While walking in Rome one evening, I asked my kids about what they noticed was different about life in Italy and their life here. Aside from “I can’t get stracciatella gelato every night,” they actually picked up on some of the principles that had been part of my architectural history and urban design classes, although in […]
Notebook
Kitchen Collaboration
So excited to see this great collaboration in Birmingham Home and Garden July/August edition. Working together with a talented friend made this project such a pleasure! View Article in Birmingham Home and Garden‘s July/August 2017 Issue
Changing the Lens
We recently returned from a long planned family vacation to Italy, specifically Rome and Venice. I spent a semester in Venice in graduate school and traveled fairly extensively in Italy during that time, and my husband and I had also spent our honeymoon there 18 years ago. Those long ago trips were recorded not only […]
This Is How It Starts . . .
One of the downsides of my early morning boot camp is that the music will be on repeat in my head the rest of the day. Sometimes that is good. Sometimes, it is not. The other day, the Colbie Caillat song, “This Is How it Starts” got stuck. Stop me on the corner Swear you […]
Tiny Dog Trot House
The Birmingham Chapter of the American Institute of Architects recently presented an exhibit at the Center for Architecture in Birmingham entitled “Living Small,” which explored the multiple ways that “tiny living” has been realized all over the world, including here in Birmingham. As an addition to the exhibit, Birmingham Home and Garden magazine collaborated with […]
Telling Someone Else’s Story
My first years in a firm consisted of working on master plans for large scale institutions, commercial buildings, historic preservation and boutique retail. I loved working on these types of projects: I found them challenging and fulfilling. I started doing residential design after my first child was born, and, at that point, considered the shift […]
A Brief Primer on Architectural Terminology
A little bit of history first. I did not attend an undergraduate architecture program. I made my decision to go to architecture school during my junior year, after I had already committed to an art history major (although I ended up concentrating in architectural history in that department.) I spent a good deal of my […]
To Build or Not to Build
I am fairly certain that these are the questions I am asked most frequently in casual conversation. “We’ve been talking about this for a while . . .” “We’ve been looking at houses but haven’t found what we wanted . . .” “We love our street and don’t want to leave it.” Honestly, as an […]
