When Spencer Giuliano, BArch ’26, received a recruitment email from Pratt Institute’s soccer coach, Stavros Zomopoulos, it was the encouragement he needed to apply to a school that would allow him to pursue his two biggest passions: architecture and athletics.
“Soccer was always something I knew I wanted to do in college,” Giuliano said. “But there weren’t a lot of options to do that with architecture. I didn’t expect to go to a big city, but having a campus here was a big selling point as well.”
Now a fifth-year undergraduate architecture student with a minor in construction management, Giuliano has been able to develop career-ready skills, compete on the soccer field, and become a student leader and trusted mentor.
Learning and Making
Giuliano grew up in Massachusetts and learned about architecture as a career path through his uncle, a licensed architect with his own firm. Giuliano’s high school had a limited art program, so he gravitated toward engineering and design classes to hone his drawing skills. He saw Pratt’s focus on designing and building as an opportunity to translate his creativity into tangible structures.
One of his favorite classes at Pratt involved building prototypes with the robotic arm in the Pi-FAB facilities using computer code and the graphing software AutoCAD. Other courses allowed him to gain proficiency with laser cutters, table saws, and industry-standard software like Rhino.
In his third-year Comprehensive Design class, he partnered with a soccer teammate, Anil Pugh, BArch ’25, to design a housing complex for local artists at the intersection of Franklin and Lafayette Avenues, just beyond Pratt’s Brooklyn campus. They built a scale model of a multiuse housing development that incorporated artwork from their friends.
“Doing a full building project like that really helped my problem-solving skills,” he said. “Since it was a comprehensive design, you weren’t able to leave things unsolved.”
His construction management minor has shown him what it would take to enter the real estate industry, and has given him insight into the “nitty gritty” of a construction site. For one project, he visited and spoke with construction workers building the “Torch,” a Manhattan skyscraper.
“Getting a lot more hands-on in the industry has been cool,” he said.
Life as an Athlete
Giuliano has many favorite memories from his time on the soccer team, including scoring his first goal, winning MVP, playing recreational futsal on Pier 5 in Brooklyn, and bonding with teammates on road trips.
“Right after preseason, we go on a three-to-four-day away trip to Upstate New York,” he said. “There’s a lake with a waterfall, and it’s good to hang out with the team and escape New York for a bit.”
Giuliano was part of the first cohort of players who joined Pratt’s soccer team once it was established in 2021.
In his second year, he became team captain and began helping out with recruitment by giving campus tours and attending open house events. He also shared time management best practices with his teammates. His efforts elevated him to the role of copresident of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), where he advocates for student-athletes and helps to improve communication with faculty.
In his fourth year, he used the time recovering from an injury to learn how to operate a 3D printer for architectural designs.
“It ended up being a more convenient way of modeling for me,” he said. “I’ve been able to do more detailed work.”
His capstone thesis builds on this work by proposing a way to use “prosthetic” structures to connect buildings in various Manhattan districts to the body to aid in different sensory deficits in the area.
“The studio [class] we chose, Architecture and Magic, got us interested in thinking about how different prosthetics can amplify senses and how you can connect the human body to buildings in a way,” he said.
Pursuing a Career
Giuliano is also the secretary of Pratt’s chapter of the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS), where he helps plan events with other clubs. For the AIAS newsletter, he’s authored several op-eds, including a recent article on the value of starting a career at a mid-sized firm.
Through a connection with Pratt alum Rob Gatzke, BArch ’93, a principal at the architectural design firm Lawrence Group, Giuliano secured a summer internship with the company’s Manhattan office. He contributed to projects in health care, retail, and workplace design, and explored how AI could be used to improve workflows.
“We put in pictures of different views of a project and asked for certain styles we wanted to match, and the program [Vizcom] generated renders,” he said. “It’s a much quicker process than using other render programs, which can take up to a day. We were able to get some early iterations in as short as a few minutes.”
“I think if you ignore AI, you’re going to be left behind in the end,” he added. “It can speed up different workflows and help to tie things together quicker. I know there are a lot of people who think it’s going to take over architecture, but I don’t think I’m in that camp. I think there’s going to need to be a human touch.”
Giuliano’s curiosity and drive didn’t go unnoticed by his colleagues.
“Spencer shows all the signs of becoming a great architectural designer and was invaluable to the Lawrence Group New York team during his time as an intern with the organization,” said Christie Rafol, design professional at Lawrence Group. “His efforts directly impacted the growth of our client relationships, including Nira, an outpatient infusion therapy powerhouse that is rolling out locations nationally. He was focused, absorbed knowledge like a sponge, and came to the table with a willingness to learn.”
With his final semester approaching, he is already in talks with firms for potential roles when he graduates, and he hopes that he can remain in New York.
“My dream would be to someday work in sports architecture,” he said. “I’d love to design a stadium somewhere. Soccer is beginning to become a much bigger thing in America, especially with the World Cup coming. And there are a lot more soccer stadiums being built.”