Nice to Meet ‘Ya!

My design story began when I was about three years old. During preschool playtime, I was the only little girl building towering cardboard skyscrapers with the boys. As I grew older, I began to build homes for my Polly Pockets using Jenga blocks. One day, around the fifth grade, my parents came home with a 3D architectural design computer application they had purchased on the sale rack at Staples. I became even more obsessed with buildings and would find floor plans in design books and recreate them. When I entered high school, I was eager to sign up for the Architectural Design course, where I was lucky to have learned AutoCAD and Revit early on in my education.

After three years of architecture classes in high school, I then went on to earn a Bachelor’s degree in Historic Preservation & Community Planning, with a double major in Art History. Learning about the history of architecture fascinated me, and studying in Charleston filled me with inspiration. I then moved to Washington, DC, to work as a Space Planner for a federal agency undergoing a large renovation of two historically significant buildings.

After working for a year, I decided to pursue a Master’s degree in the fall of 2020 while continuing my full-time job. Balancing both work and school has been an invaluable opportunity to learn about the design world from both the government and commercial perspectives. My day-to-day duties include procuring furniture, managing small construction projects, and acting as a subject matter expert in historic preservation.

In my limited spare time, I enjoy dancing, attending concerts, making jewelry, and spending time with my two cats. Aside from design, dance has been another constant in my life. I have been a dancer since my earliest memories, and though I have taken breaks over the years, I always return to it. Dance helps reset my brain after a tough week, and it also inspires my design work.

I hope that my education in preservation, my work experience as a Space Planner, and my art, are evident in my design work. This is just the beginning of the work I can produce, and I cannot wait to see what other projects I may get to work on in the future!