Airport Experience® News - ACDBE Issue 2025

ONE ON ONE

A SHARED VISION Alliiance’s New President, Aviation Lead, Share Terminal Design Insights

BY CAROL WARD

ditor’s Note: In January of 2025, Mamie Harvey took the helm as president of Minneapolis

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architectural firm Alliiance . A 25-year veteran of the firm, Harvey took over the role that Eric Peterson held for eight years. Following the principle of “shared leadership,” Peterson has transitioned to a leadership position focused on the firm’s robust national and international aviation practice, while also continuing his role on the board of directors. AXN’s Carol Ward spoke with both Harvey and Peterson about the vision for Alliiance in this new chapter, and about the trends they see in airport terminal design. WARD: Mamie, congratulations on your new role as president of Alliiance. Can you give me an overview of how you intend to move the company forward. What’s your unique vision? HARVEY: I’m really honored to step into this role. We have many positive things going right now, and I really feel like we’re just building on our good foundation and strong legacy, specifically around design excellence. With my science and technology experience, I’ve really focused on designing the complex projects that drive discovery and innovation and sustainability. [The lessons] I’ve learned and the expertise I’ve built in programming and planning and data-driven design, I’m looking to share firm-wide. I’ve also appreciated our collaborative culture and how we integrate diverse perspectives to really push design boundaries. Lastly, [I’ll focus on] elevating sustainability and equitable access as fundamental design drivers – that’s a vision for us as we create resilient, community centered spaces.

WARD: Eric, I know you’re transitioning from being the overall president back to the aviation practice, which you were still running while you were president. What prompted this move? PETERSON: Alliiance has always had a very thoughtful leadership transition. We’re a partnership, we’re very collaborative. It’s never singular leadership – we’re not very hierarchical. We’re a team, and that means we each contribute our strengths at all times. There are times when we ask somebody to be president to put sharper focus on the message. I had been president for almost nine years. Coming into that role there were some objectives, one of which had to do with paying attention to that collaborative spirit and sharing our best practices across the studios, whether it’s aviation or science and tech or public, et cetera. That was a large focus early on. Then we had a good four or

Above: Mamie Harvey (right) has taken on the role as president of Alliiance architecture firm. Former president Eric Peterson (left) will focus on the firm’s global aviation business.

five years of having to grapple with Covid and changes in the workplace environment. The firm has done well, aviation continued to grow, and we’re at about 135 people now. That’s our architects, interior designers and planners – it’s a strong body of design professionals. Aviation continued to grow to the point that we’ve got about 85-90 people – architects, interior designers and planners – focusing on aviation at 135 airports around the country. It’s important now to put a higher level of focus on aviation. This will allow me to engage in a deeper way on many of our larger aviation projects.

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AX NEWS JUNE 2025