I Am AIA:

Katie Oman

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Katie is an expert in capital project planning for arts & culture with twenty years’ experience in planning, decision making, and economic analysis for nonprofit and public sector clients. Katie spent a decade as a theatre planning consultant prior to shifting her focus to cultural economics and its intersection with design, working to help clients and design teams make informed decisions about investment in cultural infrastructure. Katie holds a B.A. in Architecture from Princeton University and an M. Phil. in Public History and Cultural Heritage from Trinity College Dublin.

How do you explain what you do for a living?

It’s always a struggle! I tell people that I do “institutional and economic planning for arts, culture, and heritage.” When they say “huh?” I say I’m one of the people you call when you want to build a new theatre or a new museum, or when you want to make plans about the ones you have.

Where is the field of architecture, engineering or construction headed?

I hope that the field of architecture can continue to lead the way in making our cities more economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable. Working at the intersection of imagination and the marketplace is a unique position – one that the field can leverage as we move towards whatever’s next.

What is your favorite Seattle-area structure?

I live part-time in the Port Townsend area, and the ruins of the 1900s-era structures at Fort Flagler and Fort Worden have always been inspiring to me. They are at once permanent and decaying, built for war and oddly peaceful, places of history and opportunity.