Women's History Month Profile: Patricia McCaul, AIA, LEED AP

 To celebrate Women's History Month, we're featuring some of the inspiring women who are crucial to our success and embody the creative growth to which we always aspire. Rottet Studio occupies a unique vantage point in the conversation about women in the workplace - over 60% of our full-time staff are female, and we are a proud Women Business Enterprise (WBE) Certified firm under our Founding Principal, Lauren Rottet.This week, we interviewed Associate Principal Patricia McCaul, who leads our Los Angeles office with over 20 years of experience practicing interior design and architecture.Tell me about your path to a career in design and architecture. I think I was always interested in being an architect. My grandfather loved to take us on tours of old houses. The rest of my family always hated it, but I loved it. He taught me how to draw in perspective when I was 10. I studied Interior Design at Drexel [University] - I was fortunate because it had a strong art and design program, but it also had a strong engineering school, so I was able to take classes in both. I went to UCLA for a Master's Degree in Architecture, and when I graduated I went to work in the Frank Gehry Model Shop like many other architects. It was a great place to learn that design ideas are not precious and that you have to keep thinking and responding to what is happening around you. After a few years, I found that I was interested in interior space building rather than buildings as objects - I've been working in interior architecture since that time. I think that being in L.A. has been an inspiring place to work in the design profession, because people are open to and want to see creative new design ideas.What is your favorite part of your job?Seeing design ideas become real. I enjoy the challenge. It's one thing to think of a cool, beautiful, or inspiring idea, but to actually then work with all of the different people it takes to sell the idea, document the idea, and then build it - that takes determination and vision. I like the moments in the project when others start to see your vision and help to make it happen. What are potential pinch points that affect talent retention in the design industry, particularly for women? Why do people leave?It is hard to work and have a family as an architect or designer. It's a job that takes up so much time and is really difficult to do part-time, particularly when working in larger firms. I've seen a lot of talented women stop working in the field or working at a much reduced capacity because they have a family. I would love to see a path for both men and women that encouraged people to take time with your family, and then be able to come back into the profession after your family is grown. It is a job that I believe can be done better by someone with more life experience. Mentorship is crucial to professional success and longevity, but many studies have shown that women in the workplace are more reluctant to pay it forward and have a harder time finding mentors than men do. Do you think this dynamic holds true in the design industry, as well?Absolutely. I think that this is one place where all of the advances in computer technology have not been helpful. When I started my career, everyone who I worked for started out doing exactly the same tasks that I was doing in the exact same way. Now that software and technology change so fast, the way something was done two years ago is not how it's done today. This makes mentoring difficult.What piece of advice would you give to young women who are just beginning their careers? What did you wish you knew when you first started out?You are only competing with yourself. Don't waste your energy comparing yourself with what others are doing or achieving. There are barriers, but if you spend time focusing on them, you don't get past them. Focus on what you want to accomplish and how you can do it.