Executive Leadership Board:
Carrie Byles

FAIA, LEED BD+C.

Partner & Executive Committee Global Leader, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM).

Education:

• BAR Architecture, Washington State University, 1986

With expertise in both design and management, Carrie is passionate about leveraging interdisciplinary and research-based processes to cultivate sustainable and impactful architecture. She is known for forging strong relationships with clients and partners, utilizing a deeply collaborative approach to deliver groundbreaking projects with different delivery methods, including design-bid-build, CMAR, design-build, progressive design build, and public-private partnerships. Carrie’s work spans residential, office, airports, large scale mixed use and higher education.

Leading SOM’s West Coast science & academic practice, Carrie’s portfolio includes the recently completed Ralph S. O’Connor Engineering and Science Building at Rice University and UCSF Pride Hall at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, a state-of-the-art facility for research and teaching. Currently in construction, UC Berkeley’s new Engineering Center is an adaptive reuse of a historic building into a 21st century learning center, slate for completion in January 2025.

For nearly two decades Carrie has partnered with the University of California, Merced – helping shape the master plan for the university, as well as design two of their first buildings. Carrie went on to lead the design team for the UC Merced 2020 Expansion, delivering 1.3 million square feet over 13 buildings – the entire second phase of the campus. Partnering with Plenary and Webcor Construction, the project became the nation’s largest P3 social infrastructure project. As the newest campus in the UC system, UC Merced has the distinction of becoming the first carbon-neutral public university in the country but also a leader in social equity. Nearly 75% of UC Merced undergraduate students are first-generation college students, and more than half of undergraduates come from low-income families.

Other notable projects in her portfolio include the expansion of San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center, transforming it into the lowest carbon-emissions convention center in North America; and the development of 49 South Van Ness and 1550 Mission – a unique P3 mixed-use development that houses municipal offices for the city of San Francisco and a high-rise residential tower. She also had the honor of working side by side with other women leaders at the Port of Seattle, KPFF and her partner Laura Ettelman, as she oversaw the successful transformation of the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport International Arrivals Facility, delivering an enhanced arrivals experience, including a striking aerial walkway that is the world’s longest structure across an active taxilane.

As one third of the firm’s first all-female Executive Committee, she leads SOM’s global practice. An advocate for building partnerships and long-term relationships with W/MBEs and small businesses, Carrie is committed to mentorship and increasing diversity and opportunity across the professions.