Kim Leyda

Kim Leyda has been a member of CSI since December of last year, and recently became a Certified Documents Technician.

She has been employed with Short Elliot Hendrickson (SEH), in Minneapolis, as an Administrative Technician in the Architecture/Landscape Architecture area, since 2006. Kim graduated from the University of Minnesota-College of Design (formerly CALA) in 2004 with a Bachelors of Science in Architecture, and a minor in Environmental Geoscience.

Her interest in architecture began with a Greyhound bus ride at the age of eight, when she was given pen and paper and asked to draw a new house for her family.  Her full immersion into the architectural field did not occur until her daughter started elementary school in 1999, at which time she went back to school at Rochester Community and Technical College and, in 2000, to the University of Minnesota.

Kim had been in the administrative assistant field for 15 years, but she always found a way to connect her jobs with architectural design.  “My job at a corrugated box company allowed me to envision how the design of the ‘envelope’ -- while plain and protective -- can support so many fun and unique design features on the inside. At the Diversity Council of Rochester I began to understand how one single design can satisfy or deny the needs of so many different people, while my work at a non-profit agency and my subsequent introduction to colleagues at the Minnesota Housing Agency and ‘Continuum of Care’ group showed me not only how the loss of adequate shelter can devastate households, but the on-going desperate need for well-designed temporary and emergency shelter.”

Raised in White Bear Lake, Kim currently resides in Mahtomedi with her 14-year-old daughter.  She enjoys a variety of sports, rock collecting, and singing in a band. Her future goals are to obtain LEED certifica tion and continue working towards licensure. Kim can be contacted at 612-758-6808, and her e-mail address is kleyda@sehinc.com.