August 6, 2025

ALSC Architects

Aitchison

Cousins

Stepp

ALSC Architects has hired Braden Stepp. As a new project architect he will lead design efforts and oversee technical documentation from conceptual design through construction documents. His early career experience includes tenant improvements for CollinsWoerman and working in mass timber manufacturing and integration across various project types for Vaagen Timbers. Most recently Stepp worked for Uptic Studios where he designed custom homes. Stepp earned a Master of Architecture degree from Washington State University in 2020.

Ula Cousins has been hired as an interior designer, offering a decade of international experience in landscape and interior architecture. Cousins owned and operated her own design studio in Poland where she designed public spaces, kindergartens, hotel rooms, playgrounds, and bike trails. Cousins holds a master's degree in landscape architecture from the Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences and a postgraduate diploma in interior architecture design from The Strzeminski Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz, Poland. She also studied Spatial Planning at the Faculty of Architecture of the Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Wroclaw, Poland

Sarah Aitchison has joined the team as an architectural intern providing project architect support, especially in sustainable and high-performance design. She works in design and drawing production, currently focusing on K-12 work within ALSC's High Performance Studio. Aitchison has a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Alfred State College, New York, and began her career at small firms focused on high performance residential retrofits, deep decarbonization projects, and new construction - including Passive House certified and Zero Energy Ready buildings - and contributing to K-12 educational projects for Chicago Public Schools.