Laura Ettelman is currently one of three women managing partners, a first in the history of venerable architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). Her early interest in the art of theatrical set building and stage lighting morphed into architecture as a career, due in part to her engineer father’s taking the family on tours to historic and new landmarks and structures. “I think he thought that showing me architecture was a way to help me think more constructively about a career, because being an artist could be a very tough go, not to say that architecture is easy,” she said.
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Alexandra Thewis, P.E., structural engineering associate director, is a second-generation SOM employee whose father was an architect there in the 1970s. “I definitely grew up with architecture in the house,” she said. “From that also grew a love for all the arts. I’m very big into graphic art, particularly M.C. Escher, just fascinated with that kind of work. And Alexander Calder, particularly his mobiles, because their equilibrium is all about engineering. I’ll say it — I have tattoos, and one of them is a Calder.”