To mark National Volunteer Week 2025, we reflect on the overwhelming response by the architectural community who volunteered time and resources during and after January’s devastating wildfires in Los Angeles. In particular, we speak with Jessica Orlando of AIA Pasadena & Foothill Chapter, whose Ask an Architect program continues to match architects with homeowners seeking guidance as they rebuild homes, communities, and livelihoods.

Dear Student, I suspect you’ve already encountered most of the conventional advice—the familiar platitudes repeated endlessly in classrooms, critiques, and career talks. Work hard. Stay disciplined. Develop your craft. Each phrase is earnest, and each contains some truth, but none of them alone can fully illuminate what it actually means to become a professional. That word carries with it a whole slew of expectations—some external, some internal, some inherited without question. Rather than offer prescriptive wisdom, I prefer to share some reflections from my own often uncertain path—observations that didn’t arrive all at once, but over time, and usually the hard way.

Earlier this month, we covered the launch of the AIA Pasadena & Foothill Chapter’s 'Ask an Architect' program aimed at helping homeowners impacted by the devastating Los Angeles Fires. The free program under the AIA in California umbrella, which will begin with Eaton Fire victims and later expand to include those who lost homes or businesses in the Palisades Fire, is entirely volunteer-run and works on behalf of the professional community to meet the questions of neighbors looking to rebuild their lives and property after the January 2025 catastrophe destroyed more than 16,000 structures.  To gain a better understanding of the scope and challenges latent in the rebuilding effort, Archinect spoke with Jessica Orlando, the chapter's Vice President and Associate Principal of Higher Education in Perkins&Will's Los Angeles office. She answered questions pertaining to the program's adaptation — which has drawn 120 matches thus far — and the collaboration of other chapters across LA County...

Founded in 2003, Phoenix-based architecture and environmental design firm Studio Ma has established itself as an award-winning creative powerhouse within its native Arizona, as well as beyond state borders. Under the guidance of Principals Christiana Moss, Christopher Alt, and Tim Keil, the studio strives to combine design excellence with social and environmental responsibility. For this episode of Archinect's "How To Get A Job At ____" series, we talked to Christiana Moss to learn more about their hiring process, what Studio Ma is looking for in prospective new team members, and how candidates can make a strong first impression during the job interview.