2026 Ones to Watch - Rising Stars: Danielle Davis, Pirie Associates Architects

“Danielle is one of those professionals that comes along just once in a while: she is a talented architect, yes, but she is also a detail-oriented, emerging leader who brings out the best in her teammates. She is not ruffled by disruptive situations and uses situational intelligence to identify and navigate pathways to solutions. Also a keen communicator, Danielle has the ability to convey complex situations clearly, bring others along, and prioritize what’s needed in a ‘just right’ way.”

What inspired you to pursue a career in your industry, and what path brought you to your current role? My grandfather was an architect and so, from an early age, I was surrounded by people who valued and appreciated beautiful and thoughtful buildings. As I pursued my architectural education at Texas A&M University and then my master’s at Yale School of Architecture, my studies reinforced what I intuitively knew: that the buildings we create impact our lived experience and have a deep impact on our well-being. In my role as Senior Associate at Pirie Associates Architects, I get to design spaces that support people’s growth and happiness long after we have completed the project.

What trends or opportunities do you see shaping the future of your industry? With increasing adoption of AI for generic tasks, we will see a renewed emphasis on professional judgement, embodied expertise, and human creativity to solve our client’s challenges. By this I mean that as humans with five senses, we are constantly absorbing and interpreting our physical surroundings. Architects are trained to understand these inputs and interpret them for our clients. The human touch and understanding of what it means to physically be in a space is the expertise we bring to our clients, and it will be increasingly important to our future creative work.