More than 20 years ago, when it was time for Joan Robinett Wilson to head off to college, she was open-minded.
The Snohomish native’s first major was international affairs at Georgetown University. When that didn’t really click with her, she tried a chemical engineering track at the University of Puget Sound, a direction she rejected after a particularly rough organic chemistry class.
Finally, however, she ended up on the right path.
Architecture, she found, offered the ideal mix of creative and technical opportunity.
“I like math. I’m artistic,” said 43-year-old Wilson, who graduated from the University of Washington in 1988 with an architecture degree. “It’s kind of art and science combined. I really love the creative process, coming up with ideas.”
Wilson worked for various firms after graduation, including Bassetti Architects in Seattle, where she helped design Mary Gates Hall, the stately center for undergraduate education at the University of Washington.
When she and her husband, Craig, had their second child, however, she decided to work part-time from home.
Today the Wilsons have three children, ages 2, 10 and 14.
Wilson’s schedule is now busier than ever, but having her own architecture firm allows her to work only on the projects that suit her, particularly residential remodeling and new home construction.
“It’s so fun to do houses because it’s so personal,” she said, relaxing at a gargantuan granite island in her kitchen, an ideal meeting place in her rural Snohomish home.
One of Wilson’s favorite architectural styles is called shingle.
Popular in the United States between 1880 and 1900, it’s a traditional, simple approach to design often involving shingle siding, steep roof lines and extensive porches.
Wilson recently designed a shingle-style home — a gray manse with large windows and white trim just outside Snohomish — featuring a variety of subtle architectural embellishments.
Overhanging eaves, a large gabled roof and an eyebrow-style window on the second story add visual spice. Flared exterior walls at the base of the structure and a square tower with a third story add sophistication.
“It’s a grand structure, but the shingles take it down a notch,” Wilson said of the home, which overlooks a picturesque wetland. “It’s homey.”
Wilson also has experience with smaller projects.
Karen Guzak of Snohomish said she enjoyed working with Wilson on a two-car garage with carriage-style doors to perfectly suit her historic Snohomish property.
“She’s a great collaborator,” Guzak said, adding that Wilson’s easygoing, down-to-earth style allowed her to express her design ideas in the project within the confines of codes and building requirements. “She has a fairly strong-willed client. That’s me. We just had a great time.”
Reporter Sarah Jackson: 425-339-3037 or sjackson@ heraldnet.com
About this series: This is the seventh installment of a Home &Garden series on local architects. Do you know a great local architect? Contact reporter Sarah Jackson at 425-339-3037 or write sjackson@heraldnet.com.
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