How did you first discover your interest in design?

It started in high school, taking art classes. I found myself attracted to structures and interiors, and that’s when my teacher told me about interior architecture. I love the way that you could create the world you live in with these spaces that we’re in all the time.

As Manager of Planning at Equinox, how do you interact with the urban realm?

I enter in the preliminary stages of planning a new gym, when the real estate team finds a property and we’re trying to figure out if this is going to be a good fit for us. A colleague and I do all the preliminary tests of the designs: How does a member arrive? What’s the flow? We always have the same essential program in every club but it is always going to be different based on the existing architecture. It’s really fun because it’s a puzzle.

What’s the greatest challenge you’ve encountered in a historic setting?

The biggest challenges are usually the older buildings that have a smaller footprint, where we have, say, five floors, less than 10,000 square feet, and low ceilings. The biggest issue that I am having right now is in London where not only is the building form itself restrictive, but structurally, it can’t really support our program. Because if you think about it, you can’t really put all this gym equipment on a slab and hope it stays up. You have to know that in advance. There are also local community members who have a lot of insights. So, that has been challenging in figuring out how we can compromise a little bit but still get our design intent across.

Our spring public program series in June looks at hangouts and ways that we escape within the city. Could you speak to your favorite place to exercise in public space in the city?

I do a lot of yoga and I love finding places outdoors to kind of bust a yoga move.  In Fort Greene Park, near a little playground, there are these steps that go down and then there is a large platform. I really like doing a pose on it and staying there for awhile.

How did you first learn about Van Alen?

I found out about it online and looking for ways to get involved in the city and design, and trying to find some people who aren’t necessarily interior designers, or architects, or industrial designers—because even though I went to school for interior design, I don’t necessarily identify as an interior designer. I like to consider myself a designer in the broader sense. I love collaborating with others and getting other people’s perspectives. So, to be able to meet people with different backgrounds and know what are they thinking about, what kind of books are they reading, and what are they really interested in—that’s what I really wanted and I think I found that at Van Alen.

Also, when I was living with my former roommate, we both realized we liked the organization, so we went to a few events together and even now we occasionally bump in to each other at Van Alen events, which is kind of funny.