matter+spirit
designing
to grow in
spaces
offering services in design, organization, feng shui consulting and education,
and design communication
About me:
I enjoy many things in life, design being one of the most important. Working with a diverse array of individuals and organizations to create beautiful, balanced and functional spaces is my role in life. Long treks in the mountains, woods and deserts inform my sense of order in the natural world, which in turn makes its way into the design work I do with clients. Studies of feng shui, environmental psychology and human consciousness contribute to my understanding of intuitive design.
Formal education includes a B.Arch. from the University of Arizona, S.M.Arch.S from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a PhD in urban cultural geography from the University of Colorado at Boulder. I held an architectural license in the state of Colorado from 1987 to 2019.
I am a graduate of the Essential Feng Shui Practitioner Training at the Western School of Feng Shui (2001), and have have also studied feng shui and building energy with Karen Kingston and William Spear.
My early interest in architecture might have been sparked by meeting FLW in Scottsdale at the tender age of two --but more likely it began with the multitude of floor plans I drew after our family's Sunday drives that included stopping at just about every "Open House" we encountered along our route. Other weekends were spent camping in the mountains or at the beach, where I was immersed in Nature's play of sights, sounds, textures, light and color, and scents.
Having been told by a guidance counselor in the 9th grade that "women do not become architects, I signed up for Mechanical Drawing anyway and waited impatiently for the one project that involved designing a building! When I did begin to study architecture in college, I was indeed drawn to Wright's work, as well as many Scandinavian architects. A semester at the Royal Academy of Architecture in Copenhagen, and a summer with the graduate MIT team at the International Laboratory of Architecture and Urban Design in Siena offered more inspiration in the direction of the natural relationships among people, the built environment and Nature. More recent studies in feng shui and human consciousness deepened my conviction that the built environment can reflect and support the growth of the human spirit.