Architect 2016-01

AIA Architect
JANUARY 2016
AIA PRACTICE
AIAPractice
A Day in the Life
of an ArchiMom
To call Amy Kalar a busy working mother
would be an understatement.
Amy Kalar, AIA, senior associate for HGA
Architects and Engineers in Minneapolis,
founded the blog ArchiMom (archimom.com)
in January 2015 to raise important issues that
working parents face in the profession.
“I believe that when we share our stories
we create a really powerful network, and we let
each other know we’re not alone,” Kalar says.
Actively involved in her local AIA
Minneapolis chapter, Kalar is also a visiting
instructor at St. Catherine University, training
for a marathon in Iceland, leads a recurring
discussion series at HGA amongst her
colleagues, and is the founder of an online
discussion group on LinkedIn, Women in
Architecture and Design.
To an outsider, Kalar appears to be an
average American mother trying to make it
all work, but to an insider she is far and away
above average. In one day, Kalar essentially
does the work of four full-time jobs: mom,
architect, college instructor, and blogger.
“The idea of work-life balance to me is
literally laughable,” Kalar says. “There’s never a
time when my life is perfectly balanced. It’s like
a yo-yo.”
Here’s a look inside a typical day with Amy.
By Caitlin Reagan
6:45 a.m. “I wake up before the kids and always
hit the coffee pot. I try to have a quiet moment
of coffee just for myself before I make the kids
breakfast.”
7:45 a.m. “I leave for work earlier than my husband,
so he sits with the kids while I get ready and drops
them off at school and daycare.”
7:05 a.m. “I used to make their waffles from
scratch, but that’s just not logical anymore. So we
eat a lot of Eggo waffles in our house,” she says,
laughing.
9:50 a.m. “I created these networks [of women]
because I needed them myself. I need these women
and I need them to remain in the profession. I
needed them a long time ago, and because of them
I’ve stayed in the profession.”
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11:05 a.m. “Women should get together—it’s really
important that they talk and support each other—
but as women, we aren’t the majority. Men need to
get involved and address these changes, to help to
better integrate women into the profession. It’s about
retention. Men are the key in this.”
12:55 p.m. “If I don’t have a lunch date, I’ll bring
a frozen lunch. I teach part-time and I am not
super-prepared today, so I’m going to look over
my materials at lunch before I start teaching at
1:30. Thankfully, I know Revit so well that it’s easy
for me to teach.”