We’re excited to announce that Max Winters, RA, has joined our team as a Senior Designer! He comes to RLPS having spent a decade focused on how the built environment can improve the experience of aging for older adults.
Based out of our Pittsburgh office, Max will partner with local, regional, and national clients to create innovative and exceptional living environments for older adults around the country as part of the RLPS team.
- Bachelor of Architecture, University of Maryland
- Master of Architecture, University of Cincinnati
- Society for the Advancement of Gerontological Environments (SAGE)
- Board of Directors, The Loomis Communities in Massachusetts
- Dementia Friendly Pennsylvania, Advisory Committee
What inspired you to become an architect?
MW: In my junior year of high school, we had to use a set of alphabetized career encyclopedias to find and research five different careers. I also could have become an accountant, an actuary, an arborist, or an astronaut.
What is one of your favorite books?
MW: My favorite book is The Lord of the Rings. Among many other things, it is an incredible illustration for the power of that friendship can have; especially in situations that are beyond our capacity as individuals.
If you could give advice to a student on the same career track, what would it be?
MW: There is not a single way to be an architect. There are as many paths into and through the profession as there are people to take them.
Be humble and learn everything you can from the people around you, but always think critically about where a particular direction might lead.
Can you share something that has happened in your professional career that confirmed you are doing what you are meant to be doing?
MW: I had the experience of spending time with the child of a woman who had moved into a memory care household that I had worked on for many long years. She was a painter but, given her experience of dementia, had lost her capacity to even pick up a brush.
Because of the ability-forward care philosophy of my client, she was now not only thriving in her new home, but also was holding her tools, mixing colors, and creating brush strokes again. Designing, documenting, and constructing buildings can be an excruciating process, but experiences like this make it worth doing.
Welcome to the team Max!