Anne Mooney, FAIA | A Way of Working
“A Way of Working” with Anne Mooney, FAIA
GENERATE 2024 Practice + Design Conference Keynote
What does it mean to design with intention from the very beginning? In this keynote, Anne Mooney, FAIA, Co-Founder of Sparano + Mooney Architecture, shares a deeply thoughtful approach to practice, revealing how a research-driven process can lead to more meaningful, site-specific architecture.
Drawing from projects across the American West, Mooney outlines a “way of working” grounded in research, writing, and conceptual exploration. Rather than rushing to solutions, her firm slows down, using analog models, diagrams, and narrative thinking to uncover ideas that are specific to place, culture, and community.
Through a series of projects, from St. Joseph the Worker Church to urban housing, cultural centers, and mountain residences, this session demonstrates how design can emerge from story, material, and context. Whether exploring the spatial intimacy of worship, the balance of openness and privacy in a home, or the cultural resonance of community spaces, each project reflects a commitment to craft, collaboration, and clarity of intent.
Mooney also highlights the importance of material expression, adaptive reuse, and environmental responsiveness, showing how architecture can elevate everyday materials into something extraordinary while remaining grounded in its surroundings.
This keynote ultimately reframes process as a powerful design tool, one that architects can shape and refine to create more original, impactful work.
Key takeaways include:
- Slowing down to produce more thoughtful, original design
- Using research and writing to inform architectural ideas
- Translating concepts through analog and digital exploration
- Designing with deep connection to site, culture, and community
- Elevating material craft and construction as design drivers
- Embracing collaboration as essential to the design process
Learning Objectives:
- Explore a process that strives to produce highly sustainable work that responds to the specific mountain climate of Utah and the American West and evaluate its use relative to their own work as a means of enhancing sustainability and resiliency of their projects.
- Identify the site and climate-responsive approach and begin to envision its applicability to attendees own work as a means of taking climate action after viewing a set of public and private commissions.
- Recall how health and wellness concerns influenced the development selected projects.
- Apply a similar process to attendees own work as a means of creating work that is more enduring and rooted – work that enhances the health and welfare of their end users.
HSW: This session delves into site-specific, climate-responsive design strategies tailored to the unique challenges of the Utah mountain climate and the American West, enhancing both the sustainability and structural resilience of buildings. These approaches improve the longevity and durability of structures while mitigating climate-related risks. Additionally, the session examines how health and wellness considerations shaped the development of selected projects, offering insights into how these principles can be applied to create buildings that prioritize the well-being of occupants and the broader community.
Anne G. Mooney, FAIA, LEED AP has over 25 years of experience in architecture. Anne co-founded her practice in 1997, and as a founding principal of Sparano + Mooney Architecture, she oversees the planning, programming, design and design process management of the firm’s key projects from offices in Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. She also develops and coordinates the SMA community outreach efforts with key stakeholder groups.
She has served as the Co-Chair of the AIA Utah Committee on the Environment (COTE) and the Building Envelope Council (BEC), as well as on the Board of Directors of the AIA. Anne is also an architectural professor and design critic, training, educating and mentoring emerging architects and design professionals. She is a committed educator of the next generation of architects holding an appointment as Professor of Architecture at the University of Utah School of Architecture.
Anne’s award-winning designs have been featured in over 35 national and international publications and exhibitions in the United States, England, Switzerland, Italy, Germany and Japan. She was named the AIA Young Architect of the Year by the American Institute of Architects Western Mountain Region, one of the Top Women in Architecture in 2020 by Mountain Living Magazine, and was awarded the Silver Medal by the AIA Western Mountain Region in 2021. The practice has been consistently recognized for design excellence and has received more than 50 design and honor awards, including the 2017 AIA Western Mountain Region Architectural Firm of the Year and the 2013 AIA Utah Architectural Firm of the Year. Anne was elected to the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows in 2023.