EMILY HUNT TURNER

"I'm not an entrepreneur; I'm an architect."

 

It took me years to feel comfortable calling myself an entrepreneur. The label fit what I did, but it never quite captured how I saw myself. I graduated from Syracuse University's School of Architecture in 2007, and although I don't formally practice architecture today, it has shaped nearly everything I've done since. It's there in the way I took notes in law school and diagrammed legal concepts while studying for the bar exam. It's there in how I curate the spaces I inhabit, personally and professionally. I can see it in how I write, how I dream, how I draft org blueprints, craft pitch decks, and map presentations. Architecture isn't simply something I studied; it's the foundation upon which I've built my life and work.

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Most importantly, architecture taught me how to see the world not as it is, but as it could be. It taught me that every system, every institution, and every environment is the product of human design. And if something has been poorly designed, or designed to cause harm, it can always be redesigned.

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