Forensic Architecture Panel | Event Report

What's a Forensic Architect?
March 25 2017

Kristina Raupach hosted a stimulating and informative panel discussion by five women who work as forensic architects and engineers. It took place in the conference room at Madsen, Kneppers & Associates, Inc. in Walnut Creek and was attended by about thirty-five OWADP members and guests. The panelists were Katherine Quach of Govan Associates, Annie Lo of Walker Restoration, Amber Antrocelli of Neumann Sloat Arnold Architectsm, Taryn Williams, S.E. of Simpson Gumpertz and Heger, and Miriam Tupey of McGinnis Chen Associates.

Kristina opened the session with an introduction to her own career, particularly how she came to forensic architecture. She talked about the range of work that she does, which includes litigation work, investigation, testing, insurance property loss, and more. She then welcomed the panel and invited each member to talk about her trajectory into and within the field, something about the structure of the company she works for, and the kind of work her company does.

It was fascinating to hear these women's professional stories. It was clear that, although most of them had not set out to become forensic architects or engineers, they all love what they do and what they learn in doing it. One of the things that interested me the most was that although much of the work these women and their companies do relates to claims and the technical failures behind them, it is only partly about establishing fault or blame. A large part of their work is figuring out how to fix problems, and finding and testing alternative materials and details to make sure that the problem doesn�t happen again. It involves hands-on detective work, pulling things apart, research, testing materials and assemblies and design. In other words it is a very stimulating form of collaborative problem solving.

The session also made me reflect on my years of teaching. The architectural design and construction industry requires highly skilled people in an amazingly variety of areas, very few of which are taught or learned in architecture school. The emphasis in schools tends to be on design, and since everyone aiming to be an architect must go through the filter of education, the skill set and interests among architects is skewed toward design. I think that this might be a factor in the progressive narrowing of the role of the architect in the industry that I have observed over my career. It also means that many talented students, who are less focused on "Design" but would be excellent architects, chose other professions.

For me, an interesting part of the Q & A that followed the panel discussion was the panelists' responses to a question about whether they had met discrimination in the course of their work. All of these women said they had not. Each in her own way, said that she was respected because of her expertise because she "knew her stuff". This was followed by an uplifting conversation about great strides that have been made to make the industry more equitable over the last forty years. Without denying this, there could be something else in play as well, that women may also fair better as specialists than as generalists -- something to bear in mind when negotiating a career.

It was very refreshing to hear Kris and the group of remarkable women she gathered together for this session, speak with passion and confidence about a remarkable section of the profession.