Audrey Cho
Audrey Cho arrived in Baltimore in 2021 with a Bachelor’s and Master's in Architecture from Penn State, and a new role at Design Collective focused on housing.
What she didn't yet have was the community connection she was looking for. So she went looking for it — and found the Neighborhood Design Center. Since then, she's volunteered on roughly one project per year, working across neighborhoods from Highlandtown to Greenmount to areas near Belvedere Square, bringing an architect's eye to challenges most designers walk right past.
That outsider perspective, it turns out, is one of her greatest assets.
When Audrey joined last year's DesignFest to work on a website redesign for Baltimore Rock Opera, she came with no web design background — and that was fine. Her architecture training gave her a graphic and clarity lens that cut through the noise, helping the team identify usability issues and navigation problems that closer eyes had stopped seeing. Baltimore Rock Opera implemented many of the team's suggestions after the event, which says everything about what a well-framed outside view can do.
Audrey is thoughtful about what happens after the event ends.
A one-day sprint can spark real change — but only if nonprofits leave with the tools and understanding to keep going. She's an advocate for building teaching into the design process: showing clients not just what was built, but why and how to maintain it themselves. Sustainability, in her view, is part of the design.
Her dream project captures the full scope of what she believes design can do. The Crownsville Memorial Park master plan — a project involving history, remembrance, and community healing — represents the intersection of deep engagement and meaningful public space that she's working toward. She wanders Baltimore's streets for inspiration, drawn to the murals and layered architecture of neighborhoods like Remington and Old Goucher, and finds the rest on Pinterest, in museums, and through a side practice that keeps her connected to the wider world of design.