Bisnow’s Weekend Interview series conducts informal interviews with CRE business leaders to discuss both how they are shaping the industry and to chat about their non-work related interests and opinions.

Read an excerpt from Katia’s interview:

Bisnow: If you could make one change to the industry, what would it be?

McClain: CRE sometimes is locked in silos: hotel and leisure, residential, industrial, retail and office space. It would be amazing to see more sectors integrated into new projects in a holistic and cross-functional way.

There are a lot of financial, wellness and equity goals that can be solved when we consider the benefits of combining these sectors into one project. For example, daytime retail in a lot of downtowns is not thriving, since there are still many workers who are not back in the offices.

But what if we had built housing and offices as combined projects? I think our downtowns would be doing much better if that had been the case.

Katia McClain serves as managing principal for Steinberg Hart’s San Jose office. With nearly three decades of experience leading large-scale projects for civic and education clients, she is a well-known leader in CRE, focused on bringing sustainable and innovative projects to California.

McClain’s experience has led her to work with diverse clients and communities across Mexico and the U.S. She serves as the board president of the San Jose Downtown Association, a board member of the Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley, a member of the SJ Downtown Design Committee and a founding member of the Women in Architecture Committee for the American Institute of Architects‘ Silicon Valley chapter.

Read the full interview here.