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Beyond the Surface Presents

Voices Behind the Design.

Every month, we interview a designer, discussing how their identity, role models, and other design ideas shape who they are as people.

Latest Episodes

Our Latest Episode

The Story Behind Beyond the Surface

Welcome to Beyond the Surface, we highlight unique voices in architecture and design. We share their stories to uncover who they are beyond the surface.

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Recent Episodes

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Quotes from our Episodes

“I’ve always believed that you needed a profession, a passion, and a hustle. So you have your profession, that’s what you go to school for. Your passion may not be something you get paid for, but it’s something that balances you out. And then the hustle is, if the profession ain’t working how can I make money.”
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Dr. L. David StewartEpisode 10
“In my political experience, that in order to get people to buy into something new, they have to understand it. They have to take ownership of it. They have to co-author it. You cannot force your vision on someone. You can’t force people to follow you; they have to feel a sense of ownership, and they have to share in that vision”
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Maurice CoxEpisode 08
“One of the things that I still live by is that you can try anything for a year. As long as you’re learning something, you can always try something for a year or two years. If it’s not it, at the end of that year or two, there’s always another option. If you’re still continuing to learn and learning in a direction that you would like to, then it could be a good opportunity”
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Daniel MaiEpisode 9
“You want to facilitate that level of community, and that level of ease of living. Someone can just enjoy their life and their day easily. They can pop down the street and get their groceries, no trouble. They wanna go for a drink with friends, it’s right down the other way, and it’s safe, it enriches you, that’s the kind of spaces that you want to create for people”
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Ashlen WilliamsEpisode 04
“’ Get outside, live your life, go see the world’ And it was like that line still stays in my head, of understanding that like, it is so important for us to do the work, and get to where we want in our professional lives, but at the same time, we still need to live our life”
Mustapha Williams
Mustapha WilliamsEpisode 05
“All of the issues we see in inner cities are by design, and it is a reason why it disproportionately affects black youth. It’s because the neighborhoods that people have been forced into, and have no control over continue to dilapidate. And I want to design large swaths of spaces where people can have basically an incubator, a place, a neighborhood that feels like home, it feels like somebody cared, that from your childhood up until your adulthood, you feel like you’re amongst beauty, not decay and not violence”
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Davey FridayEpisode 02

Meet Your Host

Alex Sanchez is a technical designer at Geniant + Eastlake Studio and a recent graduate of the Illinois Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Architecture. While in school, she co-founded Beyond the Surface, a platform created to explore the stories and journeys of architects she admires.

Passionate about accessible and human-centered design, Alex believes in the power of design to positively transform lives. Through Beyond the Surface, she continues to engage with diverse perspectives and uncover how others approach the design process.

Her leadership and contributions to equity, inclusion, and innovation in architecture have been recognized with a Presidential Citation for Exemplary Performance by the Illinois Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects and the Clinton E. Stryker Distinguished Service Award from Illinois Tech.

asanchez
Podcast Host, Co-Founder

Alex Sanchez

about Our Team