Grace Kim FAIA

Young Architect Award 2008, AIA Fellow 2021
Grace Kim FAIA increases public access to design innovation and affordability through her research and publication as well as her practice in and beyond Seattle, and also engages architects and design professionals in community service through her mentorship and her example.
As and after she found her way through the challenges of meeting the extensive education, internship, and expertise-testing requirements to gain her Washington architect's license, Grace Kim (BArch WSU 1993, MArch UW 2006), engaged with architect intern issues beginning with her 1999 attendance at the 1999 AIA Summit on Architectural Internship, which led to her term as AIA Seattle's IDP/Intern Development Program (later AXP) Coordinator.  She wrote The Survival Guide to Architectural Internship and Career Development (2006), and joined AIA colleagues in initiating a mentoring website.
Grace has also engaged with a range of design professionals in advancing the concept of co-housing.   Grace had began her career at SOM Chicago, then took a job with the International Masonry Institute, developing masonry educational programs for US architecture and engineering schools.  In 1999, she returned to Seattle and worked for two architectural firms while she researched the design of the Cohousing Common House in Denmark.  In Seattle, she served on the founding team for Capitol Hill Urban Cohousing, and nationally a 4-year term on the board of the US Cohousing Association.  Public service relating to her urban design expertise also includes her term on the Seattle Planning Commission and on the board of the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce.

In 2004 Grace and her husband Mike Mariano established Schemata Workshop in Seattle, designing residential and other projects offering models of design serving owner and community values. Grace makes frequent presentations as an invited speaker at national conferences, on topics relating to her expertise in mentorship, cohousing, and alternative housing models for seniors and those with disabilities.

AIA acknowledged the national value of her community service and her work advancing understanding of design practice through writing, presentations, and advocacy relating to the internship/licensing process, as the first recipient of the Emerging Professionals Mentorship Award in 2004, and in 2008 as recipient of the Young Architects Award.  

In 2021, AIA elevated Grace Kim FAIA to the College of Fellows, recognizing her advocacy for change from within the profession, her building bridges between education and practice, and amplifying underrepresented voices in the community.

9/10 Architect Magazine:  "Don't Forget:  Architecture is a Service Industry"
9/19 Architect Magazine:  "Building Social Resilience"
10/20 International Examiner:  "Community helps architects be their best selves, says Grace Kim"

Reference:  2017 TED talk:  "How Cohousing Can Make Us Happier and Live Longer