Quinn says he knew he wanted to join the team at Kaplan Thompson since he first began his undergraduate studies at the University of Vermont in Burlington, and we have years of email correspondence as proof! After completing an intensive architectural foundations program in Copenhagen and discovering his love for creating shelter, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Ecological Design and a Minor in Green Building and Community Design. For years he worked in residential home construction before attending the Rhode Island School of Design and graduating with a Masters in Architecture in 2021.
A native Mainer, Quinn is especially passionate about regional and place-based design. His graduate thesis focused on the community fitness of coastal and rural Maine towns with seasonal economies. He believes architectural intervention can introduce economic diversification, mitigate rural isolation, and combat climate change, and embraces sustainable design as a means of boosting his home state’s socioeconomic and environmental well-being. He strives for his work to find “a balance between the built and natural environments that equally celebrates and conserves what or who came before it.”
Outside of the office, Quinn enjoys applying his design and construction knowledge to his own home renovation projects, snowboarding, camping, boating on Casco Bay, and catching live music in downtown Portland. He is also often spotted on local beaches and trails, where he harvests all sorts of tidbits and detritus (including bird nests and old buoys) that he assures us can be made into lamps.