Emily received her Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Virginia in 2006 and her Master of Architecture from Princeton University in 2010. She graduated at the top of her class and received Princeton’s Henry Adams AIA Medal for academic excellence. Her portfolio includes high-performance projects at every scale – with an emphasis on institutional facilities, public works, and progressive multi-family housing -and spans across ten years and multiple firms in New York City. After a decade of navigating the subway, however, she finally relocated to Portland in pursuit of a walkable commute.
Emily is thrilled to now be living in Maine, where the cozy woolen garments she produces as a professional knitwear designer are not only beautiful, but also incredibly practical. Her extensive background in architecture heavily influences the stunning and complex patterns she creates for handknitting. In addition to requiring an eye for geometry and technical details, the design of high-performance buildings and knitwear also share a fundamental goal of keeping people happy and warm!
As Senior Architect at Kaplan Thompson Architects, Emily embraces design as a mechanism for strengthening communities and reversing climate change. She considers a building to have the same potential for active environmental stewardship as the individuals who use it, and endeavors for her designs to mutually support this mission.
Her work also celebrates change and the joy of really using and getting to know a space. Subtle yet dynamic details – like surfaces that interact differently with light and shadow from season to season, or materials that weather or patina over time and with use – allow the spaces she touches to continue to surprise and delight their inhabitants long after a project is complete. “Great design has the power to endure without being static,” she says.