MWA Architects is ecstatic to welcome Elizabeth Peterson to the firm. Bringing more than two decades of experience in transit design experience, she joins our Transportation and Resource Management (TRM) Studio. Elizabeth has overseen and provided design services for light, commuter, heavy rail stations, transit centers, and bus and train maintenance facilities all over the West Coast. She is Co-Chair of the WTS San Francisco Bay Area DEI Committee, committed to advancing the space for women and underrepresented groups in transit.
We recently sat down with her to discuss how she found her way into transit design, what continues to fuel her passion, and how she plans to channel her expertise toward serving our communities.
What drew you to a career in transit design, and what keeps you passionate about this work after more than 20 years in transit?
Fairly early in my career, I was tasked with working on Sound Transit’s Tukwila Link Station. It was kismet. One taste of transit and I never went back to any other project type. To some extent, the same things that got me hooked in the first place are what’s kept me passionate about it all this time later. Transit projects are these big, complicated design challenges that are so rewarding to figure out and do right. I have always and continue to love to learn and become more knowledgeable about each of the many different components, regulations, disciplines, fiscal challenges, and construction needs that are unique to transit. All of that is in context of being able to help make people’s lives, places, and environment better.
Transit projects are complex and involve many moving parts. What do you find most rewarding about bringing elements together into one design?
‘Most’ is a hard one for me to pick just one. That said, while many architects struggle to make those components conform to their vision, it brings me great satisfaction to embrace and celebrate all those parts. I really do find joy in that wonderful puzzle of taking all these super specific parts and making them a beautiful whole.
You’ve worked on a wide range of transit facilities. Is there a project type that stands out as particularly meaningful to you?
For me, my first love is train stations. In the world of transit design, it’s somewhat overly simplified by distinguishing between wings and wheels, and further between hard and soft wheels. While I do really enjoy all the types of transportation projects, the place where hard wheels interface with humans has a very special place in my heart.
Being based in San Francisco puts you at the heart of a dynamic, evolving transportation environment. What opportunities or challenges do you see in Bay Area transit design today?
Funding is a huge issue in the transit world, especially right now. This added layer of complexity means agencies are to some extent competing and there’s inherently an inefficiency in use of funds. The opportunity is to become trusted advisors by helping agencies to use their resources to greatest effect, understand ways to best interface with other agencies, and support their efforts to find funding.
Collaboration is central to your work. How do you approach coordinating with multidisciplinary teams, stakeholders, and contractors to manage complex projects on track?
It may sound a little odd, but the first step is understanding that people want to be valued. I genuinely find all the folks we work with and what they bring to projects cool and interesting. The multidisciplinary consultants, stakeholders, and contractors truly become a team in the best sense of the word. When people want to work with you, coordinating and managing becomes a lot easier because everyone wants to chip in to make the project successful.
As MWA expands its transportation portfolio, what excites you most about helping the firm grow in this sector?
MWA’s values align so well with transit. It excites me to bring to fruition that alignment.
When you’re not working on transit projects, how do you like to spend your time or recharge outside of the office?
In no particular order: board and table games of the geeky sort (ask and I will tell you way more than you want to know), gardening, cooking, golfing, traveling, swimming, and reading. However, I listen now more than pick up an actual book.
With Elizabeth’s joining, the TRM Studio hopes to broaden our services geographically and into different pockets of the diverse transit sector. TRM Leaders, Jean Root, Principal; Leslee Randolph, Director of TRM; and Elizabeth, TRM Lead, come together to bring a deep breadth of knowledge across multiple aspects of transit, including hard wheels, soft wheels, and wings.
Looking to connect with Elizabeth? Find her here.