Julie O'Brochta

Biography: Julie O’Brochta is a Chicago-based Associate Urban Designer and Architect in the City Design Practice at Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill. SOM’s City Design Practice is a collective of design studios throughout the world that share a commitment to achieving a more urban and a more balanced relationship between our larger built world and our natural systems, making influential contributions to urban design approaches such as transit-oriented development, overbuild strategies and sustainable urbanism. As a designer, Julie considers ways in which holistic and inter-disciplinary thinking can enhance design output. Her expertise focuses on urban infill and neighborhood revitalization; all oriented toward creating livable, mixed-use environments. Julie’s career has focused on projects that intimately interact with their surrounding city context. She specializes in bridging the gap between planning and architecture with her knowledge of building systems, zoning, and architectural design. Through planned developments, mixed-use buildings, and affordable housing projects, she has worked to rethink underutilized areas. Her interest lies in working on challenging projects with community stakeholders, developers, and city governments to achieve design consensus. Julie served in a central design and technical leadership role for The 78 project, a 62-acre master plan and entitlements for a mixed-use, post industrial development in Chicago’s South Loop. The site will anchor a new neighborhood with a curated mix of uses, including 40 percent green and open space and a half mile of developed riverfront that will expand the city’s existing Riverwalk. Before SOM, Julie worked for Torti Gallas + Partners of Silver Spring, MD on mixed-use buildings, affordable housing, and planning projects in Washington, DC, including Avec on H, Park Morton, and Stanton Square. Julie holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Notre