Architect of the Year & Leader of the Year

This year we continued our new tradition of celebrating women architects in our community by giving out the Architect of the Year & the Leader of the Year awards as part of our annual fundraiser/celebration. We had a lot to celebrate this year and we had two wonderful women architects to honor. So please join us in giving a virtual round of applause to our two winners, Valerie Nagasawa - Leader of the Year & Clio Rayner - Architect of the year!

Leader of the Year

Valerie Nagasawa

GSBS Architects

In a career spanning more than 25 years, Valerie Nagasawa has committed herself to the growth of those around her. Apart from being the first female architect principal and first female member of the GSBS Board of Directors, Valerie is a known advocate of feminism with strong views on women empowerment and gender equality. Valerie’s influence doesn’t end there; she has helped implement diversity and inclusion efforts at GSBS, pushing GSBS to retain more women and minorities—giving them opportunities to develop and succeed by investing in both their career and family aspirations.

Valerie has worked with the Center for Advanced Professional Studies (PCCAPS) to mentor young women interested in architecture. Currently she is part of the WIA Ambassador’s Circle that is changing the narrative for diversity, equity and inclusion and she actively participates in panel discussions at the UofU, which is where I came to meet her. Valerie’s passion to push the practice forward, while being an engaged mom of two children genuinely inspired me as a young female minority with a child of my own attending grad school. Valerie has proved you CAN successfully balance career and family and pave a way for others in the firm to follow.

Valerie’s people-first philosophy has elevated everyone around her during her remarkable career. Through acts of service and heart-centered leadership, she has taken the responsibility for the people around her, committing herself to ensuring that the people at GSBS love coming to work, are supported, cared about, and looked out for, by truly listening to them.

It is not just an accumulation of efforts Valerie has spearheaded, but rather the consistent daily practice that demonstrates the progression of company culture. As a member of the GSBS Board of Directors, she has initiated the Project Share program, where GSBS professionals regularly gather to present completed projects and dive into what worked and how it could have been improved. She also advocates for policies and technologies that encourage employees’ well-being, enabling moms and dads to have flexibility in their hours and achieve a healthy work/life balance. She was an integral part of expanding GSBS’ maternity/paternity leave options and ensuring network access to allow people to work remotely, which was crucial during this pandemic. Leading our human-resource efforts, she helped new hires adjust to the workplace as they learned to navigate COVID transitions. Listening to feedback and most of all being empathetic towards her team, giving them the sense of security in uncertain times.

Her advocacy outside the firm, extends into the community through efforts to expose more girls and minority students to career opportunities in architecture, such as outreach programs to Native Americans. She has championed partnerships with the Latinos In Action programs in two school districts, has encouraged firm participation in the YWCA and YMCA, volunteered her time advising the 4th Street Clinic (healthcare for homeless Utahns), sat and on the Art & Architectural Committee of the Catholic Diocese benefiting nearly 300,000 local parishioners as well and served as president of the local chapter ALE (the Association for Learning Environments).

Strictly by the numbers, GSBS is well ahead of the industry curve in diversity, with a staff of 48% women and employees from 15 countries. Valerie and the Board have led the way, promoting diversity as a competitive advantage, actively recruiting and providing residency sponsorship.

Her impact at GSBS is not only in personal growth, but her teams’ public and educational projects have been recognized by the AIA and other local and national bodies. The Natural History Museum of Utah, the groundbreaking Salt Lake Public Safety Building—the first net-zero structure of its kind—and most recently the Japantown Project. Previously the Salt Palace construction and expansion dismantled Japantown. Valerie’s team is working to once again give Salt Lake’s Japanese American Community place, with the tools and resources needed for their culture to thrive.

The whole history of the Japantown project illustrates inclusion in GSBS’ practice. This is an underrepresented community that was marginalized through gentrification and short-sighted city planning. Honoring their wants and desires ensures they have a voice and helps address past oversights that had negative impacts in our city. Making sure all voices are represented at the table is one of the powerful ways Valerie Nagasawa truly embodies the virtues of WIA.

Architect of the Year

Clio Rayner

GSBS Architects

Clio Rayner is a highly regarded project manager who has dedicated much of her career focus to K-12 and Higher Education work. She is also one of GSBS’ resident sustainability experts and has helped guide the sustainability mission at GSBS since 2005. She has played an active role in the certification of more than 30 LEED projects. As a studio leader she has stressed the importance of a healthy work environment as architects elevate their designs through “Deep Work.”

Outside of GSBS, Clio’s roles in community engagement include doing hands-on work for the UCFA (Utah Center for Architecture) as a Board Member and later President, launching local events such as Architecture Week in Utah. She has helped plan and carry out programs that educate the public on architecture, such as the Utah Architects Project that expand the education of elementary children through architecture as well as other academic, civic and community groups. She has also helped showcase architects’ other talents through Architects as Artist, where they display physical interpretations of art. Clio’s efforts in the UCFA helped fund travel scholarships, providing financial support to young architects to study their theses in immersive environments and present their findings. She has been a member of the AIA Utah’s Committee on the Environment since 2006, was Director of the AIA for two years and has been a member of USGBC Utah since 2010. She regularly gives sustainability lectures at conferences and seminars and is an adjunct professor for various University courses. She has also been a member of the A4LE (Association for Learning Environments) for two years. Recently, she was a presenter at PechaKucha Night in Salt Lake City.

A transformative project that highlights Clio’s role in sustainability is historic Lindquist Hall at Weber State University. The Social Science building renovation began in April 2017. The structure was stripped down to “the bones” after a structural analysis determined that preserving the building would generate savings of $5 to $6 million and reduce the environmental impact of manufacturing new steel and concrete. A solar array and groundsource heat pump well field feed into the building, with new mechanical systems more efficient LED lights and VRF systems helped the newly renovated building achieved an EUI (Energy Use Intensity) of 23, making it a groundbreaking Net Zero building.

Because it is an iconic structure with vertical and horizontal attributes, Clio wanted to honor the new structure through similar architectural vernacular. This in turn helped expand its usability and function. It now houses the offices of several university departments: criminal justice, history, political science, geography, philosophy, psychology, social work and gerontology, and sociology and anthropology. Additionally, it is the home of the Olene S. Walker Institute of Politics & Public Service and the Richard Richards Institute for Ethics.

As PM, Clio led the GSBS team to an understanding of what the building used to be and what it needed to be for those who would occupy it. The users of the building expressed that it was maze-like, dark and confusing. Clio wanted to do the opposite and create a clear circulation that was bright and inviting, because every WSU student has at least one class in that building.

Collaboration is huge in educational facilities, and Clio accounted for maximum utilization in how the building would accommodate future campus needs. The wants and needs of the users led to the addition of a new lecture hall, while maintaining windows in faculty offices for health and productivity.

The overall design was not just taken from a pedestrian point of view, but also a vehicular point of view. Clio made sure the team designed the front of the building so it could also be appreciated from a distance, while supporting it with landscape complementing features. As the team leader, Clio helped create a building that is transformative in education in sustainability and in the cultural fabric of WSU.

Congratulations again Valerie & Clio, thank you both for your continued contributions to our community - we are all better for it.

Photography by Mariko Kay Photography.