brittany rodriguez ─ ·𖥸· ─ taylor lawes ─ ·𖥸· ─ rachel kallicharan ─ ·𖥸· ─ kamilla csegzi↓

Kamilla asked me to meet her at the lounge of the Public Hotel at noon.

I’d been to the Public before — to the rooftop for my twenty-third birthday (my first spent with my ex-boyfriend), and to the basement club below at twenty-four (immediately after breaking up with aforementioned ex).

Kamilla — a lovely, light, soft, and intelligent presence — associated the place with a boyfriend, too. We sat in the lush, oaky lounge, the waning winter sun streaming through the double-paneled windows, and she told me her story.

ON THE PUBLIC HOTEL

I don’t know if you remember the first days of COVID. I remember exactly the day — March 16th — the first day everything shut down.

The weekend before, me and my boyfriend were away in Canada for skiing. At that point, we were not yet living together. But over the weekend, we were already getting emails saying ‘Ok Monday, we will be working from home.’ My roommate at that point, she had already told me that, ‘If you go [skiing], then maybe when you come back you stay in his apartment.’ But my boyfriend, he had a friend staying at his apartment while we were away, who actually got COVID.

So we ending up staying here, at [the Public Hotel] for about ten days, waiting for the apartment to clear out. Imagine — it really was only us. The restaurant, the bar, everything was closed. There were no tourists.

I still have a surreal image of those few days.

ON WHAT IT IS TO BELONG

I’m Hungarian-Romanian. It’s a bit hard to explain. I always have this ambiguity, because culturally I am Hungarian, but I grew up in Romania — Transylvania, the north part of Romania. If you ask me, I consider myself more Hungarian than Romanian because my family is Hungarian.

I feel like I was always sort of an outsider growing up. In Romania, I was the Hungarian, then I would go to Hungary, and I was the Romanian. I’m not so attached to a place, you know, I’m attached to people. That’s what home, and belonging, means to me.

ON THE IDEA OF BEING AN OUTSIDER

I don’t think I care about it that much. In the end, it’s really a matter of perspective.

ON HER ARCHITECTURE PRACTICE

I have a design practice. It’s my name [Kamilla Csegzi]. I do architecture, but also research on biomaterials and working on the smaller scale. I’m interested in exploring that boundary between culture, nature — artificial, natural. That led me to work with this material called mycelium.

ON MYCELIUM

Mycelium is the fungi network in the ground. I don’t know if you’ve ever grown mushrooms at home, but if you did you would see in the bag there’s a substrate — there’s a mycelial network that develops. The mushroom is basically the fruit.

But this network is everywhere — in the forest, it connects different species, trees, plants.

ON COLLABORATING WITH OTHER ARTISTS, AND THE “EPHEMERAL TABLE”

I met a chef and a ceramic artist. We had a collaboration of creating a mycelium table in the ceramicist’s studio, which was also a former restaurant, so it had all the facilities to organize a food-based event. So we had a dinner event around this mycelium table.

As a phase two, we took the table to the collectible design fair. We blew glass into it to memorialize the textures of the table — because you know, it changes all the time. We are actually calling it the “ephemeral table.”

The last event was to bring it back to nature, because it can decompose. We brought it upstate to a private farm.

ON FRIENDS AND COMMUNITY

We ended up having twenty, thirty people around the table at [the final event]. In the end, that’s what it’s all about. Friends, and community.

ON MENTORSHIP

As a mentor, you’re basically a mirror. We don’t see ourselves as often as others see us. So whoever is your mirror is your mentor, basically. Whoever is showing you who you are, and who highlights your potentials.

It’s often friends who are the best mentors. Who are the best mirrors. Because with them, you can have the most open and informal conversations.

ON DONG-JOO KIM, THE NEXT DAISY IN THE CHAIN

She’s my longest friend in New York. She’s an architect, also very passionate about it. We went to school together and at some point we were thinking to start a practice together, but it never happened. But she’s the definition of a best friend. ❁

brittany rodriguez ─ ·𖥸· ─ taylor lawes ─ ·𖥸· ─ rachel kallicharan ↓

Rachel asked me if it would be convenient to meet her at Washington Market Park, right by her office in Tribeca. It was convenient, and I said so, though I would have said that either way. I took the train downtown on a Tuesday and Rachel texted me that she was by the playground. I approached with no real idea of what she might look like.

