Alison Katz

Design Manager

Alison Katz is a Design Manager at buildingcommunityWORKSHOP. She supports the organization’s design efforts from the Houston office.

Alison is interested in the intersection of community based design, sustainability, and politics, and is dedicated to exploring ways to use design tools within the built environment to create a more equitable society. In 2018 Alison was a bcINTERN in the Houston office where she found her passion for housing while working on the Houston RAPIDO Prototype. This interest continued in Pittsburgh where Alison joined the Urban Design Build Studio to develop a replicable housing model called RE_CON designed to redistribute equity to low-income residents of gentrifying neighborhoods. Her thesis titled RE_VISION: A Resource for Community Organizers + Housing Advocates focused on the creation and retention of affordable housing units in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Garfield. Alison founded Carnegie Mellon’s Freedom By Design chapter. She directed and developed their first project, the Weatherization Kit Project which had served 90 low-income households in 2018 and 2019 alone and has continued to develop as an annual initiative led by students. This project has been recognized with the 2020 NOMA NAACP SEED Award For Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Design.

Alison received a Bachelor of Architecture from Carnegie Mellon University in 2020. She also currently serves as a Mentor for the American Institute of Architecture Students Alumni Mentorship Program.