Through the commissions that were in the office of Werner Seligmann, where I received my apprenticeship, my earliest exposure, and where I took a design lead, was to a series of mixed-income housing projects and a long-term contract for the urban renewal of Binghamton, NY.

The top three projects represent projects that were designed in association with Werner Seligmann, but where I took the design lead. 

The middle three projects - all competitions - were projects done shortly afterwards and continue my belief that housing and urban design were to be my future.  It was also my belief that housing design should make a strong statement about architectural form and yet maximize and take advantage of natural opportunities.

Architects don’t need to gamble away their precious money on lottery tickets.  Why should they?  When they get to gamble away their money and precious time on entering design competitions, always hopeful, like the gambler, that this is it - this is the break I’ve been waiting for.

The lower two projects, on the left, were academic projects designed while I was studying in Florence to obtain a mid-career Master degree.  These two examples represent the duality of what is architecture: blending history and classicism with modernity.  At the time, back at Portland Parks and Recreation, I had been re-designing University Park Community Center [now called Charles Jordan Community Center].  Pliny’s Villa, although purportedly a historical reconstruction, was actually the prototype for the new modern community center.  Similarly, the connected campus design for UPCC and the adjacent New Columbia neighborhood was an extension of the Pliny’s Villa design.

The Lucca study also was not meant to be a historical investigation, but an investigation about a city that has two discrete parts that are separated from each other, a city such as Portland.