Our Team

Erin Sterling Lewis

Erin is a native of Illinois and grew up in Yazoo City, Mississippi. She earned a BArch from the University of Kentucky in 2002. Before founding in situ studio in 2010, Erin worked for over eight years at Frank Harmon Architect PA, where she established a foundation of practicing architecture with emphasis on critical design and environmental responsibility.

Erin is involved in various community outreach and volunteer programs. From 2004 to 2006, Erin served on the Raleigh Historic Development Commission. She served on the Raleigh Planning Commission from 2009 to 2015. In 2010, Erin joined the AIA North Carolina (AIANC) Board of Directors as the Young Architects Forum (YAF) Director and is President of AIANC. She is also a founder of ACTIVATE NC, which is a statewide AIANC outreach initiative to strengthen the civic role in architecture and design.

Erin occasionally teaches design studios as Professor in Practice and serves on the advisory board for the NCSU College of Design School of Architecture. In 2018, she was awarded a national Young Architects Award by the AIA.

Oz Ozburn

Oz earned her BSArch from University of Virginia and her Master’s of Architecture from Yale University. She was awarded the the 2012 Residential Architecture Award and the David M. Schwarz Travel Grant, which allowed her to research the architectural consequences of urban warfare in the Middle East. This work resulted in a publication titled "Architecture After Crisis" that documented cultural forms of post-traumatic reconstruction. 

Oz worked for Studio Gang Architects as Project Architect, leading teams on projects including the University of Chicago Campus North Residential Commons, a net-zero campus for the Academy of Global Citizenship, and Spelman College’s Art and Innovation Center, among others. In 2017 Oz left to start two offices, AOA, a residential architecture firm based in Chicago, IL, and Design Ecology, a collaborative that strives to find holistic solutions to issues involving urbanism, physical place-making, and gaps in rural fabric caused by social inequalities. 

Design Ecology is currently working on a policy initiative and architectural project that further addresses the digital divide of rural America and spurs local economic development in small towns. Recently Oz has also partnered with the Goldin Institute, a non-profit focused on global grassroots leadership development, where she serves as their Chief of Staff and Programs Director establishing curricula around community-driven social change initiatives.