Kaitlyn is a fearless and surprising adventurer wrapped up in an unflappable calm and cheerful exterior. She traveled way down to Texas — site unseen — from Canada for an internship with Lake|Flato. She’d never set foot in this state before but took to this place and our wacky firm culture right away, as if our heat and humidity were second nature. She owns no car, and bicycles everywhere. She said yes when we asked her to join the Knox College Art Building design team and quickly mastered the wild ride of Construction Documents production, keeping our team insanely organized, on track and in...

On a recent site visit to the Bridge House in Houston, I caught our geothermal well drillers in action and asked them about the drilling process. As an alternative to conventional air conditioning systems, geothermal heating and cooling takes advantage of the stable temperature of the earth via a series of vertical wells or loops, providing heating, cooling, and hot water at very high efficiencies. Because the heat exchange is buried underground, a geothermal HVAC system eliminates outdoor equipment, avoiding unsightly condensers and their associated noise and long term maintenance. Although...

I’ve learned a lot from Rand the last 4 years here at Lake | Flato. At the surface, you’d think that he’s just really interested in architecture, but it’s more – he’s an adventurer and inspiration junkie, searching for truth. It’s hard to have a conversation with him and not get psyched about a new idea, concept, trip, etc… a beer after work with Rand was usually the opposite of unwinding – conversations often aimed towards gearing up – there’s good work to be done, to see, to learn from, and we have to be ready. This attitude dissipates pretty easily when in the daily grind. So with that – I...

Katie Cavazos recently became part of our Lake|Flato family after trading the windy city of Chicago, Illinois for the recently rainy city of San Antonio, Texas. Katie attended Illinois Institute of Technology, where she earned a Bachelor of Architecture and Minor in Landscape Architecture. With that combination, it is no wonder that Government Canyon Visitor Center is her favorite Lake|Flato project. Since her arrival at LF, Katie has been working on the design for the Biomedical Sciences and Engineering Education Building at the Universities at Shady Grove campus in Rockville, Maryland. For...