Architect, Designer, Art Director
In 2015, after an almost twenty-year stint practicing architecture, Sharon branched off into design for film and television. To date, she has worked in a variety of roles in the Art Department on several projects. For season three of the Showtime series “The Chi” she served as Assistant Art Director. “London’s Mitchells Christmas”, her first feature film as Production Designer, was included in the 2019 Pan African Film Festival. Other projects include the feature film “Widows” and the Amazon original series “Patriot” both of which she worked as a set designer.
Prior to making this leap, she founded SolQuest Design Unlimited (2008), a full-service architecture and design firm with an emphasis on branding and sustainability. One of her most successful projects, the “Bronzeville Bike Box” was published in both Crain’s Chicago Business (June 2014) and New City (April 2014) as an example of design leading changes in the community it serves. This project was later expanded to become “Boxville”, a retail development for emerging entrepreneurs. The short film “Inside the Box” which she served as producer was a finalist in the 2017 “I Look Up” Film Challenge sponsored by the American Institute of Architects, the largest professional organization for architects in the country.
As a member of both the Chicago and State of Illinois chapters of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), her major initiatives have been centered around building diversity in the profession and building the next generation of designers through various programs such as Architects in the Schools. As education chair of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA), Illinois Chapter, she was responsible for the coordination of the Annual INOMA scholarship program which awards scholarships to minority students studying architecture at an accredited University. She twice served as Chair for NOMA Annual National Conference when it was hosted in Chicago. Each time, the Convention drew a record number of attendees, and both still rank as some of the most successful conferences in NOMA history.
One of her favorite design-focused organizations is the Chicago Architecture Center, where she has donated time for 12-plus years towards the promotion of architecture and design to Chicago youth through workshops, classroom visits, and curriculum development.
In her free time, she nurtures her inner athlete by participating in triathlons and running races of various distances. In the fall of 2015, she accomplished one of her bucket list goals completing Ironman Louisville—hopefully, the first of many. As a young runner, she was featured in Runner’s World Magazine as a face of women under 30 competing in marathons in an article titled- “See Jane Run”.
