Meet the Team

I track, organize, and communicate to help move our projects forward. Basically, it is solving a puzzle. There are always many things happening simultaneously across projects and timelines, and my job is to make sure we work as a team so that no detail is left behind. I love that our work connects us to landscape and to place, and that what we design is shaped by the environments we live in and by the stories each of us brings with us about home. My background in theatrical design and management allows me to dig into the design with our team and the client, while tracking the project's needs and limitations of timeline, schedule, and budget. The people are what keep me here, and I am proudest of the team we have built.

I handle everything behind the scenes that keeps the wheels rolling, from payroll to legal compliance to business development, CRM management, and HR. For most of my career I have been involved with people and improving their homes, and learning what each person actually needs, then giving them a solution that works for them and their family, is what keeps me coming back. My belief is that a home has to fit how you are going to use it day in and day out. Be honest about how you actually live rather than what everyone else expects, and you will end up with a home you love a great deal more. I am good at finding proof in the details and catching small issues before they bloom into larger ones. Bringing two good design firms together into Mottram & Maines is the work I am proudest of.

I am the firm curmudgeon. When I am not being annoyed by technology, I find solutions to architectural problems: sketching, drawing, collaborating, documenting. Simplicity and intention go hand in hand, and that belief shapes most of what I put on paper. What keeps me here is the aha moment when the pieces of the puzzle finally fit together. If I have a strength, it is the power of observation and a sensitivity to unspoken data, which is to say I notice what people do not say directly about how they want to live. I designed the entrance addition to the Boys and Girls Club in Portland about twenty five years ago, and it still feels timeless every time I drive by.

Most of my day is spent modeling projects in three dimensions in a program called Revit. I create the geometry and assign material properties to it so the model represents the building brick by brick at full scale in a digital space. That model can then be captured from different angles, cut, and exploded to create all the working drawings for the project. I have an eye for the technical, so as a project moves from early design into the construction drawing phase, I add the more practical elements that make a space comfortable and complete. Living spaces are an extension of the individual. We cannot put someone in a box that does not reflect their eccentric, messy self and expect them to flourish. When all the disparate pieces come together into a full construction set, that is something I am proud of.

I work with the architectural team and interiors. Depending on specific project needs, I come in at initial design or once space planning and interior architecture start to develop. From there I work closely with clients to develop interior details, design cabinetry, select fixtures and specify materials. My background in interior architecture gives me a unique perspective from the inside out. I think about ergonomics, flow, and user experience very early in the design process. What does it feel like to prep a meal at your island? Can you reach everything you need while maintaining a conversation with the guest on the other side of the island? My call to design traces back to my contractor dad and the love of the smell of sawdust he instilled in me at and early age.