Nature & Nurture...

From my first memories, I have had a heart for the natural world.

Southeast Oklahoma was a beautiful place to grow up, surrounded by mountains, lakes and trees. Like many kids near nature, I built forts, climbed trees and caught tadpoles. A full life meant spending a lot of time outdoors, tagging along to check the cows, participating in Scouting and fishing with my Dad.

Learning about caring for the land was inherent in these outings. Environmental stewardship became concrete through many wonderful experiences in Scouting. My Scoutmaster, Mr. G, taught us that "we always leave things better than we found them”.

Finding Home...

By age 10, my friends and I rode bikes and skateboard everywhere in town. No smart-phones, kids! I just had to be home by dinner. This time was during the late 80’s, and the Internet had not yet brought everyone inside and online.

After I found Architecture in college, I knew I had found my calling. I think that most architects are inborn with a love of nature. Designer-types just appreciate its underlying order, unity, and freeness.

After college, my heart ached to work on projects that centered on sustainable thought. However, I found the hard truth was not very green. Many architects and their clients saw sustainable design as an additional effort, added cost, or technical difficulty.

I experienced a paradigm shift in 2011 when I became the Oklahoma Main Street Architect. Although I had always felt an innate love for the old parts of town, I soon discovered why.

It Takes a Village...

At Main Street, my focus is assisting our program’s Main Street America™ communities to protect, restore and modernize their historic buildings. I also provide direction on district-wide planning and development issues such as walkability, upper floor re-use, public improvements, and municipal policy, among others.

Working with many grassroots community groups has provided a stream of insight into something genuinely sustainable. Seeing a home, historic property, neighborhood, or even an entire community discover its heart again is such a rewarding experience!

I also appreciate modern, high-performance buildings. In 2015, I was the first licensed architect in Oklahoma to become a Certified Passive House Consultant, CPHC®. The Passive House is the most energy efficient building standard available today. They are air-tight, efficient, quiet, healthy, resilient and very inexpensive to operate.

In 2017 my family relocated to colorful Colorado where I accepted a new duty as Colorado's Main Street Architect. This transition seemed like a bit of providence and we don't ever plan to move again. Now, a year later we are growing roots and are even more in love with our new home.

Lost America...

From working in so many beautiful rural downtowns, I realized that the American Dream was in jeopardy! Through disinvestment, the quality small-town community life that I remember as a youth is becoming harder to find.

A half-century of poor development has caught up with us! These practices were our demise as we championed sprawling development; driving a bit further, and building bigger less-efficient homes to own and operate.

Strong downtowns gave way to strip malls. Unique became homogenized. Boutiques became big-boxes. Vernacular building traditions lost to mass production, and popular culture reigned over good sense.

Our Greatest Generation, the Baby Boomers, and many Generation X’ers (like me) have experienced living in sustainable communities. We “shopped local” before it was a thing, lived close to the land, ate homegrown produce, enjoyed parades and favored relationships over things.

Will our environment, communities, and local heritage continue to decline? It is our decision. If we become a little more conscious today, we can live fuller lives, build a better tomorrow, and pass down a legacy to our children.

The Road Ahead...

The genesis of this blog began when I woke up in the middle of the night with a wild realization. I grabbed a notepad and wrote…

In a sort of vision, I felt like I was standing at a crossroads where green architecture, sustainable planning, and historic preservation all met together.

At this crossroads I observed many relationships and synergies between each field of study. Even more, I felt like from this place anyone in a community could take part in creating a better place to live, work and play.

I hope to relate concepts of sustainable design and seek new insights, though looking back at history for practical solutions lost over time and reuniting them with the best modern thought and technology.

We will focus on the realms that we all experience in our communities: our homes, neighborhoods, and downtowns. The principles of sustainable development prove these realms are firmly connected.

Every existing home and building, every plot of land, and every community has a unique story, and you are playing a part. How will you shape these places?