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Creative · Industry Playbook

Architect biography playbook

Practice, scale of projects, and notable built work.

What the reader is hiring this bio to do

Architect bios are read by clients commissioning work, peers, and journalists covering the practice. The reader wants the typology, the scale, and the body of built work.

Credibility signals to include

  • Practice (firm, role, partner status).
  • Typology and scale (residential 2,000-8,000 sqft; multi-family up to 200 units; institutional).
  • Notable built projects with city and year.
  • Recognition (AIA, Architectural Record, Architectural League).
  • Licensure (NCARB, state).

Avoid in this industry

  • Generic 'human-centered design' language.
  • Listing every unbuilt competition.
  • Failing to indicate licensure.

Structure

Preferred structure for the bio

A reliable order that performs in this field. Adjust to the venue.

  1. 1Name, role, firm, city.
  2. 2Typology and scale.
  3. 3Two or three notable projects.
  4. 4Awards and licensure.
  5. 5Education and personal sentence.

Tone

How this industry's bios should sound

Restrained, project-specific, and quietly confident.

Lengths

Recommended lengths by venue

Firm website150 - 300 words
Speaking bio80 - 150 words

Openings

Opening formulas that work in this field

Practice-Typology

Open with role, firm, and typology.

Lena Park is a Principal at Park + Hatori Architects in Seattle, where she leads the studio's adaptive-reuse practice.

Worked examples

One hundred words. Fifty words.

100-word example

Lena Park is a Principal at Park + Hatori Architects in Seattle, where she leads the studio's adaptive-reuse practice, focused on warehouse-to-residence conversions and small-scale civic projects in the Pacific Northwest. Notable recent work includes the 2024 conversion of the Calhoun Street Warehouse into thirty-one workforce-housing units (AIA Seattle Honor Award) and the 2023 redesign of the Olympia Public Library children's wing. Lena is a licensed architect in Washington and Oregon, a 2024 fellow of the AIA, and a graduate of the University of Washington (M.Arch, 2008). She lives in Seattle.

50-word example

Lena Park, Principal, Park + Hatori Architects, Seattle. Adaptive-reuse practice; warehouse-to-residence and civic projects in the Pacific Northwest. Calhoun Street Warehouse (workforce housing, AIA Seattle Honor Award 2024); Olympia Public Library children's wing (2023). Licensed WA, OR. 2024 AIA Fellow. M.Arch University of Washington 2008.

Vocabulary

Words to reach for — and words to handle with care

Words to reach for
designsleadscompletedis licensed inreceived
Handle with care
innovativegroundbreakingworld-classhuman-centered

Cross-references

Frameworks and voices this playbook pairs with

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