Architect helps build a better, more beautiful QC
Saloni Patel has a key hand in helping make communities better and more beautiful – not only in the Quad Cities, but throughout Illinois and Iowa, and as far as Montana.
The super smart, passionate 28-year-old recently was promoted to senior architect at Streamline Architects, where she’s worked since 2019. The growing influential firm is at the east edge of the Rust Belt complex in East Moline (owner Andrew Dasso also owns the Iron & Grain Coffee shop next door).
“Saloni has been a rising star since joining Streamline Architects,” Andrew Dasso, principal architect at Streamline, said Friday. “Every client she works with enjoys her attentive care for their projects. She has been a leader in our firm and new employees look up to her. She is an exceptional, hard-working architect who cares tremendously for improving the communities she has worked with. She goes above and beyond on everything she does.”
Patel has served as project architect for some very impactful projects at Streamline that fulfill her desires to improve the community. To name a few:
The Rebuild Downtown Rock Island improvements and Arts Alley
Davis Community Center in Mt. Carroll, Ill.
High Street Apartments in Des Moines
Bend XPO in East Moline
Patel started at Streamline in fall 2019, after earning her master’s degree at University of Illinois, Champaign – a dual master’s in architecture and civil engineering.
An Indian-American native of Peoria, her parents are Indian immigrants who came to Peoria (for their master’s at Bradley) for school. Her father was an engineer for Caterpillar, and now works for Morgan Stanley.
Architecture is the more creative field, compared to civil engineering, she said Friday. Architects still have to work within the restrictions of a project budget, client needs, the property and site limitations, and required permitting and code regulations.
“It’s a really fun design challenge and puzzle to make sure everything fits together,” Patel said. “At the end of the day, we also want to be proud of the work that we’re doing. All that coming together and seeing the impact of the project on people using it is really rewarding.”
It was good to have that background on construction management, making sure projects come in under budget and on schedule, she said.
Patel (who just got married in January) always wanted to do something creative and technical as a career. “I love sketching and drawing, seeing how things work together, and architecture is a lot of that,” she said.
It’s satisfying for an architect to walk into a beautiful building, when it’s brand new.
“Oh yeah, I designed that. The most rewarding part is seeing people use that space,” Patel said.
The $9-million Davis Community Center, which recently opened in Mount Carroll, was very special for her — since it was her first completed project as a licensed architect.
“It involved talking with stakeholders, interviews with people who lived in that community, talking with some of the senior population who was going to be using it the most,” Patel said, noting it’s also located next to a middle school.
“All the different stakeholders involved in that process, to find out what’s important to you — what do you want in that space and how can we make that work for you?” she said. They started the project in spring 2021. “It’s great to see how busy it is all the time.”
It was entirely funded by the private Davis Trust.
Revitalizing downtown Rock Island
Patel has been serving a similar role — meeting needs of a wide range of stakeholders — for the current downtown $7.4-million Rock Island revitalization project. Streamline first worked on the grant for Arts Alley in 2021, creating design concepts for that.
Arts Alley, a public alleyway at 1719 2nd Ave., Rock Island, will get a major overhaul and revitalization with the help of a $267,181 grant for the Quad Cities Chamber and city of Rock Island from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.
The city has committed about $200,000 for Arts Alley, among $1.5 million in downtown Tax Increment Financing (TIF) revenue for downtown infrastructure improvements. Additional matching funds for the $535,000 Arts Alley project come from the Doris & Victor Day Foundation, Quad City Arts, Rauch Family Foundation, Rock Island Arts Guild and the Rock Island Community Foundation.
Patel has worked closely with the city and Rock Island Downtown Alliance on that, and with Rock Island-based Veenstra & Kimm Engineering on the site plans, utilities and infrastructure throughout downtown.
A lot of the concepts for Rock Island — including tearing out the pedestrian plaza on 2nd Avenue, new streetscaping, and a new roundabout at 2nd Avenue and 18th Street — came from discussions with stakeholders, and a community survey, she said.
“We don’t want to force our ideas on people,” Patel said. “It needs to work for as many people as you can. We’re not gonna be able to make 100 percent of people happy 100 percent of the time. It’s a work in progress.”
Roundabouts are becoming more common in cities nationwide, including a number of new ones in Bettendorf and Davenport.
“There is a lot of research that shows roundabouts help in slowing down speeds, making safer intersections, slowing down vehicles at intersections and it keeps traffic moving because you’re not forced to stop,” Patel said. “You can just yield and keep going.”
People are naturally hesitant with things like this that they’re not familiar with, she said. “Once you get used to it, it’s like anything. You get used to it and it becomes part of your normal day to day, no big deal.”
The downtown Rock Island timetable is to have construction starting this spring, through the end of 2025.
“There’s going to be coordination with business owners in the downtown area before construction starts,” Patel said. “This is how we will accommodate it, this is how people can still get to your space. At the end of the day, yes it is an inconvenience, we definitely understand that, but it is to bring more people into that space once everything is said and done.”
