Celebrating New Architects: Shreeya Shakya

Shreeya Shakya recently joined the ranks of the firm’s licensed architects. Shreeya received her Bachelor of Architecture from Syracuse University. She also has a minor in Sustainable Construction Management from The State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Today we celebrate her accomplishments.

What is the best part of your job?

I love that every day I get to solve complex problems while collaborating with passionate and incredibly smart people. The work that we do as architects is not easy—there are thousands of decisions to be made, and so many constraints to consider. But the complexity is what I love about the job, every big and small decision we make contributes to our goal of making spaces that look good and feel great. I am glad I get to learn how to do that while being mentored by incredible designers, architects and engineers who really care about the work that we do.

Suite reception view, EXP.

What projects have you worked on and are currently working on?

I feel fortunate to have had a variety of design experiences during my time at PAYETTE. When I started in 2019 I worked on Northeastern University’s Costal Sustainability Institute in Nahant as part of the exterior team.

I then transitioned to working on the interior of the Northeastern EXP project for the next 2 years working on the DD and CD phases and stayed on for a bit of CA. I enjoyed getting to work on many different aspects of this project but am especially proud of the work I did for the President’s Suite.

I also had the opportunity to work on the schematic design for a shell and core building in Durham, North Carolina. This was a new context for us, and I really enjoyed working on the exterior of this building, particularly studying the brick façade.

I am now working on CA on the renovation for the Harvard Quantum Initiative — which is very different from anything else I have worked on.  It is a complex project type with the added intricacy of being a renovation. I find it incredibly fulfilling going on site every week and seeing a project being executed through construction.

Outside of project work I am also Co-chairing PAYETTE’s Women in Design Group. I also take any opportunity I can to collaborate with my colleagues by participating in our MLK Day of Service and the IIDA NE fashion show. I also volunteer as a mentor for the PIC summer interns and for BosNOMA’s Project Pipeline.

Project Pipeline, BoSNOMA.

What is the most important thing you have learned so far?

It took me a while, but I learned to occasionally take a step back and reflect on the work that I do and be thoughtful about the kind of architect that I want to become. It is easy to get caught up in the things you need to get done every day – and that can be overwhelming when you start as a young designer. I find that it helps my motivation if I have the bigger questions in mind – where do my values stand? How I want to operate in this profession? Where do I want it to go? I do not have answers to all of these, but it does keep me more intentional about working towards them.

If you could take a month-long trip anywhere, where would you go and why?

I would take a month-long trip back home to Nepal. Its where I grew up and the people and culture are very important to me. There is a lot of diversity in beautiful landscapes that are hard to get to and I would spend my month going to places I have not had a chance to explore yet. There is more to the country than just Mount Everest!