Before I started work, I experimented with several majors including English literature and music performance before settling on audio and media technology. Throughout that time, I was a musician, but I was always told that you couldn’t make any money making music. Fortunately, it turns out that wasn’t quite true.

When I started looking around at grad schools, I learned architectural acoustics was something you could do as a job, so I attended the program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and joined Arup just a little over a week after I graduated.

Arup has always allowed space for my creative musicianship. I’m much happier, more successful, and just better at my job by working on more artistic endeavors alongside my project work.

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Because Arup is an employee-owned company without firmly hierarchical leadership, there’s a definite opportunity and autonomy to carve your own path. ”

I’ve been fortunate to work on some fantastic projects at Arup, but I think my highlight to date has been working with Bjork – something that really was a dream.

In designing a reverberation chamber for her Cornucopia tour, I asked, “Well, what sort of shape should it have? Where does it go on the stage? Is it tall and skinny? Is it short and long?” And she said, “It's whatever sounds good.”

We took that challenge and came up with dozens of shapes for her to react to. Then we simulated them for her to hear in the SoundLab — we even had a simulation where she could sing into it in real time. We decided on the design together and it immediately went into production. Luckily, she loved it. She's a consummate collaborator in that she really trusts the people she's working with, once they prove themselves.

Because Arup is an employee-owned company without firmly hierarchical leadership, there’s a definite opportunity and autonomy to carve your own path. I think the most successful people at Arup are those who’ve taken the things that they’re excited about and pursued them.

A good example is a project I did early on outside of Arup’s involvement. It was a data visualization project back when that was not something that everyone thought was a great idea. We hung up a bunch of sensors in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood and created this interactive website where you could scan through and see all the noise levels. Eventually that project ended up in Arup’s Design Book. Which just goes to show, if your instincts are correct, you’ll earn support.