About 516

The meandering path

I have always had my own business “on the side” of having a full-time job with an architecture firm or design build contractors. 

 After graduate school, working in Portland with the Neil Kelly Company – a “Design Build” firm – had a big impact in my future path. Design and construction – not just paper drawings and philosophical discussions on form vs function but actual building and budgets and reality sales calls.

Working with a construction company so early led to an appreciation for the collaborative process with the contractor and all the various trades.  I am comfortable on the job site and approach design in a more practical way.

When I moved back to California, I worked in St. Helena for Leong Architects doing high end residences and wineries.   I opened Studio 516 in California in 2009 and worked with an interior design firm, running the business when the owner went on maternity leave. I then worked for a Backen & Gillam architects ..now Backen and Backen as well as their sister company DOOR by AEB and the Regenerative Practices Department .  More information available upon notice of any interest.  

I absolutely love what I am  doing and where this meandering path has taken me. I look forward to connecting with  others who want to reflect their ideas into reality with me. 

Historical Perspective: Roots

I have had a belief that you really do control your own reality and helping people ‘make their own reality ‘ but creating their home has turned out to be an excellent way to improve people’s lives.  I have early memories of  playing at the construction site when my parents built our home in Kenwood with an architect, Bill Knight, who looks a lot like Santa (!)   I attended an all-girls high school which at that time did not offer drafting – but I petitioned to take the course at the adjacent campus for boys and was the first of 3 girls to do so. I built a round house and used real carpet for my model – a great first lesson of Scale – proportional to the model the carpet turned out to be 3 feet tall. Who needs glass ceilings when you can have round rooms with 3 ft deep carpet.