Natalie Addison

Ed.M. AIE '03

Natalie Addison, Canadian by birth, came by her career in what might be termed "good works architecture" with steady determination and a sort of bifocal view of aesthetics and pedagogy that is typical of graduates from the HGSE Arts in Education (AIE) Program.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Waterloo, near Toronto, in 1994, she worked as an ESL teacher and language-acquisition curriculum planner, first in Japan and then in the province of Alberta, for several successive years, then traveled in Southeast Asia and Europe before moving to Boston in 2001. That fall, she led a group of Boston Public School eighth-graders in a hands-on study of the multicultural Dorchester-area architecture that resulted in a design for a Dream Youth Center. This earned her a place on a discussion panel in the 2001 BUILD BOSTON/Women in Design Conference. By the turn of the year, Addison found herself applying to the AIE Program, in hopes, she says, of "finding ways to increase my capacity to teach urban youth about the importance and relevance of the built environment."

The foundation of her career had been settled--and now she was ready to build on it.

During the fall 2002 and spring 2003 semesters at HGSE, Addison drafted her study plan to include room for a solid footing in educational theory, a sturdy framing in architectural history, and a leak-proof roofing of field work. For the latter, she took a bold look at "urban youth attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs about violence" at Madison Park High School in Roxbury and produced a 30-page paper on her findings.

Once she'd earned her Ed.M., she found a remarkably appropriate fit for her interests at Brailsford and Dunleavy, a design firm in Washington, D.C., "whose mission," she says, "is to build community through the built environment." She claims to have "stumbled into" the job--yet she seems to have been working toward it (constructing it, if you will) for more than a decade before she found it.

"I was very happy to discover that there could be a place for me in architecture," says Addison, "beyond the traditional architect role that I knew would not be fulfilling for me."

Some of her satisfaction as senior analyst, development manager, and market researcher at B&D comes from her role as one of the firm's point people for school designs. "It's hard for some people to understand educational facility planning," she says--adding that she enjoys the opportunity not only to "work with architects" but to "get to tell them how to design."

Every school--every educational facility--is a sort of palace of wisdom, and Addison loves having a hand in such constructive activity.