top stair studio

Small mixed-media works on paper and wood panel.

My current art takes cues from industrial places like ports, railyards, and electrical substations, and is informed by my urban planning work on behalf of essential operations and infrastructure. I am intrigued by the public’s simultaneous resistance to and reliance on these places.

Mostly, though, I just want to make art that someone else thinks is beautiful, and maybe even takes another’s breath away for a second.

Click here to see my paintings.

Planning and design for college and university campuses
and atypical infill sites.

I am a consulting and advisory planner for urban campuses and infill sites. My work helps university leaders and architectural teams make informed decisions, and represents institutional and user perspectives within larger municipal processes and contexts.

Services include:

• Major Institution Master Plans (MIMPs-Seattle only)

• Internal & External Development Review

• Regulatory Research & Compliance

• Capital Planning & Capital Plan Coordination

• Physical & Program Planning

• Infrastructure & Operations Planning

• Long-Range Planning & Implementation

• Community Engagement Processes & Presentations

• Reports, Plans, Graphics, Maps, Development Alternatives, & Executive Summaries

I am drawn to odd, unusual, or complex sites and processes, and enjoy the challenge of finding clarity in chaos by bringing disparate ideas and plans together into a coherent whole. My skills lie in diagramming and mapmaking, writing and editing, physical planning, development review, city process, capital planning, and cross-jurisdictional, cross-departmental collaboration.

My years as an urban designer and internal University planning staff form the foundation of my sensible, pragmatic approach. I believe good planning leads to more accurate project scopes, better project outcomes for more user groups, and a more cohesive and functional campus and neighborhood environment overall.

The plans I write, the graphics I create, and the documents I publish are clear and focused. I believe that anyone should be able to review a plan and immediately describe to their neighbors, donors, or colleagues, in a few sentences, exactly what it proposes and why it is important.

I am a certified urban planner through the American Planning Association. All planning work I do aligns with the APA’s Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct. As AICP, I place special emphasis on the long term consequences of present actions, and I believe in seeking to understand all perspectives regardless of whether I agree with them.

Creative strategies for living in nontraditional spaces with kids.
Coming soon: sample projects, common misconceptions, regulatory obstacles, overcoming cultural and political barriers, shedding stuff and expectations.

I am fascinated by accessory dwelling units (ADUs). My family and I like to attend ADU events, and for years we have been living in or among them. We recently lived in a Detached ADU (DADU*), and now we live in a 3-home community with two Attached ADUs (AADUs).

I’ve been drawn to living smaller for a long time, and we finally did it as a family for four years, from 2019-2023, when our kids were 5 and 8 until they were 9 and 12. The range of interest and curiosity from others has been fascinating, as has the criticism. This project is a way to start a conversation about first: wanting less, second: owning less, and third: pushing against related societal expectations.

Our DADU home was a 715 SF one-bedroom, one-bathroom standalone unit located behind a larger house in the city. It was easy to live there because we didn’t squeeze a bigger-house life into a smaller house. We just adopted a completely different mindset: rooms are multi-purpose, open space is more important than furniture, Shikibuton floor mattresses are more mobile than beds, and noise-canceling headphones are essential.

Small space living is a charged topic in the United States. Some families want to live small but can’t, others don’t want to but must. Many face regulatory obstacles and anti-density attitudes. Many share small spaces with extended family or friends or roommates by choice or by circumstance. And many have no housing at all.

Because the current development pattern in the U.S. is unsustainable, those of us who have a choice can learn to live in less space ourselves or at least find creative ways to carve out new space for others…and find the kindness to welcome them.

Our cities’ zoning codes are modernizing to make small and nontraditional living options available for all kinds of families, and community support for required occupancy, parking, and dwelling unit changes is growing. However, big challenges remain around rising materials and labor costs, a lack of funding support faced by small-unit developers, and increasing pressures on invisible infrastructure built decades ago. And in many cases, it is more expensive to build a small ADU than to build a large single family house due to construction costs and cumbersome regulatory processes.

I believe that thoughtful design, layout, and livability optimizations, as well as consistent challenges to dominant conventions, can make small and nontraditional living work well for families who otherwise wouldn’t choose it, and can improve conditions and options for those who are forced into it. And while housing alone won’t solve the many issues of equity and access and climate change and…and…and, thinking and acting with more intention and compassion around housing choices can help.

My colleague and I have several projects in the works, so stay tuned!

*Ours was a DADU in physical form and location only, as it was on a parcel subdivided from the main house parcel at some point in the past. Like traditional DADUs, the parcel does not abut the street, there is an easement for access, and the house is behind another house. But it is not a true DADU because it is the principal—and only—structure on its parcel. The owners live locally but not on the adjacent parcel. Our new home is part of a 3-unit community including 1 SFR and 2 AADUs.

Field photos of what draws me in.

My photography is about seeing and noticing, not thinking or analyzing. And, in keeping with my commitment to simplicity and accessibility, it’s about using what I have that’s easiest—a basic phone camera—to capture my home and my city, at any moment, without the constraints imposed by rules, equipment, or intellectual gatekeepers (both the internal and external kinds).

I like this approach because anyone with a camera can do it! Just pay attention to what moves you, what elevates your feelings, and what brings you to life. Then move in close, get down low, or look up high. Press the button, and see what happens. Sometimes the photos turn out, and sometimes they don’t. But it’s never about the final photo, anyway.

Click here to see my photos.

Small mixed media works on paper.

I like to paint about what people leave of themselves in places: a lost mitten in snow, clothes on a clothesline, and utility wires against the sky.

Art that starts with free stuff my kids bring home. (Artist Residency in Motherhood, 2019)

This project was a way to use (and be less annoyed by) all the free plastic stuff my kids kept bringing home: stuff from friends, teachers, birthday parties, even the TSA. Why is there so much, and why is generosity tangled up in it?

I used the objects themselves to apply paint to paper and to kick off the creative process. By the time I took photos, the free things were bent (see slinky) or had their faces rubbed off (see witch). The final project collection includes 52 toys and 52 mixed-media works on paper.