DOUBLE TRUFFLE
Honors College alumnus Ayodele Yusuf spends his days thinking big picture as an urban designer at Perkins Eastman, one of the largest urban design firms in New York City. Nights and weekends, he works small, crafting one-inch-square chocolate truffles spiked with rose petals, vanilla, dulce de leche and black tea. Melting chocolate, dreaming up creative ganache fillings and meticulously packaging his creations provide an important outlet, Yusuf said.
“The work that you do with urban planning tends to take a long time – there’s permitting, city approvals, financing, and local buy in,” he said, counting off the challenges on his fingers. “With the truffles, you get instant gratification, and that helps me deal with the day to day.”
An ’06 graduate of the Fay Jones School of Architecture, Ayo Yusuf decided to focus on urban planning because he felt that would give him the best tools to make an impact back home in Lagos, Nigeria.
“Lagos is the third largest city in the world, and it has all kinds of infrastructure problems, and no park system,” Yusuf said. “When you think of a developing country like Nigeria, you need to be 20,000 feet up in the air, rather than working out the design of a particular building.”
Thanks to the training and encouragement he received from faculty mentors like Laura Terry, an associate professor of architecture, and Marlon Blackwell, chair of the architecture department, Yusuf was one of 22 students accepted into the urban design program at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, and one of only two students accepted straight out of an undergraduate program.
“My portfolio stood out because it was the only one with hand drawings in it,” Yusuf recalled. “I’ve drawn a lot from my experience at the University of Arkansas – you can go toe to toe with the best of the best.”
Training, and talent, has helped Yusuf to succeed: three out of his four semesters at Harvard, his work was selected for exhibition, and right after earning his master’s degree, he was hired at EEK Architects, which later merged with Perkins Eastman. There, Yusuf has gotten a jump start on the urban planning he hopes to take home to Nigeria, helping to redevelop Cleveland’s waterfront, working on a master plan for New York City’s Battery Park City and planning community redevelopment zones for areas devastated by Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storms Sandy and Lee.
But Yusuf’s career path has not been entirely smooth and straight. In 2010, filled with doubts about the design profession and what he could accomplish as an urban planner, he took time off to consider his options. During that time, looking for Christmas gifts that he could make by hand, Yusuf decided to try his hand at truffles.
“I knew nothing about truffles and truffle making, but I googled it, and it looked pretty simple,” he said. Within one week, he’d designed a logo and packaging and decided to take truffles beyond just gifts for friends.
In just two years Yusuf has sold more than $1000 of his 100 percent organic, vegan truffles with no marketing beyond creation of a website. He is especially proud to donate 15 percent of his sales to non-profit organizations like the U.S.-based African Leadership Academy, which is training the next generation of leaders for Africa.
Yusuf did return to Perkins Eastman after a four-month sabbatical, and he lights up when discussing his current project: the transformation of an abandoned corporate campus into a 24-hour work-play environment inspired by Google’s campus in Mountain View, Calif.
“You want to give people lots of options,” he said. “It’s about what you produce at the end of the day, not how or when,” he added. Given Yusuf’s dual role as an urban designer/chocolatier, with side projects painting cityscapes and training for the New York City marathon, it sounds like Perkins Eastman has found the perfect designer for this particular project.