Infused with a unique blend of creativity and social justice guiding her designs, New York City Architect Juliet Hernández-Eli is redefining contemporary architectural practice.
Grounded in sustainability, adaptive reuse, and social equity, Hernández‑Eli’s work embraces recycled materials and human‑centered design as core principles rather than afterthoughts.
To fully align her practice with these values, she drew on her education at Princeton University and Harvard Graduate School of Design, along with professional experience at leading architectural firms and as an owner’s representative, before founding Hernandez‑Eli Architecture (HE) in 2017.
“Founding Hernandez-Eli Architecture (HE) was intended to create work that is experiential, human-centered, and participates in memory-making,” Hernández-Eli explains. “Architecture as a medium is also fundamentally social, an expression of our values that reaches a broad collective in its execution. Having a practice grants me some agency in that endeavor.”
Launching an independent firm while raising a young family, Hernández‑Eli openly embraced her dual role as architect and mother. In the early years of HE, she often brought her baby and toddler to construction site meetings—initially out of necessity, but soon by intention.
“What started as sheer necessity soon became a surprisingly effective and often disarming way to forge human connection in an otherwise tense setting,” she says. “While an architect nursing a baby in a carrier during a bidder walk-through may have shocked some initially, it reinforced a culture of empathy and flexibility, which ultimately strengthened collaboration with clients and contractors.”
The unique dynamic fostered friendly, enjoyable conversations, and folks would often take turns holding Hernández-Eli’s son.
