Lisa Sauve, Co-Founder of Synecdoche, Honored with 2021 AIA Michigan Young Architect Award. The award honors individuals who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and made significant contributions to the architecture profession early in their careers.

As the CEO, Principle and Co-Founder of the award winning practice, Synecdoche Design Studio, Lisa Sauve is driven by the core mission of Do Good Work.

The unique ability to differentiate between spatial challenges and business models is one of the many creative talents that Lisa Sauve, AIA, holds while running her business. Sauve has played a critical role in the commitment to inclusiveness within the local community and works endlessly with her colleagues and peers to be a vocal advocate for small businesses.

While leading studios in Ann Arbor and Detroit, Michigan, Sauve has recently been named Crain’s Detroit Notable Women in Design in 2020 and Forbes Next 1000 in 2021. Her work has been featured in the likes of DesignBoom, Architizer, NYCxDesign, and ArchDaily. 

Sauve holds degrees in M. Arch and MSc. in Conservation from Taubman College at the University of Michigan and a B.S. in Architecture from Lawrence Technological University. In addition, Sauve has taught undergraduate and graduate level courses at her alma mater Lawrence Technological University, the University of Michigan Taubman College and, University of Detroit Mercy.

Sauve’s work goes beyond the influence of design and architecture and has served as a previous board member of arts and equity organizations in the area, and is an appointed Planning Commissioner for the City of Ann Arbor. 

“In addition to her talents as a designer, she has developed a unique entrepreneurial practice through innovative project partnership models mutually supporting and elevating the profile of small, local businesses across southeast Michigan that has leveraged design in the service of brand identity and spatializing the mission of these companies,” wrote Craig Borum, a Professor of architecture at Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan, in a letter supporting Sauve’s nomination. “Lisa is a passionate and dedicated advocate for a locally engaged, mutually supportive ecology of businesses, creative civic ventures, leveraging the power and expertise of our profession to positively shape the environment of our community.”