Architect Carly Coulson is the design principal and founder of the architecture firm COULSON. She holds a Bachelor of Architecture (1997) and is a Crown Scholar from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. Carly has worked on highly innovative, sustainable solutions since she first started practicing as an architect at Foster + Partners designing "the Gherkin" in London.
“I was shocked at how resistant both architects and engineers were to try to do anything innovative in terms of sustainability. This was a bit before LEED, but still, the idea of natural ventilation, passive strategies…I was really disappointed,” admits Coulson, who was back on Mies Campus last fall to attend a special event at the College of Architecture. “To me, that was always what design excellence should be. I felt that area was a missing puzzle piece that I needed to learn more about and to develop the tools that I needed to do it myself.”
Coulson has received numerous awards for design excellence including national and regional AIA Honor Awards, Architectural Record Good Design is Good Business, Architect Home of the Year, Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture Award, and Residential Architect RADA Honors.
Carly was recognized with an AIA COTE Top Ten Green Building Award for the Bagley Classroom, the first LEED Platinum Certified and passive house building at the University of Minnesota. She was recently awarded two Green Good Design Awards from the Chicago Athenaeum.
Read the full feature in IIT Magazine