Susan Brewer graduated in 2019 with a Masters of Architecture from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. During her schooling, she was heavily involved in the development and administration of various making studios and explored technology including 3D printing, laser cutting, and virtual reality. She has worked for several offices in New York and New Jersey on projects ranging from the very small to the incredibly large, and focusing on renovations, transportation, and solar modeling. In 2022, she achieved licensure in the state of Maine and added a very cool stamp to her list of gadgets.
Susan’s design philosophy is deeply rooted in practical sustainability and cooperative spaces. “Where people spend their lives matters, and it is our responsibility as designers of the built environment to ask questions, and lots of them, until we find the right ones,” she says. “By aligning with the views and needs of others, we can create buildings that respond to their users and arrive at the truest design possible – while also focusing on the future through sensible sustainability practices.”
Originally from Boulder, Colorado, she has lived in most regions of the United States. Between the Arizona desert, the lakes and forests of the Midwest, and her time spent in New York City, a desire to have nature at her doorstep led Susan to Portland shortly after finishing graduate school. When not experimenting with computational design and data visualization, she dabbles in an impressive array of creative pursuits, including woodworking, fiber arts, and model making. Her true calling, however, is to admire dogs of all varieties and parent her own menagerie of canine misfits.