Dan A. (IN A NUTSHELL)

Dan is a fourth-year Bachelor’s of Architecture student at USC with minors in Real Estate Development and Computer Programming. He grew up in the historic Cleveland streetcar suburb of Shaker Heights, Ohio, where he first fell in love with architecture from sketching the old homes in his neighborhood. From an early age, Dan pursued numerous passion projects to deepen his interest – by the time he finished high school, he had spent two summers studying architecture at IIT in Chicago and Columbia GSAPP in New York, he had interned at two architecture & development firms in Cleveland, he had won a Scholastic National Gold Medal for architecture & industrial design, and he had completed a paid independent study to create a master plan for a neighborhood in Cleveland. After receiving a scholarship to attend USC, his dream school, Dan dove deeper into the professional realm of architecture and real estate development, interning at a wide range of firms in Cleveland and Los Angeles – most recently, working at the in-house architectural team of iconic developer Rick Caruso. Most passionate about affordable housing and high-density urban living, Dan was accepted onto a research team in USC’s Spatial Sciences Institute, where he worked alongside architects and planners to brainstorm design solutions to address LA’s homelessness crisis. He is also deeply curious about how architects can act more as the entrepreneurs of their own visions – he has been a four-year board member of Spark SC, USC’s premier entrepreneurship organization; he led a team to build a real estate fractionalization startup as part of LavaLab, a USC startup incubator; and he is currently working to launch a design-minded affordable housing/co-living business with a friend from USC. Beyond architecture, Dan is a road trip mastermind – he’s been to 42 US states – and he loves hiking, biking, listening to podcasts, surfing Zillow, and exploring new foods and neighborhoods in LA. Dan can talk nonstop about his love of buildings and cities, and he is so excited to pass this passion onto the next generation!