We’d like to celebrate our two summer interns, Ariana Lapena and Mary Lopez-Rojas, who have joined us at the office for a few months to dig into projects, develop skills, and gain first-hand experience working with clients and multifamily housing design.

• An East Bay native, Ariana was originally drawn to how architecture merged her fondness for math/precision and art/expression. She appreciates how a designed space could impact a visitor’s emotions, while also responding to the needs of users and clients. At Chabot College, Ariana has served as president of the Architecture Club, organizing firm and school tours in the Bay Area on down to San Diego, and introducing new students to the profession. While at PYATOK, Ariana has contributed to the redesign of a federal housing community in Novato, applying her Revit skills and attending weekly client meetings. Ariana is transferring to UC Berkeley this fall and *might* have time to go rock climbing with us.
• Mary is a rising senior at UC Berkeley, after initial coursework at West Valley College in Saratoga. Her interest in architecture was stoked by her father’s penchant for building houses for neighbors in her childhood village in Guanajuato; later, Mary became attuned to the social and cultural dynamics of the built environment. As a Bay Area teen, Mary worked with the City of San Jose to incorporate a recycling system at her high school and for nearby Latino communities. At Cal, she has participated in the Sustainable Housing at California (SHAC) club (design-building a Net Zero tiny house), Casa Esperanza (helping domestic abuse survivors in Mexico), and NOMAS. After a summer working primarily on Cypress Point, Mary is looking forward to getting her Masters in Architecture and building for change.

PYATOK’s Diversity in Architecture Internship partners with Chabot College's Architecture program and UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design to offer paid summer intern positions to undergraduate or graduate students with a passion for housing, socially equitable architecture, and creating vibrant communities. Students of all backgrounds may apply, but preference is given to first generation college students and/or community college transfer students. Through the program, interns obtain direct experience working on local housing projects, in addition to exposure to the complexity of issues associated with building housing in the Bay Area.

Thank you Ariana and Mary for spending your summer with PYATOK. Hopefully you enjoyed working with us as much as we’ve enjoyed having you here!