Kia Saint-Louis: Measuring what matters

Kia began to see the world differently during her time living in South Africa as a child. The experience triggered a deep interest in urban disparity and how inequity shows up in the built environment, leading her down a path that would make an architecture career far more meaningful to her than buildings alone. Johannesburg, her hometown of Potomac, MD, and now Washington, D.C., have all shaped the way she approaches her work as a rising leader in our education and science and technology practices. 

As part of CannonDesign’s My Voice series, here’s a glimpse into Kia’s story in her own words... 

Too often, I think we get hung up on KPIs.  

Measuring what matters is really big for me. It's an idea my grad school professor helped me to understand.

For every project, measuring what matters is different, but I'm a big believer in making sure that our measures of success are based on the people who are affected by the spaces we design and by how much, not just by dollars and cents.  

I first saw rampant poverty in real life when my family lived in Johannesburg for 11 months and 27 days when I was in seventh grade. That’s when I started to understand how different your house could be based on how much money you have.

I have always been drawn to the urban fabric problems more than to architecture itself.

My parents are from Haiti. My mom is a doctor. My dad practiced law. I was raised with a “no excuses” perspective.  

People don’t believe I’m an introvert. But if I could sit in a room and not say anything, I would.

I spend a lot of my free time with my dog, Ollie. Whether we're hiking, sharing an ice cream or just spending time together, he's a great reminder to slow down, get outside and enjoy the moment. 

How do we give all kids across a region the same amount of educational opportunity? 

K-12 master planning allows me to be able to solve those kinds of problems and remove barriers to equitable education for families. 

Clark County School District is the biggest master planning project we've ever had for a public school district. It's the fifth largest school district in the country — 350+ schools.  

What I love the most — whether it's a science and technology or education project — is doing community or user engagement. It’s rewarding to feel like I have a recommendation from the community that leads our team down a path to actually give them something better. 

My love for architecture is about putting the pieces together to solve big problems. I enjoy the puzzle pieces.

Recently, I worked on the punch list for Children’s Healthcare of Pennsylvania. I had a reflective moment as I walked through the building because I helped facilitate user group meetings for the project. It's one of those projects that will help solve big problems for kids. 

And I got to wear scrubs and be a model in the project photoshoot. It wasn’t Grey’s Anatomy, but I got to be a doctor, in some regard. 

My first mentor often put me on the spot for the sake of teaching me a lesson that I’ve carried throughout my career: Come to the table with a point of view and be open to other points of view. 

I've grown the most in facilitating conversations with clients.  

When a client needs to understand something very complicated very simply, I’ve learned to explain the topic in a way that builds trust and keeps the design process moving forward. 

I really appreciate that my senior colleagues at CannonDesign have created space for me to be at the table with them as a “supporting actor” rather than a backup actor. It’s built my self-confidence to speak up when I have something to say.

My parents were big on, “don't let anybody else tell you who you are — for better or worse.” 

I think one of the challenges for people of color in architecture is that you may already be carrying the weight of so many outside pressures, so when the profession you love also feels difficult or unwelcoming, it can take a real toll. 

I lead mentoring programs at Howard University, and I always tell them you can’t design for a world you’re not a part of. 

I have a soft spot for maternal health.  

My thesis project was a women's health center in Saint Louis that did both the full spectrum of pregnancy and birth care, and also things like a gym and daycare, layers of support for women to have healthy lives. 

I love the Jamaa Birth Village project and would have worked on it if I could have. I was very happy to represent the firm when it was featured at the Blueprints and Brushstrokes event in D.C.  

I go backpacking for a week every year. This year, it's Glacier National Park. Last year, it was the Dolomites in Italy. The year before, it was Banff Canada.  

I hate it while I’m doing it. But when I’m 14,000 feet high, it’s quiet, there’ no cellphone service, all I can do is enjoy the view. 

It reminds me of how small I am in the universe.  

And that’s what reminds me to measure what matters, even in my own life.  

For so long, I measured my happiness by whether I was doing well in school or on my job.  

But when I'm up that high, none of that matters except whether I'm happy in the moment and that I took that time for myself. That’s the feeling I carry with me ... until the next time.