Emily Howard ’94 and her colleagues are responsible for your safety and the few sacred inches of Plexiglas between your hands and the barracuda at Discovery Cove in Orlando, Fla. This, her “favorite” project since becoming an architect, allowed her to create the sensation of swimming with sharks simply by angling the glass to create an illusion of invisibility.

A graduate of Cornell’s three-four program with Washington University in St. Louis, Howard completed a master of architecture degree in 1996 and specializes in entertainment architecture. She works for Peckham, Guyton, Albers & Viets Inc. in St. Louis, where she also teaches an architecture graphics course at Washington University.

A Cornell class on Chicago architecture altered her life by inspiring her to become an architect. The block took her to the city itself and was team-taught by Hank Lifson and Richard Thomas. “This class was instrumental in helping me make my career choice. I’ll never forget it,” says Howard, who loves to spend time renovating her 106-year-old Victorian home.

Emily Howard ’94 is an entertainment architect whose projects have included Discovery Cove in Orlando and Sea World San Diego.

She credits One-Course-At-A-Time with preparing her for graduate school by teaching her to “jump in and tackle the tasks at hand without hesitation. OCAAT taught me to explore and initiate ideas thoughtfully and expeditiously, which continues to be an asset in my architecture career,” she says.

Howard is currently involved in the design phase for a park-improvement project with Sea World San Diego.