Diversity+Inclusion

Our success is a result of our people and, over the last 60 years, we’ve cultivated a warm, inclusive culture we’re incredibly proud of. We honor a collective spirit and work together as a team to design with purpose and create places with meaning, which can only be fostered by open communication and embracing everything that makes each of us unique.

WE ARE TAKING ACTION

In 2020, we:

Created the SB Diversity+Inclusion Committee

Launched an internal committee to advocate and ensure equality within our team, while also spearheading positive, meaningful change in our local communities and greater design industry.

Celebrated

Officially recognized and added two annual holidays to our calendar: Juneteenth and Martin Luther King Jr. Day. These days will be dedicated to philanthropy and organizing community outreach efforts.

Learnt

Scheduled mandatory office-wide training courses covering diversity and inclusion, and unconscious and implicit bias.

Surveyed

Distributed an anonymous office-wide survey to discover and understand our firm’s success, opportunity, and overall perception as it relates to JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion) initiatives.

Donated

Donated and provided support to BIPOC-orientated and founded organizations and became active participants with NOMA.

Engaged

Have consistently been involved in and vocal about architecture-focused BIPOC/Women/LGBTQ+ communities and equity initiatives.

Diversified

Diversified our recruitment initiatives, expanding our mentorship and scholarship opportunities to capture middle/high schools. We enrolled members of our team into the ACE Mentorship Program, in both South Florida and San Francisco.

Connected

In August 2020, we hosted an industry roundtable conversation with our peers – HBA, Sherwood Engineers, Cumming, and EDSA – to see what initiatives they have in place and to brainstorm ways we can come together as a group to create a larger impact in the industry.

NEWS + UPDATES

We still have a way to go, but we are committed to this cause and look forward to sharing our progress with you as we find the most meaningful and sustainable way to create and enforce positive, lasting change.

Gender Pronouns

As part of our ongoing commitment to creating a safe, diverse, inclusive, and welcoming environment for all, we will continue to champion and amplify queer voices, creating a work environment where everyone can thrive. One way we hope to achieve this is to endorse the use of gender pronouns throughout SB Architects.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2021

SB Architects, and our industry as a whole, is full of skilled, incredibly talented women. They design, they innovate, and they lead. We’ve maintained a 50-50 ratio of men to women for many years, it’s critical to us that our workplace and culture feels equal, progressive, and innovative. We want young architects, especially female architects, entering the industry to be able to see and envision a clear path to success.

In March 2021, in celebration of International Women’s Day, we completed and shared interviews with some of our brilliant team to dig into their careers, projects, and the issues facing women in the architecture sector. You can find the links to all of the interviews below:

• Jorey ‘Shosh’ Friedman, Principal and Vice President
• Pinar Harris, Principal and Vice President
• Lucienne Walpole, Vice President
• Lining Rao, Executive Director of Business Development, China
• Marla Ushijima, Senior Associate and Project Manager
• Tiffany Montañez, Associate and Job Captain
• Nancy McClure, Associate and BIM/Revit Strategist
• Monica Marchand, Associate and Project Manager
• Nanette Martinez, Job Captain

HISPANIC/LATINX HERITAGE MONTH 2020

In September 2020, we took the month to spotlight members of our Hispanic/Latinx community and the incredible Latin American/Caribbean destinations we’ve had the privilege to work in, whilst placing emphasis and recognizing the work that needs to be done to support the community as we go forward.

Juneteenth

Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day, commemorates the emancipation of enslaved people in the US. This year, our Miami team joined the Mino Learning Collaborative, a grassroots organization in South Florida created to support and empower BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) educators and students in the greater Miami area.

Our team arranged to work at the Charles R. Drew K-8 Center in Liberty City, Miami’s first magnet school for the arts, to revive and prepare the garden areas for the students, who utilize these both for educational purposes and using its harvest to put back into their community.