2020 Women in RE: Angie Lee, FXCollaborative

Name: Angie Lee

Title: Partner, Design Director-Interiors

Company Name: FXCollaborative 

List up to three associations or organizations that you are currently a member of: International Interior Design Association (IIDA), American Institute of Architects (AIA)

What is one characteristic that you believe every woman in business should possess?
The one thing every woman should have is something we already possess—our voices. What needs to happen, however, is a dusting off of voices that were tamped down by others and sometimes ourselves. We need to attach stories that need to be shared with our often innate ability to be storytellers. If every woman in business was able to then use her voice to say what needs to be said, I believe we’d be in a much better place right now. 

What trend(s) will dominate your industry in the next year?
Slow design is already a phenomenon that the industry is reluctantly partaking in at the moment. Whether we like it or not, it will continue to stretch across the next year and “home” will be a crucial focus for designers. There is an uptick in home renovations, not surprisingly because many are trying to do so much from home with varying degrees of success. My hope is that the environmental and social justice crises will also push the architecture and design industry to do much better, and that new habits will form from home to carry into the wider world.

What would you tell your daughter if she was interested in following in your footsteps?
I actually tell her this all the time: Use your experience as an outsider to its full advantage. Know that empathy, which the world is in desperate need of, is built on experience first, and stories second. Because you have already lived outside the status quo for a short time, you now have critical points of view that you can access either as a creative or a Supreme Court justice (her current ambition). Remember that you don’t know what you don’t know, and that will keep you hungry for a lifetime of learning and growth.

What conferences, books, blogs, podcasts, or influencers would you recommend to women?
“Mismatch, How Inclusion Shapes Design” by Kat Holmes; “Invisible Women, Data Bias in a World Designed for Men” by Caroline Criado Perez; “Whose Story Is This?” by Rebecca Solnit; and “The Danger of a Single Story” TED Talk by Chimamanda Adichie