Green Hammer architects Laura Squillace and Jon Lundstrom bring more than 30 years of combined experience and a shared love of nature and collaboration to their work. Since joining Green Hammer more than eight years ago, they’ve partnered on numerous projects, including New Day School and Trillium Townhomes.
Today, as co-directors of design, Laura and Jon lead Green Hammer’s design practice while mentoring our growing team of architects. Their shared leadership reflects the mutual respect they’ve developed over years of working side by side, as well as an appreciation for the distinct skills, perspectives and personalities each brings to the team.
We recently asked Laura and Jon to reflect on how their experiences, leadership styles and strengths complement one another, and also share some of their hopes for the future of Green Hammer’s design practice.
Q. As a designer, what inspires you?
LS: As an architect, I am primarily inspired by my clients’ hopes and dreams. It’s a joy to help clarify a client’s vision and translate it into drawings they can see. However, I’m also constantly inspired by how buildings can deepen our connection to a place and to nature. This relates to my passion for creating healthy, climate-positive buildings that are beautifully daylit and made with local materials that reflect the inherent beauty of the Pacific Northwest.
JL: Nature inspires me. I see the endless amount of colors and textures as a launching place for curiosity. I bring that curiosity to projects to uncover both earth-friendly and beautiful solutions. I constantly find myself returning to nature for inspiration and am always amazed by its ability to adapt and respond.
Q. How would you each describe your leadership style?
LS: I do my best to cultivate a creative team that values collaboration, sustainability and creativity. I listen and care deeply about my team’s well-being and growth. I encourage myself and others to take time to explore the options. There is always more than one answer and we all find a lot of joy in the design process.
JL: My leadership style is based in listening. Listening is critical to working with my strengths around creative problem-solving and connecting with others. I need to listen intently to understand the constraints and opportunities in front of me. With listening, I bring a lot of patience to my interactions with others and believe no one person is the expert.
Q. What are the advantages of serving in the co-director of design role together?
LS: We have worked together for a long time. Jon and I have always been very collaborative. We complement one another’s proficiencies and passions. For instance, Jon has an incredible capacity to research, comprehend and communicate complex technical information, specifically about building science and building regulations. On the other hand, I am a quick thinker and love generating design options and communicating them with beautiful visuals for clients. Within Green Hammer’s unified design build process, we can both thrive.
JL: The design process is really important to both of us. Having the opportunity to co-direct the design team allows us more space to participate in the design process by sharing the non-design responsibilities.
It’s also great to collaborate and play to each other’s strengths. For example, I am a preparer and prefer to take time processing information. However, sometimes you need to move quickly. And, while that behavior may move me outside of my comfort zone, I know I can check in with Laura, who excels in these situations.
Q. What are the advantages of working at a design firm like Green Hammer?
LS: The role of an architect is that of a generalist, meaning that we deeply rely on building experts to do our job well. Because of our design build process, architects are actively engaged in collaborative learning from the people who will execute our projects. That immediate feedback makes the design process all the more efficient and enjoyable because trade partner experts are involved along the way.
Green Hammer is a family of people who deeply care about sustainability and quality. You don’t find that at many companies.
JL: It’s hard to run a business based on values and principles. But at Green Hammer, we share a vision for where we are heading. We can draw things all day long on a piece of paper, but it takes people to build them. So having the vision and creating under one roof opens up possibilities and adds to my enjoyment of collaborating with like-minded people. Ultimately, I believe that everyone’s interests, including our clients’, are better aligned through our design-build process, resulting in successful projects.
Q. How has the climate crisis shaped the way you approach architecture?
LS: As we learn more about the causes and effects of climate change, our design approach has shifted. For instance, we used to focus on reducing the operational energy of the building, but now we’re trying to focus equally hard on minimizing the embodied energy associated with the materials.
JL: I feel similarly. Early in my career, there was a strong focus on trying to reverse the impacts of climate change. Since joining Green Hammer, that focus has shifted. At least for me, the approach is now about how to mitigate the effects of climate change. So how do we adapt to climate change?
The one thing we know at Green Hammer is that we have strategies in hand now that we are using to adapt to the changing climate and lessen our negative environmental impact. So it’s important to me that we lead by example, push for market adoption of these strategies, and find ways to disseminate that information inclusively.
LS: We’ve integrated theories of resiliency into our definition of sustainability. The word “sustainability” has an even more poignant meaning as we’re all now feeling the real effects of climate change in our daily lives and in how our buildings respond to extreme temperature fluctuations, power outages, pandemics, and more. We know climate change is having the most significant impacts on the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, so we’re working hard to expand our services to include affordable housing developers.
There’s strong support from the very top of our firm (Stephen) to reduce those impacts. It’s really empowering to work at a company where you feel like you can be part of the change.
Photo by Steven Anderson