Cautiously, I said to a woman at a picnic table: “Rachel?”

It was Rachel, and she said what I was thinking: “This feels like a blind date.”

We laughed, and she told me her story.

ON MEETING TAYLOR, THE LAST DAISY IN THE CHAIN

You know when you meet someone and you start chatting with them and the chemistry is just there — like I don’t know if we were friends in a past life or what, but the vibes are just there. There’s no awkward silences, no oh I need to think of what to say next —that’s how if felt [meeting Taylor].

Oh my God, it sounds like I’m in love with her. I’m going to text her after this and tell her, Uh I basically just told Becca we’re in love.

ON FAMILY HERITAGE

My parents were born in Guyana. It’s this tiny country next to Brazil. (A lot of people haven’t heard of it. They’re like Ghana? In Africa?)

They moved [to Long Island City] when they were fourteen. Neither of my parents graduated from high school or went to college or anything. I was the first person in my family to go to a private university.

ON BEING THE ELDEST DAUGHTER

I have a twin, but I’m two minutes older than her [laughs].

ON DECIDING TO BECOME AN ARCHITECT

I was going to go into pre-law. I have a traditional brown family, they were like Nah, we’re doing things by the book. I went to Boston University for undergrad, and then I took a program at Harvard to learn the basics of architecture. As soon as I took that program, I was like, nah, it’s locked in. I was going to become an architect.

I’m a very stubborn person, and when I want something, I don’t care what anyone tells me. Even when my [architecture] friends told me all the negative aspects [of the field], I was like I feel so called, that I don’t care. I’m going to do it anyways.

ON STARTING OUT IN REAL ESTATE

I really badly wanted to take a gap year after undergrad. Make money, screw around, and see what the world was like. I decided to work in real estate in a new construction building in downtown Brooklyn. I was making so much money. More money than I had ever touched before. More money than anyone in my family had made before. Making that amount of money was a big deal for my family.

I was so non-BS. I would come in and tell [clients] this apartment is absolute crap, do not take this unit. Like, if you’re a light sleeper, there’s construction still happening in this building — I was just so straight up with people and I think it worked to my benefit.

ON CINCINNATI

I moved to Cincinnati to get my masters [in architecture]. Every time someone would hear that I’m from New York they would look at me like, Why did you come to Cincinnati?

I feel like I didn’t fit in with everyone else. I don’t know the way I looked. [It was] super white, but it wasn’t just that. I like to do my makeup, I like to do my hair, I like to dress a certain way. I just wasn’t used to the grungy look of Cincinnati, Ohio. I would walk into a bar and people would stare like, what is she on.

But [Cincinnati] was amazing. It changed my life. It made me feel grateful to be from New York. And so happy to come back.

ON SWITCHING CAREERS / NOT LETTING AGE DEFINE YOU

We need to dispel this notion that you’re too old to do something. Your age has nothing to do with your potential, or your talent. It has nothing to do with your energy, your soul. People have to get the idea that they can’t do something out of their head.

Sometimes I even feel that way in architecture. I have people younger than me that have the same amount of experience than me because they didn’t get a masters, they had a five-year architecture undergrad degree. But I didn’t have that. So I started later in life. But that doesn’t matter, because that doesn’t mean they’re a better designer than me, or that I’m not meant to be a designer. It just means I took a different path.

ON TRANSPLANTS, AS A NATIVE NEW YORKER

Whenever I hear that someone has moved to New York City, or anywhere for that matter, I automatically have a new level of respect for them, because not everyone can do that. You can’t deny that there is something special about a human being who is going to willingly uproot themselves from their comfort, from everything that they know, and go somewhere where they have no idea what to expect, who they’re going to meet, if they’re going to feel safe, when they’re going to feel safe. I think that’s so cool.

ON ST. MARKS IN 2011

When I was younger, especially in high school, I would come to the city and least two or three times a week after school, every single week. With my best friend. We would walk around [St. Marks] doing nothing.

You know when you’re seventeen, eighteen, and you don’t need to be doing anything to have fun? We would be talking about school, talking about life, eating onigiris, drinking Arizona iced teas.

ON CREATING, AND CREATIVE BLOCKS

There’s this high that you get from [creating]. Even if I’m creating something dumb, like a model, or a diagram, or a rendering, I find such a joy in that.

When architects get into a rut and we feel like we can’t design, the best thing to do is literally just go outside. Look around. Look at your surroundings. Stop getting so in your head.

