Who, What, Why: A 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 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 three-part course will explore different types of writing that architects and designers regularly encounter. Led by Tiffany Jow, Editor-in-Chief of design journal Untapped, each session will focus on a specific format and feature a guest expert to provide an additional perspective on the subject. Sessions will also include in-class exercises, peer reviewing, and group discussions.

COURSE OUTLINE

SESSION 1 - Marketing Copy: Convey your Character and Values, with Special Guest Irene Kopitov
Tuesday, September 9, 2025, 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 using real-world examples.

SESSION 2 - Project Descriptions and Proposals: How to Tell a Compelling Story, with Special Guest Lauren Gallow
Tuesday, September 16, 2025, 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.

SESSION 3 - Press Releases and Pitches: What Editors Want, with Special Guest Lila Allen
Tuesday, September 23, 2025, 6:00–8:00pm ET
Focused on the “why," this session will consider the core ingredients of successful press outreach and how to develop materials for doing so. We’ll also discuss how to navigate an evolving media landscape and alternative ways of getting your story told.

Speakers:
Lila Allen, Writer, Editor, Founder, Wrong House
Lauren Gallow, Editorial Advisor, ARCADE
Tiffany Jow, Editor-in-Chief, Untapped
Irene Kopitov, Communications for Design, Architecture and the Arts

About the Speakers:
Lila Allen is a writer, editor, and brand strategist specializing in design and architecture. She has held senior editorial roles at Architectural Digest, where she led AD PRO, the site’s membership-based trade vertical, and Metropolis, where she shaped coverage across print and digital platforms. Today, she runs an independent practice supporting architects, designers, and cultural organizations with brand storytelling, messaging strategy, and editorial direction, while continuing to write for leading design publications. She is the founding editor of Wrong House, a new publication launching in September 2025 that explores design culture with a critical, cheeky edge. Allen holds a master’s degree in Design Research, Writing & Criticism from the School of Visual Arts, where she received the Paula Rhodes Memorial Award and the Monotype Scholarship for Excellence in Design Criticism. Her bylines include The New York Times, Interior Design, Architectural Digest, and The Architect’s Newspaper. She is currently at work on a design monograph for Monacelli, forthcoming in Fall 2026.

Lauren Gallow is a Seattle-based design journalist, editor, and educator. With a background in architectural history and a keen interest in how people live with design, she covers stories about art, design, and architecture for outlets around the world. A regular contributor to the Art & Design section of The New York Times, Gallow is also a columnist for Dwell and Luxe Magazine and has bylines in Architectural Digest, Interior Design, Metropolis, Wallpaper*, The Architect’s Newspaper, and more. Currently, she is working on a book on contemporary Seattle homes which will publish Fall 2026. Outside of her editorial work, Gallow enjoys helping designers articulate their identity across platforms, a role she held for several years at internationally renowned design firm Olson Kundig. Lauren serves as Editorial Advisor for ARCADE, a Seattle non-profit design platform, and she is a lecturer at the University of Washington’s College of Built Environments, where she teaches courses on writing about architecture.

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. 

Irene Kopitov is an independent communications consultant who has spent her career working in the fields of design, architecture and the arts. She has led PR campaigns for global brands as well as independent studios, developed collaborations and established clients as leading voices in innovation and thought leadership. Her experience includes senior roles at Hauser & Wirth and Camron PR, where she advised clients such as Vitra, Perrier-Jouët, Kvadrat, Farrow & Ball, MUJI, Workstead, Calico Wallpaper, Rockwell Group, and The Harvard Graduate School of Design, among others. Kopitov has also worked on the press teams at Dia Art Foundation and Cooper-Hewitt. Through more than 20 years of experience living and working in New York and London, she has cultivated an extensive network and trusted editor relationships. Kopitov started her consultancy in 2021 to work in close partnership with meaningful brands and businesses, delivering creative solutions and impactful results.