Growing up just outside of Washington, D.C., I was lucky enough to be exposed to many different types of architecture and quite a variety of new construction. My father was a tinkerer and our house was ever-evolving. I learned a great deal from him in terms of common sense and a huge variety of important hands-on subjects.

My interest in architecture began in my sophomore year of high school, when I took my first CAD class. My mother had always inspired me to accept nothing less than my very best and, by my second year of