Scott Edwards Architecture Promotes 5 to Principal, Evolves Leadership Team
As we rang in the new year, Scott Edwards Architecture also celebrated another new beginning—the promotion of 5 individuals to Principal at the firm: Hayley Purdy, Jason Wesolowski, Jennifer Marsicek, Jesse Graden, and Margaret Wilson. Alongside this momentous change, our leadership structure has also evolved to add the role of Associate Principal, with 6 earning that designation this year, and we’re celebrating the addition of new Senior Associates and Associates as well. These promotions and internal structural changes position SEA to concentrate on initiatives that are important to us and will inspire our firm’s direction for many years to come. We are excited to see how this broadened base of leadership will spark fresh energy and perspective, foster opportunity, and strengthen our culture of design.
At SEA, the principal group is collaborative in decision-making and in charting the firm’s path forward. Hayley, Jason, Jennifer, Jesse, and Margaret were selected to join ownership not just for their design acumen, leadership ability, and substantial body of work, but for their diverse passions and unique personalities. Each of their skill sets and subject matter expertise contribute something distinctive to the collective. They are joining Founding and Managing Principal Sid Scott, Managing Principals Alden Kasiewicz and Brian Mares, and Principals Peter Grimm and Rick Berry, growing SEA’s number of Principals to 10.
As part of this piece, we share more about our new Principals and Associate Principals, what drives and inspires them, and how they approach their work. We also take the opportunity to introduce our Senior Associates and Associates, individuals promoted to these roles because of the significant contributions they make to SEA’s design work, firm operations, and company culture.
Principals
Q: Can you tell us about your personal and professional background?
A: Answering the “where I’m from” question is tough because I’ve been fortunate to have lived in many places, but how I usually answer this is to say the areas that have been the most impactful in making me who I am. I spent the most formative years of my youth in New Jersey, along with years spent abroad in Switzerland, and many years as a young adult in New York City. I pursued architecture as a career because for me it was a perfect confluence of my interests and strengths—physics, math, space planning, and art. As a kid, I often rearranged my room, picking out wallpaper and bedroom decor, getting everything just right. When I was 10, my parents let me redesign my bedroom with an entirely black-and-white palette, including white carpet. Very architect-y, and honestly very brave parents.
Q: What are your strengths as a designer?
A: My process is to create a very client-oriented, feedback-influenced architectural response that puts people first. I create spaces for the community, and in my process, make space for community involvement and engagement. In addition to that, I put my focus on detailing and the execution of the details. Design needs to be executable, as it’s what brings the vision to the forefront and ensures a successful project and client-first response.
Q: Do you have a favorite typology or area of interest as a designer?
A: Community-focused design. I enjoy designing spaces that can be appreciated and enjoyed by more than one person. It encourages me as a designer to ensure that the design is thoughtful, engaging, and inclusive. Architecture and considered design create opportunities for the community to come together in places to be experienced for the greater good.
Q: What personally motivates you in your career?
A: As the mom of a young son, I believe it’s important to be a strong female role model for him. In addition, I have many impactful mentors in my career, some of the most notable being women. I want to continue to support, mentor, and bring up others around me. Watching others find opportunities to excel in their careers is a major motivator for me and part of the reason I’m excited to be a Principal. It provides me a platform to do more to support and create opportunities for those around me.
Q: Why are you passionate about being a leader of this firm?
A: In addition to my passion for mentoring, I’m excited to be a leader at Scott Edwards Architecture because of how unique the firm really is. When I joined in 2015, I immediately sensed that the culture here was not typical of my past experiences in architecture firms—there is a focus on people, on work/life balance, on community-minded projects, on placing people first—you don’t find that everywhere. As a professional, I acknowledge that we spend most of our lives at work, so what better place to be a leader than somewhere we can say we thoroughly enjoy spending our time? I’m passionate about promoting and continuing this strong culture that I’ve been so fortunate to be a part of since moving to Portland.
Q: What do you hope to accomplish as an SEA principal?
A: For me, as a Principal, I want to pursue and provide opportunities to engage in projects and work that is rewarding for everyone — designers, clients, consultants, and the community. I want to create and continue longstanding and new client relationships that I’m proud of and that the firm can be proud of. I also hope to support and build on SEA’s equity and diversity initiatives, because this is critical to how we work and the places that we help create.
