Practice of Architecture: LPA's next generation on designing outcomes, not just buildings
June 16, 2026
2026
Hello,
The World Cup kicked off this week, and I caught it in the best possible way, on foot, walking through downtown San Diego and the Gaslamp Quarter. Nearly every bar had the match on. People stopped in the middle of the sidewalk to watch a monitor through a window, and you could follow the US team's goals just by listening, a cheer rolling up the street for the first, the second, and the third. There is a particular warmth in hearing a whole neighborhood pull for the same side at the same moment. It doesn't happen at the Olympics, and it certainly doesn't happen during the NBA Finals or the Super Bowl, where the room is always split.
That shared pull stayed with me, because it is rarer than it should be inside our own firms, where design, research, and operations can each end up pulling in a different direction.
This week on Practice Disrupted, I sat down with three of the future leaders at LPA Design Studios, the winner of the 2025 AIA Architecture Firm Award. Federico Cavazos, a principal and design director in San Antonio, Jake Junge, who is building the firm's digital and data backbone, and Rachel Nasland, a design researcher trained in environmental psychology, each hold a very different seat at the table. What connects them is a no excuses culture that treats sustainability fluency as a baseline rather than a specialty, an approach that has helped LPA cut energy use across its portfolio by roughly 80 percent. As Rachel framed it, the firm is working to shift architecture from designing buildings to designing outcomes.
Where in your firm are the disciplines quietly rooting for different outcomes?
Keep learning and growing,
Evelyn M Lee, FAIA | NOMA
Founder, Practice of Architecture
Host, Practice Disrupted & Fractional COO
P.S. This issue reaches you on a Tuesday instead of the usual Sunday. I'm playing a little catch-up after a busy conference week, and I'm grateful you're here whenever it lands.
/// PoA Podcast - Practice Disrupted ///
AIA Architecture Firm Award Winners: The Next Generation at LPA
In this episode of Practice Disrupted, host Evelyn Lee sits down with three future leaders from LPA Design Studios, the winner of the 2025 AIA Architecture Firm Award. Federico Cavasos, Jake Junge, and Rachel Nasland join the show to discuss how they are shaping the firm’s operations and what winning the profession’s highest honor means for their continued trajectory.
