Everywhere she’s been post-Illinois, Trina Sandschafer has taken a little piece of Lynne Dearborn and Kevin Hinders with her.
“Lynne was my thesis advisor, in the days when architecture graduate students still completed an individual thesis project,” Sandschafer (M.Arch ’06) says from Chicago, where she’s a design principal at Booth Hansen.
“I took on a rather sizable project. She never once suggested I scale back my efforts. Rather, she helped me make a plan and tackle this project piece by piece.
“I got to work and got it done. That thesis project landed me my first job. Thirteen years later, I’m now a design principal at that same firm.
“Lynne also stressed to me the importance of considering the end user of your architecture. Architecture is not just beauty and form – it is for people.
“People live, work and play in architecture. Every person comes in contact with architecture daily. That is a strong connection — our job is to make it stronger.
“I was a design studio teaching assistant for Kevin Hinders. Kevin tells it like it is. That can be intimidating to some – especially the sophomore students we were charged with.
“I appreciated his frankness and his candor. It is a crucial skill to have in the profession. Beyond this truth-telling machine was a professor who cares deeply about his students and pushes them to consider other ways of thinking. Truth and exploration are skills that I carry with me to this day.”
As far as a favorite campus spot goes, that’s a cinch — it’s Temple Hoyne Buell Hall, which Sandschafer dropped in for a May 2019 visit while back on campus to deliver the School of Architecture’s convocation address.
“There was chipboard and foam core strewn about, the windows were open, the gentle sound of trace paper wafted in the breeze, and the air smelled faintly of spray glue and stale pizza. It felt like home.”
As a grad student, Sandschafer logged umpteen hours in the studio at TBH, making lifelong friends in the process.
“Friends, like me, who went on to practice architecture," she says. "We are spread worldwide at this point — all of us still practicing architecture, but bonded by those formative years in TBH.”
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