Who, What, Why: A 3-Part Writing Workshop for Architects and Designers

*This is a three-part course. Attendees must purchase the entirety of the course to attend the sessions.*

Words support the built environment in ways that buildings often cannot: Used effectively, they can articulate the reasons behind design decisions, define project visions and goals, explain team qualifications, and illuminate details that inform press coverage, awards, lectures, books, and other public-facing materials. When a reader cannot experience a building first-hand, words can step in to convey what it feels like to be there. Taken together, the language architects use to describe their practice shapes how people experience and understand not only their work, but the built environment more broadly. 

This 3-part course will explore different types of writing that architects and designers regularly encounter. Led by Tiffany Jow, editor-in-chief of the design journal Untapped, each session will focus on a specific format and feature a special guest who is an expert in that format, so as to give an additional perspective on the subject. Sessions will also include in-class exercises, peer reviewing, and group discussions.  

COURSE OUTLINE

SESSION 1 - Mission Statements: Convey your Character and Values, with Special Guest Meara Daly
Thursday, February 19, 2026, 6:00–8:00pm ET
Focused on the “who”, this session will help you to determine what your practice sounds like in writing, identify its distinguishing characteristics, and articulate what you want to say. We will also explore and practice applying these skills to bios, mission statements, award submissions, and social media, and talk about dos and don’ts of each. Our special guest will also lead a special section on press releases and pitches.

SESSION 2 - Pitches: What Editors Want, with Special Guest Jack Murphy
Thursday, February 26, 2026, 6:00–8:00pm ET
Focused on the “why”, this session will consider the core ingredients of successful press outreach, how to develop materials for doing so, and cultivating the right media connections. We’ll also discuss how to navigate an evolving media landscape and alternative ways of getting your story told. 

SESSION 3 - Project Descriptions: How to Tell a Compelling Story, with Special Guest Diana Budds
Thursday, March 5, 2026, 6:00–8:00pm ET
Focused on the “what”, this session will unpack the process of writing about work you have done, are going to do, or would like to do. We’ll also discuss strategies for making these descriptions strong, and tips for doing so, and assess examples.

Speakers:
Diana Budds, Writer, Editor, Freelance
Meara Daly, Founding Partner, Daly PR
Tiffany Jow, Editor-in-Chief, Untapped
Jack Murphy, Editor-in-Chief, The Architect’s Newspaper, AN Interior

About the Speakers:
Diana Budds is a writer, editor, and critic interested in how design reveals stories about history, culture, and policy. It’s a perspective shaped by her training in art history and environmental planning, and general curiosity about the world around us. Her work has recently appeared in The New York Times, Fast Company, Untapped, The Architect’s Newspaper, Wallpaper, and Metropolis, among other publications. She has also contributed to editorial and research projects at Adobe, Figma, Herman Miller, Designtex, The Eames Institute, The Center for Architecture, and SOM. Prior to freelancing, she was a senior design writer and story producer at Curbed and senior editor at Dwell. Her favorite way to get around New York, where she has lived and worked for 13 years, is by bike. She is developing a book about utopian planned cities with Atelier Editions. 

Meara Daly is a founding partner of Daly PR, a public relations and communications strategy consultancy for design, architecture, and landscapes. She has over 25 years of experience in all areas of media relations, marketing, and strategic development with a focus on quality, targeted design stories. She has collaborated with established and emerging architecture and design practices including Bestor Architecture, Hood Design Studio, Design, Bitches, West of West, and Jensen Architects. Most recently she lead the communications strategy for the new Anthony Timberlands Center at the University of Arkansas, designed by Grafton Architects. Daly PR (formerly NelsonDaly) is dedicated to supporting, engaging, and broadcasting the work of multi-disciplinary designers, artists, and creatives. Prior to founding Daly PR and NelsonDaly she was a marketing consultant for several award-winning LA-based design studios and was the marketing director for Leers Weinzapfel Associates in Boston.

Tiffany Jow is the editor-in-chief of the New York–based design journal Untapped, which she conceptualized and launched in February 2023. Prior to that, she was marketing director at Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, where she contributed to the winning proposal for Chicago’s Obama Presidential Center. She wrote for Surface magazine for more than a decade, starting in 2006, holding staff positions as features director and design editor and spearheading print, digital, and video for its custom content arm, Surface Studios. She later served as executive editor of the podcast Time Sensitive. She has also worked in the research department at the Victoria and Albert Museum, on the 2011 exhibition Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970–1990, curated by Glenn Adamson and Jane Pavitt. Passionate about conveying creativity’s relevance to a wide audience, Jow regularly organizes and leads public conversations throughout the United States and beyond, speaking with people such as Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Ferrisen of Formafantsma, Torkwase Dyson, Wendy Maruyama, Misha Kahn, Sarah Oppenheimer, Deyan Sudjic, and Ivy Ross, among others. The programming she curates for Untapped—with entities including the Los Angeles gallery Marta; the New York galleries Friedman Benda, A83, and Superhouse; the Brooklyn bookstore Head Hi; Vitra; the National Academy of Design; the Venice Architecture Biennale; and Rockwell Group—often includes site-specific performance as a means to viscerally connect viewers to an event’s ideas. Dedicated to supporting the next generation of design writers, Jow has been a guest lecturer and critic at New York University, Pratt Institute, and the School of Visual Arts. 

Jack Murphy is the editor in chief of The Architect’s Newspaper and AN Interior. Previously he was editor of Cite: The Architecture and Design Review of Houston; adjunct professor at the University of Houston; and assistant editor of Totalization, edited by Troy Schaum and published by Park Books in 2019. He earned degrees in architecture from MIT and Rice University. He received an Honorable Mention for the Pierre Vago Journalism Award 2020 from the International Committee of Architecture Critics. In addition to his work as an editor, writer, and educator, Murphy has contributed to award-winning architecture practices in Boston, Austin, Houston, and New York.