Chau Pham (M.ARCH ‘12; M.RED ‘14) enjoyed the design experience she was gaining at Bonstra | Haresign Architects in the four years after she graduated from MAPP with a dual degree in architecture and real estate development, but she was more interested in using her skills to solve bigger and more complex problems.
“I wanted to do something that was more goal-oriented and mission-driven, versus whatever-the-client-asks-me-to-build-that’s-what-I’m-going-to-build,” she says.
In January, Pham began her Enterprise Community Partners Rose Architectural Fellowship, a program that advances creative approaches to the development of sustainable and affordable homes and neighborhoods by partnering architectural designers with local community development groups.
Prior to becoming a Rose Fellow, Pham volunteered for Open Architecture DC, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping communities through socially responsible and sustainable design. There, she led a project that helped secure $9 million from the District of Columbia to develop childcare centers for families in need.
For the Rose Fellowship, Pham will be working with Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services (INHS) in Ithaca, New York, to help solve the affordable housing crisis in the city and surrounding area. Cornell University and Ithaca College make their homes in Ithaca and the accompanying wealthy faculty and students drive up housing prices to a level that is too expensive for much of the working and middle class. Although Pham was previously unfamiliar with the city, she quickly became acquainted with its affordable housing problem, unable to find an apartment for a month upon arriving until taking a spot in one of INHS’s own units.
“At first I thought, it’s a small town; why would it have affordable housing issues?” Pham said. “But it didn’t hit me until I started looking for housing for myself.”
Pham was exposed to real estate development at an early age growing up in Houston, observing her father buying and flipping homes in struggling city neighborhoods. She vividly recalls watching a homeless woman cry on the front porch of one her father’s properties, a stark reminder of the inequities of gentrification and development. At Maryland, she wrote her master’s thesis on how to preserve existing communities amidst gentrifying neighborhoods in Houston’s Third Ward.
“We are very proud of Chau Pham being awarded an Enterprise Rose Fellowship. This is an important recognition of her and her work, as well as an acknowledgment of our school. The work she will be doing in conjunction with her Rose Fellowship has its origins in her Master of Architecture thesis,” remarked Brian Kelly, UMD’s Associate Dean for Development & Faculty Affairs and Architecture Program Director.
Pham says that being the only architect on the INHS staff helps streamline projects, find locations and conduct studies directly in line with the organization’s goals and mission. “Hiring an outside architect or engineer would take much more time and involve a lot of back and forth discussion,” she says.
Pham’s appointment lasts just two years but she hopes to continue applying her architectural skills to similar issues facing housing and development.
“When I approached the Rose Fellowship, I didn’t really care about the location as long as the mission aligned with mine,” she adds. “Their mission is great. They try to include the community in every design of their projects. Getting a good sustainable design requires a lot more than architecture.”