#59 Looking Inward and Outward with Janet Tam, FAIA

Janet Tam is a founder and Principal of Noll and Tam Architects.
Janet grew up in Richmond, California, and studied architecture
at UC Berkeley in the 1970s and early 80’s, when the university
was a pioneer of socially responsible design. There, she
encountered groundbreaking courses on social factors and user
needs, and was drawn to the power of architecture to enrich
people’s lives by serving the public good.


Janet and her business partner, Chris Noll, founded their firm in
1992, to establish a talented studio of architects that pursued
the ideal of active community involvement and environmentally
responsive design. Since its founding, the Berkeley-based firm
has become a leader in Bay Area public architecture, and is noted
for championing women in leadership roles. Janet’s work, and that
of the firm, is regarded for its emphasis on recognizing and
articulating shared community values with projects that bind
people together in a common vision for the future.


 


In this episode, Janet talks about: her experience of starting a
practice while raising two daughters; how introspection and
surrounding yourself with experts is key to building a healthy
firm; working with a firm therapist; how the strength of the
firm’s culture helped them get through the pandemic; what it
means to stay “fresh” in the architecture profession; succession
planning, letting things go, and passing on knowledge; and how
architects never retire but morph into something else.


 


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