Alana Young, project coordinator E.R.A. Architects Inc.
Education: Master of architecture and honours bachelor of architectural studies, University of Waterloo era.on.ca
As an intern architect at E.R.A., I coordinate and run a variety of projects from very tiny to quite large. We do practise standard architecture, but we also work in partnership with other architecture offices that have a piece of heritage – whether it’s a structure or a facade or anything else – and a client who wants to redevelop the site.
One of my big projects right now is the restoration of Allendale Train Station in Barrie, built in 1905. Those buildings have been sitting neglected for more than 25 years. We’ve stabilized the structures, replaced all the deteriorated wood, siding and missing windows and done paint analysis to determine the original colour schemes. There’s something to be learned from our Canadian heritage, the way we built and designed.
I fell into E.R.A. a little bit unexpectedly, not having a lot of heritage experience before. We didn’t focus a lot on that in school. School offers a lot of theory.
Being in Waterloo’s co-op program informed my decisions about my permanent job position, as did the opportunities to work in big and small offices in Victoria, Toronto and Mexico City. You learn quickly how to adapt to work environments. That helps you muster the courage to put yourself out there and not accept the first job that comes along.
I’ve been to Rome many times, and I remember having one of those “aha” moments there. Things are so different from my world – the architecture, the interactions with people. A lot of southwestern Ontario cities are very suburban. Everyone drives a car, streets are very wide. In Italy, a street could be no wider than a couple of metres.
I still find architecture a very male-dominated profession. I notice an increase in female students at Waterloo – it’s about 50-50 now. But it’s not 50-50 in my office, and it’s never been 50-50 in any office I’ve worked in, and I’ve worked in six or seven.
In our program you have a mentor, and I specifically chose a woman because she could share my perspective. She had a lot of insight and was aware of the particular challenges women face and how you manage them. And in school there were a few female professors who are architects, and I found them inspirational.
I don’t go to work thinking, “I’m a woman, they’re men,” but there’s something about finding inspiration in people who are similar to you. You realize they’ve been able to achieve greatness, so you can, too.
