Living Through the Chaos: Jane Lea on Perseverance, Civic Involvement, and Transformative Projects

By Julia Gamolina

Jane Lea is the principal of Lea Architecture, a founding member of Design Advocates, and the design partner for The All Along Project, a project which proposes an easy-to-deploy system of markers that can be installed in New York City’s existing green infrastructure to honor and celebrate the contributions of local women. Lea approaches design as a collaboration, fully invested in the transformative power of architecture and the latent potential behind every design challenge. She is a graduate of Columbia University, where she holds a Master of Architecture. Prior to starting her practice in 2017, she spent ten years working for firms in NYC, including eight years at Architecture Research Office.

Jane has taught at Cooper Union, Parsons, and Pratt and is a licensed architect in New York and Pennsylvania. She has been awarded a Brunner Grant from the AIA Center for Architecture. In her interview with Julia Gamolina, Jane talks about civic engagement and advocacy and appreciating and learning from all of life’s experiences, advising those just starting their careers to take themselves seriously.

JG: Tell me about your foundational years — where did you grow up and what did you like to do as a kid?

JL: I grew up In Berks County, Pennsylvania, on a 90-acre farm with my parents and twin sister. My sister and I were largely each other's only playmates and we spent a lot of time rambling around outside and inventing things to keep ourselves entertained. We would drag junk from the barn and try to build helicopters or spend hours trying to dig through the earth to the other side. We also had tons of chores. I remember suburban friends would have a chore list that was basically “take out the trash,” and we would have a chore list that was multiple labor-intensive items long, like “tear down barbed wire fence” and “mow back four acres”.

My dad was originally a home-builder and my mom was an interior designer, so I grew up immersed in plans and construction. Both my parents were also really active in our town, on civic and cultural initiatives. My dad was the PTA president of our school. This kind of civic involvement had a huge impact on my current life, from projects like the collaboration with Neighborhood Women, Design Advocates, and my involvement in the NYC education system. I spent my summers taking art classes and being a cook for a camp for developmentally disabled kids and adults. I considered going into social work because I liked working with people and liked trying to solve problems. I took a career aptitude test in high school, and it told me I should be a cartographer. In some ways, my current career is a mashup of the two.

Dutchess Country Artist Studio at Night. Photography by Clive Smith.

Summertime Galllery with Design Advocates. Photography by Hanna Grankvist.

What did you learn about yourself in studying architecture?

I had an interesting college trajectory. I originally started school at Sarah Lawrence College, studying Environmental Science. It wasn’t long into that program that I realized I did not want to be a scientist. I switched to studying Sociology, which I loved as an academic study but wasn’t sure there was a career path there that I wanted to pursue. At the end of my sophomore year I went to the Career Discovery Program at Harvard to try architecture. I loved it. That summer I was also diagnosed with cancer and ended up taking the rest of that summer and the next fall off to get surgery and treatment. I transferred to Barnard and majored in sociology, and also minoring in architecture. I loved the mix of the two and think it has definitely informed how I currently practice.

Studying architecture after a liberal arts background was like being thrown into the deep end of the pool. I grew up familiar with plans, but the academic discussion around it was like hearing someone speak a foreign language. The first studio assignment was about perspective and I was completely overwhelmed by the language and scope of the assignment, but I remember looking down the subway platform and suddenly it all clicked. I got the vanishing points, the horizon line, and started to realize that things got interesting on the periphery of vision. I understood what a static space was. It was thrilling. It made me realize how much I like figuring things out. Even today, in practice, people ask what kind of architecture we do and we answer, “Anything that we are interested in”. This translates into a wide variety of projects and clients, which I love.

“Both my parents were also really active in our town, on civic and cultural initiatives. My dad was the PTA president of our school. This kind of civic involvement had a huge impact on my current life, from projects like the collaboration with Neighborhood Women, Design Advocates, and my involvement in the NYC education system.”

— Jane Lea

How did you get your start in working in architecture?

I graduated mid-year and ended up working for one of my professors, Celia Imrey. I left that job for another one on September 8, 2001 only to have that job evaporate after the attack on the World Trade Towers. I have always had terrible timing with the job market and career changes.

