[excerpt] … Why am I an architect?” It’s the architect’s lament. Sometimes it’s easy to forget. In creating a talk for other architects a couple of months ago, it suddenly became clear: Beauty.  It’s the “why” for me, and what’s often lost in the maelstrom of building.

The house you see in this piece is finally nearing completion. A great builder, clients and site facilitated a decade of focus on the essence of why I decided to become an architect. Of course it took thousands of my office’s hours, at every level of design, bidding, construction, and detailing, but there was a core mission: beauty.