PWL Partnership welcomes our newest partner, Katya Yushmanova!

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The people of PWL are the key to our success, from working effectively with our clients to designing livable communities and creating engaging public places. Open spaces, streets, parks and gardens have always provided us with respite from the city. Now, more than ever, these important spaces lift our spirits. PWL Partnership is committed to maintaining an inclusive, diverse and resilient leadership team to deliver these meaningful places among today’s global challenges.
 
Katya Yushmanova brings energy, perseverance and a talent for pushing ideas forward within our organization and has been an integral part of our firm since joining in 2011. Katya has led numerous successful projects including The Horseshoe Bay Park Master Plan, Coopers’ Park Extension, Metropolis Master Plan, and Seattle House. 

To feed her creative practice, Katya immerses herself in the outdoors, where she paddles, hikes and leads stewardship and conservation efforts. Ocean kayaking rejuvenates her ability to build collaborative relationships, leading to project excellence. Her dedication to public engagement has resulted in built projects that truly serve their communities and reflect her creative and poetic influence.

 

Questions with Katya: Get to know PWL’s newest partner

What do you think are the most pressing issue we need to deal with as a profession?
Climate Change. This challenge brings to light how landscape architecture, as a profession, can adapt locally and have impact in the larger global system. As designers, we can address this challenge in our day to day life and practice, and within the communities that we live and work.


What excites you most about what you do on a day-to-day basis? 
I love the breadth of the profession on a day to day basis – I can be working on a proposal, a construction detail or a construction process, doing a sketch, or looking at a very large-scale analysis. This constant shifting keeps me from becoming myopic and getting stuck in one scale of seeing the world.


As a partner at PWL, how do you see yourself impacting the way the firm functions?
I believe empowering individuals and diverse teams at every level of our organization. When the decision-making is only focused in the hands of very experienced, it limits innovation. Bringing individuals with varied experience levels and backgrounds to the same table is key to maintaining an innovative working environment. I believe there is a huge opportunity for us to grow this approach at PWL.