Efrie Escott, AIA

Efrie Escott, AIA 

Merging her passions for design and environmental advocacy in her pursuit of architecture, Efrie Escott, AIA, provides thought leadership through groundbreaking methods and her commitment to service. With work that spans industrial ecology, architecture, and construction, Escott endeavors to make the environmental impacts of buildings transparent to her fellow professionals and her students.

Escott is a principal at Philadelphia’s KieranTimberlake, where she began her career as a research intern and created the prototype database for Tally, the first BIM-integrated life cycle assessment software. After completing her graduate studies at University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, she returned to KieranTimberlake as a full-time researcher and Tally’s most public advocate, delivering hundreds of talks on integrating life cycle thinking into design. She has also published multiple peer-reviewed articles and has represented KieranTimberlake at major conferences, including as the keynote at the International Living Future Institute’s (ILFI) Zero Carbon Conference. Because of her contributions to its success, the firm elevated her to associate in 2019, making her the first research group member to reach that level. The firm recognized her work again last year, elevating her to principal.

Beyond her research, Escott contributes to the firm’s designs, most notably as a design architect for the award-winning OpenHome, a prefabricated system designed to Passive House and ILFI Zero Carbon standards. Additionally, she was a critical member of the design team for Henley Hall at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In that role, she collaborated across the project’s transdisciplinary team of consultants to shape a holistic approach to carbon reductions and the elegant architectural approach to the building’s materiality and detailing. She remains the driving force behind KieranTimberlake’s ambitious ILFI Zero Carbon-registered projects and co-leads its climate advocacy group.

Design-based research and experiential learning are the hallmarks of Escott’s courses at Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania, both in Philadelphia. A natural mentor, she focuses on environmental ethics, imbuing the next generation of design professionals with a passion for interweaving environmental performance and design intuition. She brings the same level of care to her firm, co-leading KieranTimberlake’s mentoring committee and presenting workshops on embodied carbon for her colleagues.

An avid volunteer, Escott focuses on creating new relationships that support equity and climate activism. In 2017, she created a community for computational design, becoming the first female founder of a digital design user group with Philadelphia’s Dynamo User Group. That work led her to Rwanda, where she worked with MASS Design Group to learn visual scripting, supply chain equity analysis, and embodied environmental impact measurement. She is also a leader in her local community, serving as co-chair of AIA Philadelphia’s Women in Architecture Committee.