Meet Katie
I’m Katie.
I’m a Home Maker in all senses of the word, as a mother, designer, community development, and affordable housing expert. I’m also a yoga-addict and a new author. In the past few years of my life, I've experienced extreme love, extreme loss, celebrated 20 years of community development work and started a new adventure with an international design collective dedicated to delivering architecture that promotes justice and human dignity. I’ve written about these changes in two books, In Bohemia, and Design With Love. Both tell stories that I never imagined possible.
I believe social justice work is love work. The opportunity to be a designer who fights for social justice is a unique gift.
Design is fundamentally optimistic. It allows us to imagine a better future and come together through imagination, rigor, and care. Love requires a commitment to bring one’s most evolved emotional self to the relationship. Understanding not only what we do, and how we do it, but why we do what we do is a critical commitment.
The Rose Fellowship became a training ground for community designers; the chance to immerse oneself in place and accompany community members, while providing the context for self reflection, and sharing common purpose.
Over the past 25 years, I have seen the field of architecture change in extraordinary ways. It is now recognized that for architecture to be great, it must also be just. I am proud to be a part of building this movement.
Design With Love
is a photojournalist dream and coffee table book documenting partnerships and innovations in design across the U.S. led by some of the most talented young architects, planners, and social entrepreneurship professionals in the country. I was honored to work with them and am telling the stories of their work and the communities we were privileged to work in, with the gorgeous photography by collaborator Harry Connolly. This book serves as a tribute to what’s possible in communities, an inspirational read for all young urban planners, designers, and policymakers who are looking for creative and affordable housing in communities. This book is the predecessor to where I am now, and what inspires me to lead affordable housing initiatives across the country.
In Bohemia
In Bohemia: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Kindness was a story that found me. After a difficult divorce - and divorce is difficult for everyone - and raising my three girls, I was floored to find love again. It was years in the making, but all the pieces fell into place. Within a year of dating, we were already building a life and home together, blending our lives, dreams, health, design skills, and families. Shortly before we were to be married, less than two years after meeting, my fiancé died suddenly in my arms. This is a story about writing through grief and finding peace in chaos, loss, and sadness.
Writing two books in two years…
was a labor of love and a calling. I hope that you can find inspiration and solace in their pages as I have.