I was in desperate need of a job and took one working for a one-woman residential firm in Queens. It was a very different firm experience from Imrey Culbert and I learned a lot in a very hands-on way, actually filing things at the DOB in person and doing site visits and CA. With hindsight, I realize how valuable the diverse range of experiences is for my education and for my own practice. All the bumps along the way add so much.

Tell me about the start of Lea Architecture, and what you're focused on these days.

After graduate school I worked for Architecture Research Office. I worked there for years and had two kids during that time. I loved all the people I worked with and had just finished a really rewarding project. I started to wonder what kind of firm I would have on my own and realized if I didn’t leave at that point I would never leave. So I left, with three months’ notice. I had one project on the boards with a friend and a teaching position. It was a leap of faith. It was just me for a while, living through the chaos that is a small business and small children.

I initially had small residential projects, which were the ones I could get. At the same time I was getting really invested in our local public schools, spending a lot of time advocating for funding and space which made me realize how much I care about projects that have an impact on a larger audience. We started pursuing institutional and educational work and have managed to secure some really amazing projects in both categories.

Congregation Beit Simchat Torah with ARO. Photography by Elizabeth Felicella.

Looking back at it all, what have been the biggest challenges? How did you manage through perceived disappointments or setbacks?

It is incredibly hard to be present in all aspects of our lives. I struggle to spend enough time on my practice, with Design Advocates, and with my family. Before I had kids I worked all the time. I really thought I was going to go right back to that schedule when I had a kid and was a little floored when I realized I didn’t want to. The roller-coaster of emotions was heightened by the death of my mother-in-law while I was pregnant with my first son. All she wanted in the end was to see her family, which definitely refocused my priorities.

It was a learning process. I missed my kids when I was at work and felt like the world was passing me by when I was home with the kids. And honestly, I was a little bored when I was home all the time. It took some trial and error to realize I wanted a mix of both. I reduced my working hours to thirty hours a week when they were little, which was perfect. I was so efficient when I was at work — and some nights when they were in bed — and so grateful to have more time with my kids.

It is also hard, for me at least, to not judge yourself against everyone else’s success or everyone else’s path. There is no right way to do this. It is helpful to look back at the path I took to get here and all the times that I felt like it would never work and then realize that it did.

“...appreciate all of life’s experiences...Your career is one part of your life and it will evolve over time. Value your relationships and be generous in return.”

— Jane Lea

What have you learned in the last six months?

This is a tricky question for me. What I have learned is that I need to say “no” sometimes. I am still working on actually doing that. I declared 2023 the year of “not being a sucker” and then immediately agreed to do something I should have refused, so I definitely have a way to go. I tend to say yes to everything because I want to do the work, but I am not the best at protecting myself and my time.

That said, I really love doing work for organizations I believe in. The reason we started Design Advocates was because we were a group of people who really cared about their city and their community.

What are you most excited about right now?

I am proud of our project with Neighborhood Women and am excited to see that project develop. I like that we are starting to take more risks, which means we are developing a certain amount of confidence in our ability. I am excited that we are starting to set up a deliberate and organized practice, no small feat when you are always scrambling toward deadlines. That means building an open and communicative firm where people are valued and supported.

Who are you admiring now and why?

I admire so many of the people I work with in Design Advocates. They are a great group of architects. It is amazing to see their firms grow and flourish and also see what good, caring, generous people they are. I love the practice of WIP as a model of collaboration. I also work with an amazing body of consultants and partners who are supportive, encouraging, and generous with their knowledge. I am also pretty impressed with my kids. Both of them have tackled things in the past year that require a lot of work and a lot of perseverance through failure. It has been humbling to see them tackle things head on.

What is the impact you’d like to have on the world? What is your core mission? And, what does success in that look like to you?

This is a hard question to answer. I want to build a practice that I am proud of, with a committed staff and strong projects. I want our work to provide spaces that are transformative and magical. I want our work to have a kind of sensitivity and generosity to the user, to the context, and to the client. Success would be leaving this world thinking I have done all I wanted to do..

Finally, what advice do you have for those starting their career? Would your advice be any different for women?

My advice would be to appreciate all of life's experiences and realize decisions you make now might not be the decisions you make later. Your career is one part of your life and it will evolve over time. Value your relationships and be generous in return. I still have strong relationships with past co-workers and employers and they have been a tremendous support system, both professionally and personally. And take yourself seriously. This advice comes from an incredibly self-deprecating human, but I mean it.