ON MUSIC AND MENTAL HEALTH

When I’m sad, or when I’m falling into one of my waves of depression, or when I feel anxious, or even when I feel happy — when I feel any emotion, I listen to this song and it make me feel better. There’s something about this song — it makes me feel happy to be alive, and it makes me feel lucky to be alive.

At the end of last year, I went on mental health leave from my previous job. I made a promise to myself that I have to start taking care of myself. I made a promise to just start doing things differently.

I started to purposely pick little things that brought me joy. This song was one of those things. This song has always brought me joy, but I sort of repurposed it in such a way that whenever I listened to it, I wanted to remind myself that I’m so lucky to be alive and I’m so lucky to be me and I’m so lucky to be living my life and have the friends that I have.

ON THE MUNDANE

We take it for granted, going to work, sitting on the train, listening to music, walking through the city to go get your lunch. All these little things are mundane, and they’re your everyday, and they’re whatever, they’re things you have to do — but they don’t have to be seen that way. You can see [life] as something so amazing, something you get to have, not have to have.

ON KAMILLA, THE NEXT DAISY IN THE CHAIN

She’s my friend, but I always call her my mentor (she’s like stop!). I used to work with her and she’s a brilliant artist, architectural designer, friend — I don’t even know how to put into words how much I care about her. She’s one of those people, I feel like I was meant to meet her.

She, by nature, is a creator. She makes furniture, she makes art pieces. She’s had her work at the Jacob Javits Center. She’s such a loving and gentle and genuine person. And she’s so freaking fascinating. ❁

6:00 AM I’ve been beginning my mornings by reading something that feels creatively or spiritually inspiring. Right now, I’m on Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke and this morning, I underlined:

Like the young poet, the people close to me are far away. This resonated.

6:30 AM I worked on my novel. It’s going well.

8:00 AM I enjoyed a refreshing bowl of frozen grapes, turned on Up First from NPR, and began doing my makeup. Halfway through, I was surprised to receive a phone call so early in the morning, and more surprised to see it was my ex-boyfriend. I answered. He asked me what kind of coffee I wanted.

Read more

brittany rodriguez ─ ·𖥸· ─ taylor lawes ↓

Taylor told me to meet her on the roof of our apartment building. I headed up first but to my dismay, the door would not budge. I texted Taylor that the door appeared locked, and should we pivot to the stoop out front? She told me she had a trick, and sure enough, in a few minutes she texted again — she was on the roof. I made my way up and found the door now propped open my a bathmat. I emerged into the open air and found Taylor perched on the edge of the roof, appearing like a secret agent or comic book character, with her all-black outfit and the night sky sparkling silver and gold behind her. She told me the secret to opening the door to the roof, and then she told me her story.

ON MEETING BRITTANY, THE LAST DAISY IN THE CHAIN

I was moving [to New York] from Toronto and looking for a place to live. I found Ohana. I was actually looking for my own space. But everything was going so fast and obviously everything here is extremely expensive. So the [Ohana] chick was like “Ok, you’re kind of running out of time, why don’t you try this one.” And it was Brittany’s listing. And I’m like Ok, it has its own private washroom, that works. So we got on a phone call, like a FaceTime. Brittany showed me around the place and she seemed cool enough. There was a rack of wine, and I’m like Ok, I’m sure we could bond over something or another here.

I laughed when I read your article with Brittany, because you said you met when she carried your suitcase up the stairs. And when I moved here — we had just met for the first time — I had seven massive bags and it was like, midnight, and she came down and she helped me carry all of these huge, heavy bags up the stairs. That’s so her. She just loves doing nice things.

So that’s essentially how we met. We essentially met online, then became roommates, and then that evolved.

ON LIVING IN [THIS APARTMENT BUILDING], AND THE VIEW FROM THE ROOF

I love how this building is its own little community. You love it so much, Brittany loves it so much, and I think it’s because there is that community in this building, even though half of the residents I’m sure you don’t talk to all that much / can’t talk to.

This is my first permanent home in New York. It’s very special for that. [From the roof], you can see all these beautiful buildings and it just feels like you’re in the heart of the city, which is so special to me, because this is what I’ve been working for for ten years. This is the one place I wanted to be.

