Daniel Baumann and Vanessa Kassabian are the two leaders running Henning Larsen's New York studio, and their combined story runs from childhood living rooms all the way to construction sites around the world.
Vanessa grew up in a matriarchal household in San Antonio and Houston, patching drywall and hanging blinds long before she ever set foot in a drafting class. That class, in middle school, was the first of many steps that carried her through Tulane's five year architecture program and into an early career shaped by a tough economy, a decade at a Norwegian design firm, and a deliberate pause to raise her son. She landed at Henning Larsen in 2025, in a role she describes as a full circle moment.
Daniel's path started an ocean away, in a small town in South Germany and then Copenhagen, where he grew up an introverted kid who loved books and drawing and, by his own admission, hated sports. He found his footing on a Danish tall ship during his military service, then later at the Royal Academy, through a bruising master's program at London's Bartlett, and through a grinding stint at Foster and Partners before he joined Henning Larsen. He eventually helped open the New York office in 2018, and he speaks openly about a burnout he went through and how it reshaped the way he leads today.
Daniel and Vanessa speak candidly about the parts of architecture school that never get taught, things like management, finances, and resilience. They talk about the mentors and the difficult bosses who shaped them, and what it actually takes to build a studio culture where an idea can travel around a room until it clicks. They also dig into Henning Larsen's foundation owned structure, its in house PhD research program, and hands on experiments like a UPenn cooling shelter collaboration and a straw based building facade. From there they turn to the projects defining their growth across the US and Canada, from Mission Rock in San Francisco to Raleigh City Hall, Harvard's Enterprise Research Campus, and a new civic center taking shape in Etobicoke, Toronto.
This is a conversation about resilience, mentorship, and building places worth showing up for, on the job site and off it.
Henning Larsen
Upcoming Episode
Colette Van Den Thillart Interior Design
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Issued For Construction
