Emily

Emily Lawson

AIA

Managing Principal

San Francisco

Emily

Emily Lawson specializes in delivering complex projects that require extensive engagement with ownership teams, community groups, and governing agencies. She acts as a deft client liaison and interdisciplinary coordinator between professional teams, while guiding challenging projects to fruition. 

At the beginning of a project, Emily delves into the many factors that are critical to the project’s success, and which will inform the design direction and progress throughout the following phases of work. As a deep listener, she aligns herself with clients’ interests and concerns, and develops a broad understanding of the project—from the site’s cultural, regulatory, and environmental context, to the values and aspirations of the end users. Through this attentive approach, Emily leads projects to exceed their pragmatic requirements, and creates places that improve the experience of their inhabitants and visitors.

The integrity of Emily’s work is apparent in her U.S. Embassy projects. The architecture of these diplomatic complexes is highly secure and technically stringent, and, at the same time, welcoming, open, and conveying shared values. Sensitive to culture and context, these spaces incorporate local materials, styles, and place-specific sustainability features to elevate the quality of life and work within.

Listening attentively to stakeholders allows us to create truly thoughtful architecture that improves the quality of people’s lives—where the proportions, light, form, and materiality are harmonious, and environmentally resilient.

As an advisor on the firmwide project management steering committee, Emily’s architectural acumen guides SOM’s global practice. Her portfolio spans numerous typologies, and includes new construction, renovation, adaptive reuse, and master planning projects in the private and public sectors. Informed by her broad-ranging experience, she facilitates the assembly of internal and external project teams suited to the practical and conceptual ambitions of each project.