Since joining PYATOK in 2010, Principal Kim Suczynski Smith has been lending her holistic, multidisciplinary perspective and interest in education to our most complex projects – whether neighborhood and campus planning, multi-building affordable housing communities, sensitive mixed-use infill, or engaging in building types new to the firm.

Kim enjoys working directly with communities, across large stakeholder groups, and with high school and university students learning about design in the built environment. She guides PYATOK’s equity and community outreach programs, including our Diversity Fellowship through UC Berkeley. Also at UC Berkeley, Kim teaches an urban planning studio – examining how Bay Area cities, and particularly Oakland, plan for change – and conducts the embARC Summer Design Academy for highschoolers. Her academic and volunteer work emphasize hands-on, design-build learning, promoting design advocacy, and removing barriers to the profession for disadvantaged communities.

Kim’s recent project contributions include the Balboa Reservoir Master Plan and Blocks C and D in San Francisco, the multi-phase Paradise Creek affordable housing project in National City, and Jones Berkeley Market-Rate TOD on San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley. She is currently overseeing the construction in Santa Rosa, California, of the Caritas Village Navigation Center, an innovative, three-story health services hub for people experiencing homelessness. The Caritas Center is by far PYATOK’s largest such project to date, and was realized under Kim’s leadership through a highly-collaborative development process involving numerous stakeholders and funding sources.