement. Over the last 11 years, most Challenge Detroit applicants with an architecture background have identified as women, and of 24 total architecture Fellows, 20 have been women.

By working on design projects with peers of all different backgrounds and careers, I was able to understand more about the different ways of addressing a project and (how to) come up with thoughtful solutions together.

-Lauren Strauss, 2016-2017 Challenge Detroit Fellow

Unlike many of my university projects, Challenge Detroit had a huge emphasis on participation with the end user. I will never start another project again without asking, 'who does this impact and are they here?'

-Rachel Pisano, 2018-2019 Challenge Detroit Fellow

I learned that through a design process that includes empathy, communication, inclusive ideation, and iterative problem solving, we can create good design that is sustainable.

-Claire Antrassian, 2018-2019 Challenge Detroit Fellow

As a women-owned business enterprise, Quinn Evans welcomes opportunities to support women’s career growth in the field of architecture and design. The firm has hosted several Challenge Detroit architecture Fellows, and currently hosts two: Diamonique Thomas and Talia Greenberg.

Read the full Challenge Detroit Women in Architecture blog post here.