“We want to make it cohesive overall,” Patel said. “These are things that can be spread to other parts of Rock Island as well, like landscaping or better lighting, street infrastructure.”
Creating attractive spaces
Streamline helps to create spaces and environments that are attractive for people to visit — improving tourism, local economy and residential life.
Patel is working on a high-end condominium building in Whitefish, Montana, with views of Glacier National Park — since an apartment building owner in Des Moines that Streamline works with has a vacation home there.
“We’re along for the ride and it’s been a really great process,” Patel said, noting they’re also doing a couple Pennsylvania projects.
Streamline opened an Iowa City office two years ago. They have six licensed architects now in East Moline, and Patel was the first woman. When she joined in 2019, there were just six total staff and now there are 19 (including project managers, graphic design, industrial design and interior design).
“It really is a one-stop shop, from start to finish, providing full-service design,” she said.
Patel most loves the nonprofit, working with cities and communities, including fire stations, community centers and public streetscaping. She’s also worked a lot on residential projects.
Patel is committed to social justice and environmental sustainability.
“As architects, we have a big responsibility as we’re adding more to our environment, we are creating things that will stay here longer than we are, it’s our responsibility that they have a positive impact,” she said. “If we’re gonna leave anything behind, it should be positive.”
She’s an accredited professional in LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), which is a certification for certain buildings if the client wants that, through the U.S. Green Building Council.
“We are accredited to provide that service for them,” she said, noting Streamline has not yet done LEED projects. “In the Quad Cities, there’s not a huge push for LEED projects. A lot of times, clients have this mindset that it adds extra costs to go through the documentation, which to an extent it does. But it also pays off when you can use that in their marketing.”
Streamline always tries to incorporate sustainability into all its projects, reducing any negative environmental impacts, Patel said.
Downtown Rock Island has included a lot of green space and landscaping features, she noted. A proposed dog park is still to be determined.
Streamline has provided renderings for the planned new $12-million Fresh Films production studio, to include two 20,000-square-foot soundstages, to attract film and TV production to Rock Island County.
The firm also did design for the new Iconic Coffee + Energy, which is renovating an old Jiffy Lube location at 2777 18th Street, Bettendorf.
Promoting women in work
A big priority for Patel is volunteering for Lead(h)er, the QC women’s mentorship and networking organization.
She had first started as a project manager at Streamline, and asked Dasso to hire a female architect so she could have a mentor. He recommended joining Lead(h)er, which in 2020 matched her with Kari Uhlenkamp (who works at Bray Architects, Davenport).
“She’s been great, and Lead(h)er has been really instrumental in that,” Patel said Friday. As she was going through the process of becoming licensed (including 3,000 hours of work experience and six licensing exams), her mentor was very supportive.
“Once I became licensed, I eventually got two mentees of my own,” Patel said, noting one is a female architect at Streamline. “It’s been really rewarding to have it come full circle.”
She is now serving on the Lead(h)er board of directors.
“Lead(h)er is fortunate to have Saloni as a lead(h)er within our community,” Lead(h)er executive director Hannah Howard said by email Friday.
“Saloni actively empowers other women as a Lead(h)er mentor, board member and dedicated volunteer. Saloni is a wonderful role model and I am excited to see her impact within Lead(h)er and the Quad Cities continue to grow,” she said.
Nationwide, women comprise just 17 percent of all architects, and Patel says it should be closer to half.
“It’s disappointing, because you see in architecture school, it’s always 50/50,” she said. “You get into the real world and it’s like, where did they all go? There’s a lot of barriers, as women further their careers and start families. All these things, you want the best of both worlds, but sometimes your career has to be sacrificed for it, which I don’t believe it. You can have it all.”
Architecture historically was associated with engineering, itself a very male-dominated field, Patel said. “Even now, architecture is design, but I would love to see more women in architecture. We need more women in architecture.
“The people who use your space are not 17 percent women — the people who are going to use our space are 50 percent and 50 percent women,” she said. “So the people who design it should be 50 percent men, 50 percent women.”
“That’s why I’m so passionate not only about women in architecture, but also minorities in architecture,” Patel said.
Patel also has a podcast episode about her mentorship experience. It’s episode 4 of Her Stories and can be found on Lead(h)er’s website HERE.
Streamline will host a Lead(h)er Huddle on Thursday, April 4 on impostor syndrome and breaking down barriers.
“I think it’s great to bring women together from all over the Quad Cities, it doesn’t matter what your profession is,” Patel said. “A lot of us have had similar experiences — there’s a lot that can be learned from networking, interacting with other women working in a similar area.”
The Huddle will hosted by Streamline, at Iron & Grain (585 12th Ave., East Moline), and is free to any woman in the QC community. The exact time is to be determined; check the Lead(h)er Facebook page.
Patel is an active member of AIA Iowa’s Citizen Architect Program, an initiative that recognizes community involvement and service to the Quad-City region and professionals across the state. She also serves on other committees through Family Resources, NCARB and Anoopam Mission.
For more information on Streamline, click HERE.
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