construction in the summer or that I didn’t know how to draft were things that played against me all the time. I didn’t learn how to draft because they wouldn’t let me take a drafting class when I was in the eighth grade. I had to take homemaking. There were these obstacles at every turn. After a while, it became a challenge: “I’m going to show those guys. I am going to be what they think I cannot be.” I graduated in 1977. I got my master’s degree. I had done an internship in Philadelphia with a firm that did urban design. I was very interested in urban design, and so I primarily worked in nonprofit planning organizations in Houston. I later worked in real estate development for a couple of years and then moved to Boston with my husband. He had a big job, and I was a housewife for two or three years because my daughter was a baby. I was not happy doing that. I really wanted to work. I wanted meaningful work outside of the home. And again, people would tell me, “Okay, you haven’t worked in a while. Why would we give you a job? What do you know how to do? Can you do door schedules?” I hadn’t had any experience doing that sort of regular architecture. Eventually, I went to work for the city of Boston. It was a really interesting job, working in the neighborhoods of Boston doing neighborhood development. We would go into a small neighborhood, into their business district, work with people, give them loans and do design work for their facades. It was also my first opportunity to be the boss because they hired me to run this small department of six people. It was exciting for me. We got some state grants. I had a great staff — mostly people from Harvard and MIT. It was great to be in the mix with wonderful people during a very volatile time when neighborhood development was a difficult subject in Boston. After a few years, I applied for a fellowship at Harvard, the Loeb Fellowship, which is a well-known honor that includes a year of study at Harvard. They select about eight or nine people a year. It changed my ability to see and understand myself. It was great to be with the Loeb Fellows, many of whom went on to great things, and to have the experience of being at the Harvard Graduate School of Design with its incredible faculty. It made me understand architecture in a completely different light. I learned about architecture as a field of ideas, a field of philosophy and an expansive revelation about human life. It helped me become an academically minded person — to see architecture more broadly and as an important cultural touchstone. And because it really changed my perspective, I decided, “Wow, it would be so great to be a professor. I think I have a lot of knowledge, things to give and a 15-year record of working in the field.” I went to the dean of the Harvard Graduate School, who had been a professor of mine back at Rice, and said, “I want to be a professor.” He didn’t laugh or anything, he said, “Sure, I have these three jobs on my desk, which one do you want to do?” He just called up the people, and I got interviews. I knew nothing about academic interviews. They called me and said, “Want to come interview?” I said, “Sure, how about tomorrow? I’ll fly out tomorrow” (because this is the way business does business). Academics don’t do it that way. They have a three- or four-day interview where you have to talk to every single person on the faculty individually, and then you have to talk to the students as a group. You have to talk to the alumni as a group. You have to talk to the donors as a group. And you have to give a talk. When I landed at the airport, the professor who met me said, “We’re so looking forward to your talk.” I’m like, “What talk?” This was not the time when you could go to your computer and pull up whatever you were doing. This was a time when you needed to have your slides all prepared. I had nothing. So, when I was talking to the graduate students, I told them my dilemma and they said, “Well, we have your portfolio here. Let us make some overhead projector slides.” And they did. I did the interview, and they offered me the job that day, which in academia, is unheard of. I found out later it was really late in the season, and schools were desperate for people for the next year. I was the only woman again, and it was an advantage to be interviewing as an urban designer. So, I went to the University of Cincinnati. I was a professor of urban planning, which was a very good position to be in. Schools of Architecture can be hard on you, but my experience as a planning professor was great. Everyone helped me and mentored me. The students were terrific. I had great experiences. I began to write. I worked with people to write two books, and I wrote a lot of articles. I met my partner, and we established a practice in architecture. I was able to finally Corryville Recreation Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, with David Scheer Eight tiny houses on typical Salt Lake City lot. Utah Design Arts Award Urban Design plan for Carmel, Indiana 11
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