What you need to know about Kara:

As a Northwest native who recently joined the team at Shed Architecture and Design in Seattle, Kara attended Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo for her Bachelors Degree and received her Masters Degree from UCLA in spring 2015. Today, she takes on sustainable projects in a range of sizes and prides herself on leading a research-based approach.

Coffee: “Through my graduate studios at UCLA, I visited Japan twice in two years and fell in love with Japanese culture. I picked up this ceramic cup in the busy Shinjuku district in Tokyo.”

Bose noise-cancelling headphones: “Sometimes, you really just need to concentrate. Our office is an open format—which I love. However, it’s sometimes nice to tune out and jam to a few productive tunes. I love listening to electronic music and podcasts. On a daily basis, I usually browse playlists on Spotify or tune into the Australian-based music blog, Indie Shuffle.”

Rhino: “This tiny toy was a token from a former grad school classmate. It’s been a constant companion and staple on my desk. He mostly just hangs out but occasionally finds himself in interesting positions!”

Pocket Ref: “My co-worker Max turned me onto this handy resource! It’s helpful for confirming everything from steel gauges and weld types, to softwood lumber sizing and grading.”

Red pencil and other writing utensils: “A red pencil is a necessity in a busy office! Some use pens but I prefer pencils. Tomato tomatoe…”

Tracing paper: “At Shed, we use a lot of trace paper. There are usually several rolls floating around the office that we use both individually and during group design discussions.”

Black scale: “I picked this up recently. For some reason, scales frequently seem to go missing, so I’m looking forward to seeing how long I can hold onto this one.”

Keep up with Kara’s work by following Shed’s profile here.