ON OUTGROWING WHERE YOU COME FROM

I’m from Calgary, Alberta. Closer to Vancouver. It’s more western Canada. It’s a big, spread-out city but it’s not that many people so it very much feels like a small town a lot of the time. I was there until I was thirty-two. At that point, I was like I’ve done enough here. There’s nothing left for me. All these people, I’ve outgrown. All these things to do here, I’ve done them. I’ve outgrown them.

I started with Toronto. Toronto’s a bigger city and I was like, Ok, ultimately I want to end up in New York. If I’m [in Toronto] it’s a halfway house to New York. I was only there for eight months before I came to New York. So I basically restarted my whole life two times in the span of a year.

ON TAYLOR’S FAVORITE LOWER EAST SIDE BARS

At the bottom of Nine Orchard, there’s a bar in there called Swan Room. It’s so freaking nice. Brittany and I went in for a drink there a couple weeks ago and Natalie Portman was sitting there, just casually having a drink.

I love Bar Belly, it’s on Orchard. I really like Bar Valentina on Orchard. Orchard really just has some amazing spots.

And I feel like compared to a lot of other places in Manhattan specifically, the Lower East Side is a lot more affordable. You can actually find some drinks for $14, instead of $20-$30.

ON BEING AN ACCOUNTANT

People are always like, “You don’t have the personality for an accountant.” Most people think of an accountant as a weird person sitting in a room, not talking to anybody, and it does breed a lot of those people, I’m not gonna lie. It’s a lot of socially awkward people.

My personality led me through the architectural route [of accounting] because architects are very creative people which is the opposite of what you would see in an accountant, who is very black and white. So you kind of have to have that personality bit to navigate all the creative types that you’re working with.

The one thing I don’t want is to be stagnant. I want to continue being challenged. I want to always keep learning. I don’t want to keep living the same day on repeat for the rest of my life.

ON DEVELOPING A SENSE OF STYLE

I wear the same thing to work that I do out. I don’t wanna say thotty business casual but, you know, a little bit of elevated, sexier business casual that I could make appropriate for work and make a little sexier for a night out. And that’s what makes me feel the best.

Lots of silks, lots of leathers, a lot of black. I’m dabbling in a little bit of gray and brown. In summer I’ll toss on a green or an orange for like one day and I’m like I don’t feel comfortable. I just want to wear what makes me feel good and comfortable and confident.

It took a lot of years and a lot of trial and error [to develop a sense of style]. It took me finding my own confidence to figure out what makes me feel the best and most confident in what I’m wearing.

ON FINDING CONFIDENCE

I think [my confidence] has come from a lot of trials and tribulations in life. Specifically, a bad relationship. I never had less confidence in my life than when I was in a super abusive relationship. So finding the strength in myself to get away from that and move on, it honestly changed me into a totally different person. It changed my confidence 100%.

ON FAMILY

I have a half-sister. She’s twenty-five years older than me. I saw my sister when I was in Calgary a couple weeks ago and I came home and I’m just thinking, I don’t know about her life. I want to sit down and ask my family about their lives. Because I know who they are as people, but I don’t necessarily know their whole stories. I think we don’t think to ask our families those kinds of things. They share what they want to share. But it’s not like you sit down with, like, your dad and say, “So what were you like as a teenager?”

ON BASEMENT NEW YORK

I freaking love that place. My favorite Basement night is probably when I first moved here and I went out by myself. I was on a date, actually, and then my friend was like, “You have to go to Basement!” So I said to this guy, “I’m going to leave and go to Basement.” I just dipped on him and went to Basement by myself. He was probably like, “Ok, bitch.”

So, I went. I waited for two hours and I finally got in. That night, a group of people came up to me and they were like, “Oh my God, we love your vibe, are you here alone?” Now, the girl that came up to me is one of my closest friends. We go out all the time.

ON RACHEL KALLICHARAN, TAYLOR’S CO-WORKER / THE NEXT DAISY IN THE CHAIN

I work with her. We met on the [office] softball team. We both joined getting out of comfort zones and seeing what would happen.

She’s an architect. She’s an amazingly impressive architect. People see so much in her. Before she was doing this, she was in real estate. She was making significantly more money, but she stopped doing that to follow something that felt more passionate to her, and she took a hefty pay cut. Now she’s been doing it for five years.

