Why I Do What I Do . . .

As a high school student struggling to find my path for college, I visited an architect’s office in my hometown and immediately “knew” that was the job for me.  Of course, I had no idea what being an architect really entailed, but the thought of drawing everyday and being outside while the building was being built sounded just right to me.  A few years later, after becoming an architect with a commercial firm, I was sitting around a table with a few girlfriends talking about how I really wanted to design houses.  It seemed like work that could really be meaningful, both to the family I was working with and to me.

Now that I am fortunate enough to be designing homes, I realize that each of those steps was necessary to get me to this place.  The commercial architecture experience gave me the technical knowledge to design smart buildings, draw construction details, specify materials, and work with contractors.  Having a family of my own gave me a first-hand understanding of how a home really works and lives and loves.

So here I am, doing work that I love, collaborating with people who seek the same sense of meaning from their own work, and helping families create their own homes that become the background, stage and hopefully, sanctuary where they live out their lives.  It makes me feel like I am making a difference for them by caring about the details that make the quality of their lives better.  Not sure I could even ask for anything more.