Hallie Nolan, MArch/MUD ’18
“My time at WashU was instrumental in shaping how I think about cities and my role within them,” shared alum Hallie Nolan, MArch/MUD ’18. “When I graduated, I felt a strong calling to stay in St. Louis and be part of its next chapter. Many of the challenges the city faces are also opportunities, and I wanted to build a career that allowed me to work alongside communities and civic leaders to help shape positive change.” Learn more about Hallie’s professional journey, from WashU to today, in this spotlight.
Tell us about your work.
I recently returned to Trivers to build out an urban design practice within the firm. My work sits at the intersection of architecture, planning, and community engagement. Much of my experience has been in neighborhood plans, corridor studies, comprehensive plans, and other community driven planning efforts that help guide future growth and development. Urban design is about translating community vision into actionable strategies for the built environment. I work with cities, neighborhoods, institutions, and developers to think about how streets, public spaces, housing, and economic development can come together to create stronger and more equitable places. The goal is always to help communities make informed decisions that support long term vitality and quality of life.
What does an average day or week look like? No two weeks are exactly the same, which is one of the things I enjoy most about the work. Some days are focused on research, mapping, and analyzing data to understand how a place functions today. Other days are spent facilitating community meetings or workshops to hear directly from residents and stakeholders about their priorities and lived experience. I also spend a lot of time translating those insights into plans, diagrams, and strategies that cities can actually implement. As I build this new practice at Trivers, my work also includes developing partnerships, identifying new projects, and thinking strategically about how urban design can support communities across the St. Louis region and beyond.
What’s something you learned at WashU that had a big impact on you?
My time at WashU was instrumental in shaping how I think about cities and my role within them. Through studio work, research, and conversations with faculty and classmates, I began to understand St. Louis in a deeper way — not just as my hometown, but also as a complex urban system shaped by history, policy, design, and investment. That experience gave me a sense of responsibility to contribute to the city’s future. When I graduated, I felt a strong calling to stay in St. Louis and be part of its next chapter. Many of the challenges the city faces are also opportunities, and I wanted to build a career that allowed me to work alongside communities and civic leaders to help shape positive change.
How did your WashU education prepare you for your current role?
WashU trained me to think across scales and disciplines, which is exactly what my work requires today. In the Sam Fox School, architecture, urban design, landscape architecture, and planning constantly overlap, so you learn very quickly that no project exists in isolation. That mindset has been incredibly valuable in practice. Whether I am working on a neighborhood plan or helping an institution think about its campus and surrounding district, I am drawing on that ability to connect design, policy, economics, and community priorities into one larger strategy.
What did you expect to be doing 10, 20 years ago?
When I first started my studies, I assumed I would follow a more traditional architecture path and spend most of my time designing buildings. What I did not realize then was how much I would enjoy thinking about the bigger picture. The more I studied cities, the more interested I became in the relationships between buildings, streets, public space, and the communities that shape them. Now my work sits at that intersection between architecture and planning. I still care deeply about design, but I am often thinking about corridors, districts, and long term community strategy rather than a single structure.
What do you wish people knew about your field? Many people think urban design and planning are only about buildings or zoning, but the work is really about shaping how communities function and grow over time. It is a mix of design, strategy, and collaboration. A big part of the job is listening to communities, understanding local priorities, and helping translate those ideas into plans that cities can realistically implement. When it works well, it helps create places that are more connected, resilient, and reflective of the people who live there.
What did you do after graduation, and how did you get where you are now? I began my career at Trivers as an architectural designer in 2019. It was there that I started to realize how much I enjoyed thinking about cities beyond individual buildings. I found myself asking bigger questions about how places connect, how corridors evolve, and how neighborhoods change over time. That curiosity about the systems that shape cities is what ultimately pulled me toward urban design and planning.
I later joined Lamar Johnson Collaborative, where I spent several years deepening my experience in urban design and planning. I had the opportunity to work on neighborhood plans, corridor studies, and comprehensive planning efforts across the country. The work often involved sitting with communities, listening carefully, studying the data, and then helping translate those insights into strategies that cities can actually implement. That process of turning ideas into real, on the ground change is what I find most rewarding about the work.
Outside of my day to day projects, I also became very involved in civic and professional organizations in St. Louis. Through the Urban Land Institute, I stepped into leadership roles both locally and nationally, and I participated in the FOCUS St. Louis Emerging Leaders program. Those experiences gave me a much broader view of how cities really work and how public, private, and civic leaders collaborate to move ideas forward. They also connected me with an incredible network of people who care deeply about the future of our communities.
In March 2026, I returned to Trivers to help grow and lead the firm’s urban design and planning practice. In many ways it feels like coming full circle. I am excited to build a practice that brings architecture, planning, and community engagement together to help cities and neighborhoods think strategically about their future and turn big ideas into thoughtful, implementable plans.
