Maxine Skaggs Kennedy ’95

DEGREE:

B.A. in American studies; master of architecture, the University of Pennsylvania

JOB TITLE:

Architect and principal at Studio Skaggs Kennedy, Architecture + Urbanism, in Berkeley, California

FAVORITE TRINITY MEMORY:

So many great memories from the rugby field, to RA training, to Kappa, to SGA spades tournaments, but really the best was just being able to walk down the halls to see which friends wanted to hang out. So many nights talking and laughing in Elton, Jarvis, and what we called New Dorm. So many friendships that I cherish to this day were made in those dorms.

What was your path to your current position?

Growing up I was told I should go to law school because I like to argue, but after getting introduced to architecture through various classes at Trinity, I wanted to learn more about the profession. Since my college degree wasn’t in architecture, I started in the mailroom at Gensler, a global architecture firm headquartered in San Francisco. Two years of working there in different administrative positions convinced me that I wanted to be the one designing buildings. My graduate program at the University of Pennsylvania was three years plus a summer studio for students who had non-architecture undergrad degrees. One summer, I joined Penn’s Japan program studying and traveling throughout the country, and after it finished, I worked at Gensler’s Tokyo office. After graduate school, I came back to San Francisco and worked at three firms on a variety of projects from residential to urban design with a majority of the time designing public architecture, specializing in libraries, university buildings, and community centers. After my second child was born, during maternity leave, I passed my final architecture exam to get licensed in California and started off on my own as a sole practitioner. A few years later, my husband, Sean, who was a classmate of mine at Penn, and I bought a small, crumbling house to flip. As the architect, contractor, and construction workers, we fixed it up on nights and weekends with our young kids in tow and sold it nine months later. This gave us the opportunity for Sean to quit his day job and join me full time in founding our architecture firm, Studio Skaggs Kennedy.

What do you do in your role?

As architect and principal, I run the architecture firm that we started nine years ago and oversee the design of all the projects. We purposely seek out projects that vary in size and type, and we always pursue a modern and sustainable design. Currently our office is finishing construction on a retail store in San Francisco and a house in Silicon Valley. We are in design development of a historic theater, rehabilitating and reimagining it as a mixed-use food hall, co-work, and event space. We are also researching multifamily housing and how to add much-needed housing to the Bay Area. While we take on diverse projects, a recurring theme in our designs is integrating the outside with the interior and the enhancement of the public realm.

What do you enjoy most about your work?

I love the diversity of what I do—some days I’m drawing designs, some I’m visiting the jobsite of a project in construction, some I’m meeting with clients, and some I’m managing the office dealing with administrative, marketing, and business development. But the most rewarding part of my job is having my ideas built and seeing the enjoyment of people in these spaces.

What are your biggest challenges?

My biggest challenge is making sure we have enough work to actively engage and pay our employees but not so much that we are all overworked and not attending to all the details that our work demands. Architecture can be unpredictable, and it is a constant balancing act running my own firm.

How did your time at Trinity prepare you for your career?

Architecture is an interdisciplinary profession where you need to know something about everything. Having a solid liberal arts education from Trinity with a broad mix of classes helped prepare me for my career.

Did you have a professor who was particularly influential? What about a most memorable course?

Professor Kathleen Curran and her “20th Century Modern Architecture” course was both the most memorable and most influential. This is the course that changed my direction from law school. I originally took it because I finished the requirements for my major early, and I started taking other courses that interested me. I liked it so much I was her teaching assistant for the class the next year. Professor Curran encouraged me to take every class related to architecture at Trinity, including architectural history, studio art, and architectural drawing and design. I continued this exploration by enrolling in a summer semester architecture program with Syracuse University in Florence, Italy, before senior year.

For more on her work, please visit https://www.studiosk.net.