architecture<\/strong> doesn\u2019t begin with the blueprint\u2014it begins with noticing. One Tuesday afternoon, I found myself walking from a site meeting through a neighborhood I\u2019d never wandered before. The contrast was jarring: brutalist offices next to vibrant mural-covered cafes. I started asking different questions. How do we design transitions? What does harmony sound like in materials?<\/p>\nDC isn\u2019t shy\u2014it\u2019s layered, political, poetic. I\u2019ve learned to listen to the tension. In designing a civic space last spring, I borrowed from the way Dupont Circle<\/strong> handles chaos\u2014with curves, flow, and pause. That project challenged me to work outside of symmetry, to let form follow emotion for once.<\/p>\nIn the studio, I hold onto those fragments. A conversation about public seating at a bus shelter led me to rethink pedestrian experience on a project I was managing. The client appreciated the care, though they didn’t know where the idea came from. I didn\u2019t tell them it started with a woman sitting cross-legged on the edge of a planter, eating a sandwich and smiling at strangers.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s architecture. It\u2019s quiet. It\u2019s observation. It\u2019s giving shape to kindness, or confrontation, or memory. And DC keeps me honest.<\/p>\n
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