Nothing was going to keep architect Elizabeth Graziolo from her date with AD PRO last week—not even a fractured knee. On September 16, the founder and principal of Yellow House Architects arrived at One World Trade Center on crutches for the inaugural AD PRO Design Dialogues, Architectural Digest’s daylong design summit held in the iconic downtown skyscraper.
The previous weekend, while visiting family in Toronto, Graziolo had been struck by an e-bike, resulting in the painful injury. Yet, her commitment to the design community remained unwavering.
"I delayed my surgery until next week so I could make it here!" she said of the panel discussion she was headlining alongside architect Michael K. Chen. "I wouldn’t have missed this for the world."
Graziolo’s dedication was emblematic of the energy that filled the room throughout the day. AD PRO Directory members flew in from cities across the United States, including Phoenix, Chicago, and Miami, to participate in the full schedule of expert panels and high-level networking. For those unable to make the trip in person, a livestream broadcast ensured that a broader audience could tune in to the day’s insights.
The summit featured frank, practical, and refreshingly unfiltered discussions led by some of the industry’s top talents, including Heidi Caillier, Corey Damen Jenkins, and Stephen Kent Johnson. The curriculum tackled critical aspects of the modern design profession, offering sessions on how to build, promote, and scale a design business, the freshest approaches to color integration, powerful new kitchen technologies, and an inside look at how Architectural Digest editors decide what gets published.
For many attendees, pulling back the editorial curtain was one of the most valuable takeaways of the day. Tana Nesbitt-Hayes, an architect with New York’s Studio8 Architect and an AD PRO Directory member since 2024, noted how enlightening the transparency was. Eyeing her own studio’s ongoing growth, Nesbitt-Hayes said she hung onto every word of Caillier’s conversation with AD’s Global Interiors and Garden Director, Alison Levasseur. During the session, the acclaimed AD100 designer revealed the practical inner workings of managing and collaborating with a fully remote staff.
Building and maintaining relationships emerged as a consistent, overarching theme throughout the day, extending far beyond the formal panel stages. During a midday break, AD editors joined summit attendees for lunch at the sleek Condé Nast cafeteria, where conversations flowed freely among peers across the industry.
At one table, architect Lauren Schlesinger of Glickman Schlesinger and Jeffrey Ramirez, brand designer at The Up Studio, engaged in a deep dive regarding the nuances of real estate development. At another gathering, designers Amanda Hickam, Manon Roux, Rebecca Roberts, and Shani Core swapped advice on the latest software applications and digital cameras used for measuring as-built conditions during project kickoffs. Across the room, photographer Haris Kenjar, AD100 designer Leyden Lewis, and architect Erik Peterson traded valuable industry intel and project updates.
"There is something incredibly powerful about getting talented, creative people together and allowing conversations to happen organically," observed Amanda Hickam, founder of the Birmingham, Alabama-based interiors studio Harper Harris Design.
The afternoon panels maintained the high caliber of discourse, touching on creative direction, material sourcing, and business resilience. The formal programming concluded with a marquee keynote conversation featuring AD100 Hall of Fame talent Kelly Wearstler, who had willingly diverted a planned trip to Europe specifically to attend Architectural Digest’s landmark event. In conversation with AD’s Global Editorial Director and U.S. Editor in Chief Amy Astley, Wearstler spoke candidly about her overarching strategy for managing her company’s six distinct creative verticals. She also reflected openly on the stumbles she encountered along her path to success, and how she continually seeks out fresh sources of inspiration while keeping an eye firmly on the future of design.
After a full day dedicated to forging new connections and catching up with longtime industry friends and collaborators, the summit wrapped up with an exclusive evening of rooftop cocktails for all attendees, hosted at the elegant Andrée Putman Studio townhouse in downtown Manhattan.
