Q&A with first female president at Alliiance, an architectural leader in airport design

If you’ve flown anywhere in Minnesota, chances are you’re unknowingly familiar with the work of Alliiance (yes, two i’s), one of the biggest architectural firms in the Twin Cities.

The firm, known for its complex and high-tech projects, led a $440 million redesign at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport’s main terminal and has more than a dozen airport projects across the country on its current to-do list.

Aviation isn’t Alliiance’s only specialty. The firm, which has more than 130 employees in two Twin Cities offices, has also tackled an impressive list of projects for big-name corporate clients, including Allianz Life, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota and Cargill.

Long-time employee Mamie Harvey, 52, had a hand in many of those, and now she has the top job at the firm. She’s the first female president at Alliiance, one of a growing number of women leading a major Twin Cities architectural firms. Harvey, who has been co-leader of the firm’s science and tech studio, will continue in that role.

In an interview edited for clarity and length, Harvey shares some thoughts about what’s facing her company and the industry.

I don’t have the classic answer to that. I was starting school and signing up for classes. … my mom said, “Well, you’re good at art and math, so maybe try architecture.” And then literally I think I am just too stubborn to give up.

Over time, I’ve learned a lot about how my brain works and why I’m drawn to this work. I’m such a strategic, conceptual kind of idea person that it just fits really well with the front-end services of architecture. And it’s why I think I really love science and tech, because the projects are so complex. They’re big puzzles, and the clients are brilliant and so interesting.

It depends on the sector, for sure. In the science and technology field, I definitely see strong male representation on the client side, especially for corporate clients. It is much better than it used to be, but there were times when I was definitely the only woman in the room. For quite a few years.

A lot has changed, but it depends on your perspective. I think the most relevant maybe is just how COVID has really brought the issue of work/life balance front and center for the architectural industry. I think for a long time, teams and cultures were willing to put in extra time and extra blood, sweat and tears. A lot of that is because architecture is considered a bit of a calling by some. When I first started, you would have considered working for free if you got to work with a certain architect. Now, there’s just a lot more respect for balance in general and a lot more focus on how to bring out the best in a team in a healthy way.

Right after the pandemic, we were hiring, and the labor shortage, at least architecturally, was pretty intense. So we ended up deciding to spread out our search and hire remote employees.

We only have one local office in Minneapolis, near Loring Park. We also have an office at the airport at Terminal 1. We hired remotely and because of that, I’d say it really has changed the way we work. We can’t and don’t want to go back to all-in-the-office because of the benefit of having access to all that great expertise beyond the Twin Cities. The collaboration has to be very purposeful when your team is remote, so we’re learning from that quite a bit.

I think the industry is starting to embrace technology at different levels, like AI. I think the industry is really investigating how to mix the positive aspects of AI, which are about saving time, with the expertise to really create a great product. The industry as a whole is looking at that. In theory, it could help with work/life balance if there are indeed benefits from a time perspective that could be gained.

In terms of design, I think we are really integrating sustainability. I think it’s really paramount, and it takes a concerted effort. I think that our design leaders are doing an excellent job of just mentoring and bringing more voices into the design conversations. That’s one of our goals.

It’s something we’re going to continue to work on, but we’re doing an intercultural training program internally, where we are learning more about how overall culture can impact people of diverse backgrounds. It’s an awareness that we’re really working on.

A woman’s experience has always been different than men in the industry. That also applies to race. So I think there’s an attention to an awareness of creating safe space so that people with different backgrounds feel like they can contribute. We have a lot of really great staff, so it’s important to me to create a culture that can really support the whole staff. It’s not something new. It’s something we’ve been working on for a while.