Every story has an arc: a beginning, a middle, and an end. Christine’s story has begun but I don’t know if it has reached “the middle” or not. What I do know is that her discovery of her professional passion at the age of ten is remarkable. How many of us know what our professional passion is at that age?
But like a snowball rolling downhill, as she grew older, she added to her passions: art, math, along with an unwavering self confidence. She refused to be told, “You can’t do that because you are a girl.” No. She never believed that.
Christine’s father was an entrepreneur and, as she describes it, “handy around the house. Dad was always building things.” Her parents supported her passion for architecture and her many interests. They traveled as a family and she saw the rich variety of architectural designs that can be found in different cities and countries. And as she commented to me, “Even at the age of twelve, my naive self was saying about homes and building we saw: “I could design something better than that!”
She moved from the east coast to the west to attend USC and its School of Architecture. Even there, she remained focused on architecture to the point that she found the “celebrity culture of LA to be a huge distraction.”
After graduating from USC, she returned to the east coast and an apartment in Manhattan she would share with her sister. Did she have a job lined up when she moved? “No. But I just knew that I would find something.”
There it is again. That self-confidence. Like a rock.
And she did. She was hired by one of the largest architecture firms in the US: Gensler.
As she grew professionally, she also grew personally. She married. And together she and her husband decided to have a family.
But how do you balance a professional life and a personal life with a partner and soon, children?
You and your partner must be prepared to compromise, to give and take, to share the burdens equally.
And they have.
Now living in northeast Ohio and having given birth to three children, Christine continues to live her passion for architecture as a sole practitioner and entrepreneur.
Join me in my conversation with Christine, someone who has pursued their passion for nearly three decades while balancing a rich personal life with her professional life.
Interested in learning about Christine’s work as an architect and sustainability expert? Listen to this episode!
"At the age of ten, I knew I wanted to be an architect!" | Christine Medvedev | Ep. 4