Julia Skeete, Senior Associate Principal, Skidmore Owings & Merrill
Julia has always worked in projects through completion and most have been recognised widely both critically though peer review and/or with multiple awards in the U.K. and Europe e.g Dublin Airport Pier D, JTI International Headquarters, GSTT Vision Plan and Manhattan Loft Gardens .Currently, Julia is the Project Manager and Executive Member of an SOM joint venture, leading the most high profile international project in the London office for the new building and refurbishment of the heritage buildings at the United Nations of Geneva – Palais des Nations. In addition, in the development of the ambitious Park Place, targeted to be the tallest residential towers, Julia leads the multidisciplinary design team.
Julia also leads several internal committees at SOM including the Equity Design Lab, a group within SOM founded in 2020 that is building the firm-wide Equity Toolkit set up for SOM to deliver on its commitment for equitable, healthy + resilient built environment where communities thrive in all projects; Co-chair for the London office’s branch of the Women’s Initiative, a community that challenges the barrier of gender equity and fostering the retention and growth of women to create a sustainable workplace that reflects and enhances the built environment. Julia’s core advocacy to bolster women in architecture recruitment, retention and productivity is an employee supported by the SOM advocacy group, TEDD (Talent, Equity, Diversity, and Development), a team of leaders who focus on how to build equitable opportunities within the firm and beyond.
Julia was previously featured in the AJ100 Women in Architecture spread that highlighted the up and coming architects, their roles within the industry and crucially the well being and work life balance being promoted with her role as both a woman and a mother leading in the built industry. Since then, Julia’s outreach has developed into several external engagements to serve as a mentor and judge for women in architecture. At Women in Construction and Engineering (WICE) Awards she was a finalist for the Project Management category in 2019 and was selected to return as a judge in 2022 for the ‘Young Architect’ and ‘Young Technologist’ categories. Julia also judged the 2022 Activism Category in the Archiboo Awards that showcased the energy, power and ingenuity of the quintessential grass roots activism group emergent in the built environment and tackling equity issues.
