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RKTB Announces New Hires, Expanding Focus on Housing

With new honors and a group of talented emerging architects, RKTB readies its staff to accommodate growth and new building projects

a school's colorful design, showing outdoor basketball courts. — Image courtesy of RKTB

With a variety of new building projects and a recent award from the American Institute of Architects for housing leadership, the East Coast firm RKTB Architects is spreading a national message in support of rising to meet the current U.S. need for 6 million units of housing, the projected shortfall now causing record homelessness and barriers to affordability and homeownership. To support its expansion, RKTB has announced a number of new hires as the firm expands in not only housing but also K-12 education, solutions for the unhoused, and religious and cultural buildings, among others.

Among the most notable new hires is Ralph Shinogle, AIA, an experienced professional who has joined RKTB as a Senior Architect. Previously holding senior positions at Nelligan White Architects and Tuller McNealus Feld LLC, Shinogle brings to RKTB Architects experience in the Peace Corps and as an independent architectural designer. He earned his M.Arch. at Kansas State University and is proficient in Albanian, with credentials including his two years as president of the firm MagmaStudio in Manhattan, Kansas.

RKTB Architects has also announced the addition of two new project managers: Grace Lawal and KT Weeks. With varied experience, Lawal has worked for the design firms KPF and SLM Architecture, both in New York, following experience in retail and education. Known for her practical imagination cultivated across the worlds of science and art, she brings a background showcasing diverse challenges in health science and architecture, and how architectural and urban solutions can incorporate dimensions of health, people, and the natural environment.

KT Weeks, also tapped as Project Manager, arrives as an ambitious architectural designer actively pursuing an architecture license. Interested in historic preservation, existing building repair, and sustainability, Weeks is skilled in research, writing, existing conditions surveys, and contract documents across K-12, residential, higher education, and preservation-focused projects. A cofounder of Future Designers for Syracuse, they worked previously for other design firms, including Miner Feinstein Architects. They also worked with Albert Aronov on new School Construction Authority, or SCA projects including P.S. 116Q in various phases from draft scope to construction administration, bringing critical experience in one of RKTB Architects’ most active project sectors.

RKTB has also announced the addition of Mita Gangopadhyay in the position of Architectural Drafter. Previously working as an associate at Peter Pennoyer Architects and an intern at Robert Cohen Architect, Gangopadhyay was also president of Future Designers for Syracuse at Syracuse University, where she received her Barch in architecture in 2023. Known for a passion for bringing together the forces of creativity and STEM, form and function. she bring a multidisciplinary outlook to varied work including environmental and historic sites as well as an appreciation of the visual and performing arts.

“We are delighted to welcome these talented professionals with such diverse backgrounds as RKTB moves to advance our growth in the northeastern United States,” says Peter Bafitis, AIA, president of RKTB Architects. “We believe design and construction are critical tools for improving our neighborhoods and cities, creating solutions with the spirit of the Ephebic oath from ancient Athens, striving for the ideals of our city and our sense of public duty, promising to make these places better and more beautiful than they have ever been before.”

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has validated and elevated RKTB Architects’ success with recent honors, including last year’s Leadership in Housing Award for the firm’s obverall work and Citation of Design Excellence for Bafitis. “For over 60 years, RKTB has been a rare and indispensable resource to addressing New York’s affordable housing crisis,” according to the AIA New York Chapter’s leaders, President Gregory Switzer and Executive Director Jesse Lazar. “an example of what a mission-driven architecture firm can be and how to meaningfully help influence change.”