Sara Davis

Sara has learned the value of being a generalist. With more than twelve years of experience with large educational and mixed-use projects and commercial interiors, Sara is able to facilitate communication between highly specialized groups to advance the expertise of owners, consultants, and contractors within a cohesive design program.

Growing up in a small town outside of Chicago meant family trips into the city became explorations of the urban setting and especially the spaces around buildings, like plazas, that had unexpected, even unintentional ways of use. With extensive musical training, Sara likens the experience of a space or building to that of music: both can be presented yet not be fully controlled resulting in a rich, subjective response that is surprising, personal, and ultimately deeply satisfying.

Within her projects, Sara looks at how everyone in the team fits into it—keeping in mind what the goals are, what the design is, what the team needs to do. This flexible yet rigorous problem-solving approach becomes ever more essential as architecture and design learn to respond to wide-ranging environmental issues. The key, Sara believes, is the cohesiveness of the team: when a team works together well, the building will be successful.