"You Are Here” explores issues affecting our world not from behind our desks but from our personal experiences as people living, visiting and working in cities around the world.
Finding Pride: A Q&A with James Thor of CRTKL LA

James Thor is an Administrative Assitant in CallisonRTKL’s Los Angeles office. He is an experienced Project Assistant with a demonstrated history of working in the architecture & planning industry. Skilled in Color Printing, Adobe Acrobat, Office Administration, Adobe Creative Suite, and Microsoft Office. Strong administrative professional with a Bachelor of Science (BS) focused in Marketing […]

Architecture, Race and Culture: a Primer on the Linkages Between our Profession and the Black Lives Matter Movement

Reflecting this Juneteenth, CRTKL reissues its primer on the linkages between our profession and the Black Lives Matter Movement. We know there’s a lot of work to be done, and we want to be part of the change. It explores the legacy of racism, social movements, and civil rights as they manifest in the built […]

Making the Team: A Q&A with Dallas Branch, Office Leader in Dallas, Texas

What excites you most about your appointment to the Dallas office leader? What excites me most is the ability to re-visit the culture in our office and really build that back up. One of those initiatives is to “go local,” where we intend to focus on the community of our own city and build in […]

David Whitcomb: Professional Photographer and Resident Best Friend

When I reached out to David for this interview, I sent along a few questions to give him an idea of what we might discuss. He agreed to chat, but warned me he tended to “ramble, be creative, or make things up.” I agreed to take his tales with a grain of salt. Soon after, […]

Dealing in Hope: A Q&A with Jodi Williams, Washington, D.C. Office Leader

Jodi Williams, AICP, LEED AP ID+C Associate Principal; Office Leader, Washington, D.C. Jodi Williams brings over 20 years of experience in workplace strategy, facility planning and change management. She leads strategic planning efforts for public and private sector clients, leads some of our largest corporate accounts and is a big fan of mission-oriented work. You […]

Laying the Groundwork of Equality: Prioritizing Community in City Planning with Jasmine Williams

VOICES & PERSPECTIVES:  In November, we began releasing stories from unsung voices around the firm centering on the Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ+ Pride movements as our first installment of the Voices & Perspectives series. Lucy Baraquio shared how it feels to be the only queer, woman of color in the room; Porsche Ellison emphasized […]

Conducting Charm City: A Q&A with Nicole Bridges, Baltimore Office Leader

What excites you most about your appointment to the Baltimore office leader? NB: The Baltimore office is really unique— we’re primarily comprised of employees in firmwide services, but we do have a small design studio in the office, too. I’m especially excited to get more exposure to the design side of the company—which I’m not […]

ELEVATION — Dark Skies: Astrophotographer’s Dream, Architect’s Responsibility

ELEVATION: Raising the Bar for CRTKL’s Digital Innovation Elevation is a collection of stories, thought leadership, and unique experiences from CRTKL’s Design Technology Group (DTG) on the frontlines of architecture, engineering, and design (AEC). BACKGROUND Growing up, my parents happily helped cultivate my interest in science by gifting me an entry-level telescope on my 11th […]

CRTKL Celebrates National Nurses’ Day

A Conversation with Dr. Velma Jackman, Associate Principal and Amy Mizell, Senior Associate on the importance of healthcare staff in collaboration with UC Davis Health. Tell me a bit about our recent work with the UC Davis Health system. Velma Jackman: UC Davis Health is a healthcare system in the Sacramento area affiliated with UC […]

CRTKL Drone Port Concept Predicts Current Adaptive Reuse in Retail Practices

As our global society begins to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, many big-box online retailers are adaptively reusing shopping malls that buckled due to e-commerce and mandatory lockdowns as fulfillment centers for online sales. This current practice parallels a Droneport concept developed by Brendan O’Grady and Hernán Molina in 2016—when they envisioned […]

Beyond the Building: Measuring Community Impact

Historically, CRTKL has a strong profile of architects, designers and urban planners committed to improving the social, economic and environmental quality of the communities we build in. Since 1946, when Archibald Rogers and Francis Taliaferro founded the firm in Rogers’ grandmother’s basement in Annapolis, we’ve been committed to helping rejuvenate cities worldwide. Strong urban planning […]