She’s a really wholesome person. She’s amazing well-spoken. She’s a fantastic friend. Super insightful. Anytime I hear her give people advice, she’s super insightful, very logical. She’s awesome. ❁

Brittany is my upstairs neighbor. I met her about a year after I moved into our building. I’d just returned from visiting my parents in Maryland, and had with me a suitcase the size of a bar cart and the weight of one fully stocked. She carried the suitcase up the five flights to my apartment and wished me well.

Brittany has a creative mind and a generous soul. She’s a director of marketing at Fanatics, a true practitioner of the abundance mindset, and makes the best ube matcha latte in New York City. I asked her if I could interview her, and I asked her to choose a place that meant something to her. She brought me to the co-working space in Citizen M on Bowery, and she told me her story.

ON GROWING UP IN LAS VEGAS

The exposure rate in Las Vegas is exponential. My first concert was Tina Turner when I was ten years old. And you build on that. From hotel suites to vibrant parties and endless entertainment, I discovered passion for hospitality. I love connecting people and helping them uncover the joy and excitement that life has to offer.

ON MOVING TO NEW YORK

I moved to New York by myself. Moved here straight from Las Vegas and I’ve built my life in New York. I know Dong at the watermelon slushie shop, I know Kiki over at Vacation Forever, I’ve made a lot of friends in the community. And that’s very important to me, because the life I lived in Las Vegas was all curated by my family. This is my life that I’ve built by myself.

ON HER MORNING ROUTINE

I like to wake up with the sun. Me at thirty-seven, I try to create routine and consistency and also things that make me feel good. Things that make me feel good: watching the sun rise.

Wake up. See the sun. Workout. Get ready. And then work.

ON BECOMING A GENEROUS PERSON

I choose to be generous. I know it’s going to make people feel warm, welcome, and greeted, and not push people away.

I’m six foot one. Growing up and being so tall, that was very much a barrier of you are not like the rest, you’re an outcast. I don’t want to push people away from me. I want to actually bring people closer to me. I want people around me. I want people to call me and ask me for my advice. I want to be a resource for people. I don’t want to push people away.

We’re on a planet rock and none of us really know how long we’re gonna be here for. So just be nice to everybody. Just be good to people. It costs $0.00 to be a good person.

ON BEING A WOMAN IN MALE-DOMINATED INDUSTRIES

Of course, I want a fucking seat for myself at the front of the table.

ON WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK ABOUT YOU

I don’t care if anyone’s ever been mad at me. I’ve built my own self-esteem in that perspective. I don’t care what other people think. I think you grow to be that way. Consistency — I think the way you build muscle is through consistency. The way you build the shot in basketball is consistency. You gotta keep practicing, practicing, practicing.

ON NOT FOLLOWING SOCIETY’S TIMELINES

All the other people I know at thirty-seven have two kids and a husband. It’s hard when I don’t have kids, my kids can’t go play with somebody else. I think there’s a sense of loneliness.

I don’t fit in, and I’m ok with that. I can’t change it. I don’t want to give up who I am and what I believe to fit in. Cause all I have is myself. I’m not going to compromise who I am and my own mental health to fit in.

ON THE COMPANY YOU KEEP

My dad has a very famous quote that he used to tell me as a kid: “Why go to the world series if you can’t take anybody?”

World series tickets costs ten thousand dollars, or whatever the numeral amount of money it costs, but why spend that if you can’t go and spend that with anybody?

I realized in my early teens it’s not just about doing things, it’s about how you share your experience with people. Cause at the end of the day, that’s what matters. That’s the way I choose to believe in life — it’s about the people you choose to share your journey with. It’s not necessarily the end result, it’s very much the company you keep.

ON MUSIC

I look back and music is probably the one thing that’s gotten be through every stage of my life. Whether that’s lyrics to a song, beats of music, I listen to music to feel validated. I have a lot of feelings. I’m a Taurus double Cancer.

I realized not everyone feels the same way. I remember I was ten, eleven years old and I had my CD player and I had my headphones on, and my dad was like, You really love music. And I was like Yeah, doesn’t everybody listen to their CDS, endlessly, all day?

ON TAYLOR LAWES, BRITTANY’S FAVORITE CANCER / THE NEXT DAISY IN THE CHAIN

We’re connected by shared values, beliefs, and a mutual passion for music. In many ways, we’re opposites—she’s an accountant, grounded in numbers and data, while I’m more abstract and imaginative. Yet at the heart of it all, we’re bound by the same love for people, family, and the experiences that make life meaningful. ❁

Subscribe now