Member Profile | Kelsey Gibson, Associate AIA

Kelsey Gibson, Associate AIA, is one of three recipients of the 2022 AIA Pennsylvania Paula Maynes ARE Grant.

ABOUT

Kelsey Gibson, Associate AIA, graduated from Drexel University in 2021 earning her Bachelor of Architecture through their 7-year part-time evening architecture program. Prior to Drexel, she studied at Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology. She is currently employed as an architectural designer at Marotta / Main Architects in Lancaster, PA. Her interests include social justice design, historic preservation, adaptive reuse, sustainability, and industrial design.

Q & A

What sparked your interest in becoming an architect?
My interest in architecture was sparked by making building models at the age of seven years old. After realizing architecture was a career path, I couldn’t picture myself becoming anything but an architect.

What advice would you offer to young professionals or even younger people considering going into architecture as a field of study/career pursuit?
My biggest piece of advice for anyone considering going into the architectural field is to ask questions and shadow those in the field to get an understanding of what an architect does day-to-day. It can be easy to find yourself thinking you’re navigating this alone, but you’re not, there’s plenty of professionals out there that are willing to help and share their lessons learned with emerging professionals and younger people considering pursuing architecture as their career path.

In your “spare time” do you pursue any interesting hobbies or extracurricular pursuits?
In my “spare time”, I am very much a plant and cat lady. I love tending to my large collection of house plants and watching them grow. When I’m not tending to my plants, you can find me making cat houses from recycled carpet tile samples for my three cats.

Why is licensure important to you?
Licensure is important to me because it would allow me to share my expertise with my surrounding community. I made it through architectural school, and its the next step for me in my career.