What does an architect do that is different from a General Contractor or a drafting company?

An architect has had a rigorous education to become licensed. We are required to work at an internship for at least three years after we graduate with a professional degree before we can take the licensing exam. (I was licensed in 1989.)

• I have a four-year undergraduate degree in Fine Arts with a double concentration in studio art and art history from Amherst College, a highly competitive liberal arts college. 

• I have a three- and half-year Master of Architecture degree from the University of Virginia, which was one of the top programs when I attended from 1982 to 1986. Jack Robertson was the Dean of the UVA School of Architecture and he brought in amazing colleagues to lead our studios, like Dimitri Porphyrios and Clemente di Thiene. During this time, I learned the Beaux Art method of design. We created a clear parti and then developed our building from that basic driving concept. 

• I have European design sensibilities. I lived in Rennes, France my senior year of high school. I actually studied Art and Architecture history in high school, when I attended Miss Porter’s School, Farmington, Connecticut and the year I was in France. My junior year I spent a semester on Trinity College’s Rome Program. We lived in a convent on the Aventine Hill. I had intense studies in art and architecture of Rome. 

• I was a mentee of Jay Dalgliesh of Dalgliesh, Gilpin, and Paxton for four years. Jay was an incredibly talented high-end residential designer. I was his right-hand project architect at the time. He refined my sense of proportion and design.