A MOTHER’S LASTING INFLUENCE:
LESSONS IN LIVING BOLDLY AND BUILDING WITH HEART
At L2 Studios, we’re lucky to work alongside architects who don’t just design spaces—they radiate warmth, creativity, and purpose. One of those remarkable individuals is Jadranka Knezevic, whose artistry and quiet brilliance have long inspired everyone around her.
This Mother’s Day, we’re celebrating Jadranka through the eyes of someone who knows her best: her daughter and fellow architect, Lorena Knezevic, AIA (Gensler). In this heartfelt interview, Lorena reflects on the life, love, and legacy her mother has built—not just in architecture, but in the way she lives with intention and beauty. Everything Lorena shares echoes what we see in Jadranka every day at L2 Studios. She is the light, the spark, the energy, and the creative spirit we are so grateful for.
Happy Mother’s Day to Jadranka—and to all the incredible moms out there!
When did your mom first realize she wanted to be an architect?
My mom has always been someone who makes the world around her more beautiful. As a teenager, she taught herself how to sew just by studying fashion magazines. She picked up her first watercolor set in elementary school, and promptly won an art competition with it. She always knew she wanted to be an artist.
Architecture found her a little later. No one in her family was an architect, but her best friend was considering it for college, and my mom, curious and creative, decided to explore it too. Once she saw how it wove together art, history, and design, something just clicked. She brought her artist’s heart into the world of buildings, and she never looked back.
Could you share a bit about your parent’s story—how they connected, and what led them to take the big step of moving to America?
My parents actually met in architecture school in Sarajevo. My dad was a teaching assistant in a drawing class where my mom was a student, one of those early courses where you draw statues, landscapes, city scenes. At first, they didn’t talk much. But one day, my mom turned in a set of sketches she had done from Island Brač, a place she visited often with her best friend (the same one who nudged her toward architecture). My dad instantly recognized the drawings—he had spent his childhood summers on that same island.
That was their spark. From there, they grew closer, studied side by side, and eventually both ended up working in Italy on one of the biggest projects in the world at the time, Lingotto by Renzo Piano. It had hotels, a university center, a race track on the roof, and even a helicopter landing pad. They spent years on that project together.
After five years in Italy, I was born. And when I was eighteen months old, they took a leap—they packed up, got on a plane with their green cards, and moved to the U.S. They chose Orlando, right in the backyard of Disney, because they thought it would be the happiest place to raise a child. And honestly? It really was.
Growing up with both your mom and dad as architects, how has that influenced your own perspective on design?
With two architects as parents, creativity wasn’t just encouraged, it was the air we breathed. It was subtle, never forced. But everything around us became an opportunity for expression.
Every family trip was a design-centered adventure—Rome, Torino, Paris, London—before I was even in high school. My parents made sure I saw the world’s great cities, walked through art museums, and wandered historic streets. I grew up watching them paint with oils, and their work still hangs in our home.
Architecture wasn’t something they pushed, it was something they lived. And through them, I learned that design isn’t just a profession, it’s a way of seeing. Even when I was more drawn to fashion growing up, that same love for form, material, and making things with your hands was always part of me. So when I eventually chose architecture, it didn’t feel like a decision, it felt like remembering who I already was.
Has your mom ever mentioned a project that felt like a turning point in her life or career?
For my mom, it’s less about one single turning point and more about the phases of life she’s lived through architecture. Each country she’s worked in—Croatia, Italy, the U.S.—has shaped her in a different way. She’s designed across three languages, navigated new systems, and adapted with so much quiet strength.
She’s incredibly proud of her time working on Lingotto, the Renzo Piano project in Torino, Italy, and rightfully so. Here in the U.S., at L2 Studios for the past 26 years, she continues to design incredible resort projects with the same care and craft.
Lingotto by Renzo Piano, Torino, Italy
Now that I’m an architect too, I have a deeper appreciation for what she does. Like how she beams when a full permit set gets approved with zero comments from the city - every architect knows what a win that is. She wears that kind of precision and excellence like a badge of honor. Definitely an inspiration for me as well!
Your mom’s talents are remarkable—she speaks multiple languages and constantly creates. What lessons have you drawn from her about nurturing that “artist self”?
My mom is always in motion. She’s the kind of person who has to be creating—gardening, painting, knitting, cooking—often all in the same weekend. There’s even a family joke: in our house, you couldn’t just sit. You had to be making something while you do.
Growing up, she taught me how to make something out of nothing. She’d bring home old fabric samples from work, and we’d turn them into doll dresses, scrappy handbags, and whatever else we could dream up. That’s where my love of fashion first started—right at the dining table with my mom and her sewing machine.
She approaches every task, even the smallest birthday celebration, with so much creativity and care. Her secret? She sees every moment as an opportunity to create something beautiful. That mindset, the belief that you can always add your magic to the world, is something she passed down to me. I carry it everywhere. It’s a kind of creative restlessness that keeps me going.
In what ways has your mom’s example inspired you in your own journey as an architect?
Like my mom, I started with a love for art and fashion—and eventually found my way to architecture. Our paths were different, but there’s something poetic about how both of us began as artists and found structure and expression in architecture.
Now that I’ve been in the profession for some time and lead projects myself, I recognize just how much I’ve learned from watching her. She leads with empathy and compassion, but also with precision and an unwavering standard of excellence. She’s honest and direct, never cutting corners, and always leading by example.
That’s the kind of architect, and leader, I want to be. Someone who brings heart and clarity into every project. Someone who lifts others while doing beautiful, meaningful work. Just like her.
