I have not always been an architectural historian; in fact, I kind of stumbled into the world of architectural history after a chance discovery of the work of Lauretta Vinciarelli during my Ph.D. Over the course of my graduate studies, my relationship to architecture evolved from a purely formalist one, coming from a studio arts background, to a more sociological one that considers the cultural landscape, especially as I worked under the mentorship of Marta Gutman (who coincidentally knew Vinciarelli). Gutman was a student while Vinciarelli was teaching in Columbia University’s influential housing studio, and through the work of these two women I began to understand the ways in which housing typology was shaped by function and ‘use,’ especially as it impacted women and children, those traditionally relegated to the domestic realm. When I moved to Chicago in 2018, I embarked on a new research project that considered the impact that women — as residents, activists, and ‘othermothers’ — had on shaping the spaces of public housing in Chicago. This is how I came across Feldman and Stall’s book, which helped me conceptualize how themes of the everyday and private and public spheres were interconnected with issues of racial and socioeconomic inequality and housing activism in Chicago. Their study introduced me to bell hooks’s theory of the ‘Homeplace’ as a site of resistance and the importance of space appropriation and community organizing in public housing, but what stood out to me most was how women fought to improve their homes at every level –within their own apartments, on their building floor, outside/around the building, and in their local community politics. Feldman and Stall’s project provided me with the theoretical framework to connect the dots between my study of Vinciarelli’s work and Gutman’s teaching, and helped me see how public housing could be considered an unintentional collaboration between architect and residents.