Interview with Rachel Allen – XX|LA Episode 021

What I admire about Rachel Allen is the pragmatic, intelligent, and unapologetically hard-working ethos that she brings to her work.  As founding principal of RADAR (Rachel Allen Development Architecture Research Inc.), her success relies upon her ability to understand the viewpoints of people she's working with in order to communicate effectively and harness the strengths of her team.  The pay off of RADAR's hard work is evident in their growing project list, such as their role as Design Architect on the competition-winning team for the Pershing Square Renew project.  Additionally, RADAR has been building up a multi-family housing project portfolio, and in this interview, Rachel tells me more about how she was able to go from working on a 6 unit project, to a project with over 200 units. In addition to talking about her practice, Rachel and I touch upon her experiences growing up in and establishing babysitting and parenting cooperatives, as well as her experiences as a Rome Prize recipient and former Gehry Partners employee.