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Lauren Siler ESa architect shares views regarding Nashville’s community of young designers
L AUREN SILER was lucky to have achieved one of two childhood goals. Siler, a design manager and architect with Nashville-based Earl Swensson Associates, considered as a second grader a college career focused both on playing basketball for the late and legendary Pat Summitt and studying architecture at the University of Tennessee. As a young adult, she was not afforded a shot at the former, so she focused on the latter, eventually graduating from UT in 2012 with a degree in architecture. “While my dreams of playing for [the Lady Vols] were short lived, I did stick to my second choice,” says Siler, now 33 and a project designer at ESa. “I have always been interested in how things are put together and how space — both built and in nature — affects how we feel and interact with others.” On the UT note, Siler is married to a fellow Tennessee graduate, Jake Siler, who also holds a degree in architecture from UT and now works as a contractor. She says the overall vibe — in terms of camaraderie, familiarity, etc. — between the community of the city’s younger architects is strong. “The architecture and design community is pretty connected and often a small world of knowing or knowing of many people in the profession,” explains Siler, who has been with ESa since 2017. “Many of the 39-and-under architects in town went to school together, have worked with one another at some point at the many different firms, are friends of friends or are dating/ married. Our schooling often results in some great friendships from long hours in the architecture building working on projects and a smaller class size throughout the time we are in school.” On this theme, many Nashville architects, and particularly the younger ones, attended either Tennessee or Auburn University. “A lot of that has to do with the fact not all universities or colleges offer a National Architectural Accrediting Board-accredited professional degree in architecture,” Siler says. “[The state of] Tennessee currently has two programs, one at UT-Knoxville and one at the University of Memphis. Belmont is currently adding the degree to its
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FALL 2020 | NASHVILLEPOST.COM
ERIC ENGLAND
