Hallie Crouch, Assoc. AIA

Hallie Crouch, Assoc. AIA

Hallie Crouch, Assoc. AIA, has received formal training as an architect, but she has found her true calling as an “architect whisperer.” As a strategist and marketing professional, Crouch demonstrates that there are many ways to engage in the profession and affect the built environment.

Throughout the last decade, Crouch has grown her role in Bialosky’s Cleveland office, advancing from marketing support staff to the firm’s director of strategy charged with shaping almost every facet of its business. The firm’s leadership often views her as its moral compass and counts Crouch among its most trusted advisors. When, after 60 years of operation, the firm relocated to a lofty warehouse in the city, Crouch was trusted to re-envision its brand. She channeled her penchant for storytelling, strategic thinking, and creativity to steer the firm into its next chapter. Her efforts garnered national awards and a feature in Marketer, the Society for Marketing Professionals’ publication.

Outside of Bialosky, Crouch has advised several AIA Cleveland presidents, and the chapter has honored her with two presidential citations in recognition of her work. She also received AIA Ohio’s inaugural Emerging Professional Award in 2020, which noted her considerable voice as a nontraditional practitioner and her work to achieve a more equitable profession. Crouch co-founded AIA Cleveland’s Women in Architecture Committee and ensured that one of its main events became a signature chapter gathering.

After completing her term as the chapter’s executive officer and secretary, Crouch has remained engaged in Coffee with Fellows, a podcast hybrid that discusses the rapid loss of the city’s design legends and the isolation wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. This passion project, which has received two competitive Emerging Professionals Grants from the College of Fellows and a grant from the AIA Ohio Foundation, has drawn listeners from across nine states. 

Crouch is also a vital bridge between academia and the profession, and she routinely educates students about alternative careers in the profession. She has reached more than 200 students at three universities by participating in juries, mock interviews, and speaking engagements. She is also an eager mentor through programs at her firm, which she helped build and sustains, and AIA Cleveland.

Though she could have easily been excluded and viewed as an outsider, Crouch has shown that there is no single way to practice architecture. A true catalyst for change, Crouch’s unique voice demonstrates that the profession’s continual evolution depends on creative thinkers like her.