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Meet Grace Hopperstad - Summer Intern.

July 9, 2025

This summer, Grace Hopperstad joined SZ Design | Build, as a Summer Intern from Columbia University. She comes to us with enthusiasm, curiosity and willingness to take on a variety of collaborative efforts. Grace’s generous spirit contributes to our positive team and client experiences throughout SZ’s Design | Build process. We’re thrilled to welcome Grace on board!

Get to know Grace through her responses to a few ‘getting to know you’ questions below.

What three items would you bring on a desert island?

A Swiss army knife, a guitar, and a friend. 

What’s your dream job you would do for the rest of your life?

Making music.

Spring, summer, fall or winter?

Winter. I love rain and grey clouds, they feel familiar. 

If you could give your past self advice, what would it be?

To keep reading and be weird. I think my current self could still take this advice. And probably everyone honestly.  

If you could meet three people no longer living, who would you choose?

I think I would go to dinner and then jam with Bowie, Mac Miller, and Elliott Smith. The music to come out of that night would be unfathomably cool.

What’s your favorite food?

A chocolate almond croissant from my favorite, now-deceased bakery in Manhattan. I think a good steak or salad is a close second. 

Favorite fictional architectural moment?

The Western Air Temple in Avatar the Last Airbender, which was built upside down and on the underside of a cliff edge so it was hidden to passerby, or the heptapods’ ship in Arrival.

What's a book, movie, or TV show you've enjoyed recently?

I recently read Dante’s Inferno for a class and really enjoyed it. The worldbuilding and characters are creative and complex and I was left with much to unpack about my own life and our world through the lens of his great work. 

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live? 

I’ve always wanted to live on a farm, but in terms of location, I could enjoy many places. The Norwegian, Japanese, or Irish countrysides have always been intriguing. 

What’s a value or mindset you try to practice?

In my senior year of high school and last year in jazz choir, I realized something about practicing gratitude. I was standing in our classroom during rehearsal and thinking about how I knew this was one moment I would miss most when I graduated: the daily, challenging, but gratifying time spent drilling parts and creating music. I thought I’d try reflecting on how grateful I was to be there with my group of people because that’s what everyone says to do, so I did. But afterward, I found myself wondering, what now? And so, I did it again, and realized I could keep doing it as many times as I wanted. Since then, I’ve loved to practice gratitude in longform, reflecting “I am grateful for this moment,” in real time doing things or being with people I love. 

In SZ Team Tags Meet the Team, Design, Summer Internship
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