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Cynthia sits down with Tracy Collins, a St. Louis-based architect and founder of formwork architecture. Early in her career she did something most people would never attempt: she sent her resume to the firm of the architect she admired most in the world, and they said yes. What she built in the years that followed, and what she chose to walk away from, says everything about what real growth actually requires. This is a conversation about ambition, courage, and the surprising thing that sometimes has to happen after you get exactly what you wanted.
This episode is for anyone who has ever stayed somewhere too long because it felt safe, or talked themselves out of a leap because the odds seemed impossible. Tracy speaks openly about hitting a ceiling at her dream job and what she did next. Listeners will come away with a fresh way of thinking about risk, iteration, failure, and what it actually means to build something that lasts, whether that’s a building or a career.
00:00 Introduction
00:27 Welcome and Tracy’s Background
01:24 What Architecture Really Is
03:09 How Tracy Describes Her Work
05:08 Residential, Commercial, and Specialty Projects
06:14 Lifting a Historic Home Off Its Foundation
08:06 Tracy’s Career Path Begins
08:48 Frank Gehry and the Cold Resume Send
09:41 Landing the Phone Interview
10:24 First Project: Guggenheim Abu Dhabi
11:01 Working as a Female Architect in Abu Dhabi
13:55 Back to Drury and the MBA Decision
17:38 The Phone Call That Changed Everything
18:23 The X-Acto Knife Interview Story
19:31 Moving to LA for 10 Years
20:34 Working 35 Days Straight at Gehry’s Office
21:19 The Iterative Design Process
24:30 Eight Years at Frank Gehry, Then What
25:37 Starstruck, Bleeding, and Getting to Work
26:03 The Day Frank Crushed Her Model
27:25 Hitting a Ceiling and Choosing to Leave
29:17 Self-Advocacy and the Boy’s Club
30:22 Would She Change Anything?
33:26 The Shift to Santa Barbara
34:19 How a Civil Engineer Brought Her Back to St. Louis
36:01 Starting Her Own Firm: Formwork Architecture
37:34 Ego as a Motivator
38:17 The Mental Hurdle of Going Out on Your Own
42:26 Word of Mouth and Relationship-Based Growth
44:26 St. Louis Networking and Sliding Into DMs
46:14 Fear of Failure and Moving Forward Anyway
48:18 Projects Back in St. Louis
49:51 Every Day Is Different
51:19 Looking Back on the Leap
54:07 What’s Next for Formwork Architecture
57:13 How to Find Tracy Collins
57:58 Closing Thoughts
Content Notice
This podcast and all She Lift Project content represents the opinions of Cynthia Kirkpatrick and her guests. The content here is for informational purposes only, and should not be taken as professional advice – financial, legal, medical, or otherwise.
Views and opinions expressed in the podcast and across all She Lift Project media channels are our own and do not represent that of our places of work. While we make every effort to ensure that the information we are sharing is accurate, we welcome any comments, suggestions, or correction of errors.
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“Women in their 40s start to disappear from photographs because they think that they’re not young enough, thin enough, pretty enough. But the truth is that when you are in your 40s, you are leading a company, you’ve had children, you have a family, you’re doing things in your community. This is when you should be photographed.”
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