Employee Spotlight: Graciela Hart, Junior Associate

Meet Graciela Hart, Junior Associate on our Interior Design team, who has recently worked on a variety of project types from multi-family (Inspire West Town), workplace (a corporate headquarters for Chewy), and recreational (Salvation Army’s Western Plains Camp.) Being raised in the western suburbs of Chicago, Gracie started coming into the city on her own at age fifteen to explore architecture and neighborhoods, she found the Rookery lobby especially inspiring while on an art class field trip. Now living in Chicago, her favorite place is along the lakefront by Diversey harbor—frequently for a long walk with morning coffee and her roommate.

Gracie is a varied skills artist. As the Director of Graphics for @IIDA Illinois, she designs their social media and event graphics—curating a cohesive brand image. Also, she loves to paint using watercolors due to the process forcing her to relax by slowly building a painting and enjoys spending Sundays cultivating her culinary artistry by cooking an elaborate meal—she calls it her guilty pleasure to ignore chores, we call it “See you Sunday, I’ll bring the wine!” The artistry in her life does not only come from within herself, she’s also an avid live music fan. She’s seen over 200 artists perform and already has 10 concerts set up to attend this year! Rock on!

Speaking of rocks (get it?)… where is her dream travel destination? (Hint: the country contains a famous mountain range.) Learn more about Gracie in today’s Q&A below. We also invite you to get to know her further through her staff bio.

We took some time to get to know Gracie, and here’s what we learned:

What’s one thing most people don’t know about you?
“I love to watercolor paint. It’s so relaxing because the dry times encourage you to work slow and build a painting because otherwise, you’ll ruin the paper.”

What real or fictional place would you most like to visit?
“My dream trip is exploring Argentina. It has such amazing mountains and looks so different than anywhere I’ve been before.”

What energizes you at work?
“My coworkers 🙂 and sitting as far as possible from the material library so I have to walk a lot.”

If you could choose a superpower, what would it be?
“Teleporting.”

What’s your guilty pleasure?
“Spending my entire Sunday cooking an elaborate meal and ignoring all my other chores.”

How do you prefer to start and/or end your day?
“On weekends, I love to start my day grabbing coffee with my roommate and taking the long way home along the lakefront.”

Do you have any pets?
“I have a cat named Monty and I love him to pieces. There is a picture of him in the photos, he’s adorable.”

What is your favorite music genre?
“I love live music, any live music at all. I’ve seen over 200 artists preform and already have 10 concerts set up for this year ranging from T-Pain to a country music festival.”

What inspired you to pursue your career?
“I was raised in the western suburbs of Chicago and have been coming into the city on my own since I was 15 because I loved getting to explore architecture and neighborhoods. The Rookery lobby was especially inspiring to me after I first saw it on an art class field trip.”

Where is your favorite place in Chicago?
“My favorite place in the city is along the lakefront by the Diversey harbor. It’s beautiful all year long, and the view never gets old.”