Q: Can you tell us about your personal and professional background?
A: I am a Pacific Northwest person for sure. I was born and raised in the Portland metro area. I attended Portland State University for my architecture degree, and in my last year there, I worked at SEA and experienced the real-world applications of what I was learning. Even as a kid, I’ve always enjoyed the technical side of design, the “putting together and taking apart” of components to make and to understand. I’ve also always been intrigued by buildings and drawings of buildings, so it’s probably no surprise that I pursued a career in architecture.
Q: What are your strengths as a designer?
A: My passion is in the details and the technical side of things. On project teams, I’m often in a project management or detailing-type role, and that’s because my strength is really in taking a design, no matter how complex, and bringing it to fruition. I enjoy fitting all the puzzle pieces together to create places that not only meet but exceed expectations.
Q: Do you have a favorite typology or area of interest as a designer?
A: I really can’t say that I have a favorite type of project or area of interest. What I’m most interested in is the challenge of learning new things. I’ll jump into any project type, and I really enjoy them all. Recently, I’ve been most intrigued by brewery and distillery projects and large hospitality projects. I think it’s because of the varied needs within them-–they often have guest-facing spaces that need to function a certain way, then also back-of-house components that require specialized design. As a designer, you get to learn everything that it takes to run a restaurant, brew beer, or make a golf resort world-renowned. How architecture can help improve these experiences for all parties is something I love figuring out.
Q: What personally motivates you in your career?
A: I am an avid learner, and this motivates me in my career and in my personal life. I like to see what’s happening under the hood and look for ways that I can fix it or make it better somehow. In architecture, I can see how good design improves lives, and because of this, I’m motivated to contribute what I know about good design to the built environment.
Q: Why are you passionate about being a leader of this firm?
A: My love of learning has made me passionate about teaching because I think passing on the knowledge that I have gained is really important. It can’t stop with me. That’s what I’m most excited about when it comes to being a leader at SEA—helping create an environment that supports well-rounded designers and a culture of learning and making our work stronger.
Q: What do you hope to accomplish as an SEA principal?
A: I hope to continue building on our efficient processes and standards, refining them to streamline and strengthen what we produce. As a Principal, I also want to facilitate internal education processes that carry forward beyond me and that help designers learn how to approach different typologies, how to understand their clients, how to assemble buildings properly, and how all these components come together.
Q: Can you tell us about your personal and professional background?
A: I was born in Washington, and grew up in the state as well. I was lucky enough to attend a great high school, where I took classes in woodworking, ceramics, drafting, and these classes really introduced me to the world of architecture and were a foundation for lifelong hobbies. I learned that the University of Oregon has a great program, and after attending an Oregon community college on a volleyball scholarship and earning state residency, I transferred to U of O. The architecture program here further proved to me that the career’s balance of creativity and analytics was an ideal fit.
Q: What are your strengths as a designer?
A: I’ve found that working with large stakeholder groups, particularly for public projects, to develop designs is a strength that I have. I like to listen to different groups of people, learn what matters to them and what they need, and distill the ideas down into a design that is both functional and meaningful. My strength is also in seeing potential in existing buildings that may not be obvious and using architectural solutions to make the most out of those opportunities.
Q: Do you have a favorite typology or area of interest as a designer?
A: My favorite type of projects to work on are those that enrich people’s lives. For me specifically places that provide recreation, community, arts, and enrichment are my primary passion. The architecture of these places interests me on several levels. As a designer, they can be complex, and that makes an interesting puzzle to figure out. And personally, I think because I’m active in volleyball and pursuits like ceramics, I understand how valuable these spaces are to people’s well-being.
Q: What personally motivates you in your career?
A: My answer to this is connected to my favorite types of projects. I’m personally motivated to improve the lives of individuals and the health of communities. I like knowing that the places I contribute to have the potential to help people grow and thrive and help deliver vital public services. It’s a fulfilling feeling.
Q: Why are you passionate about being a leader of this firm?
A: Being a leader at SEA means that I can continue a culture that has been so valuable to my growth. I can not only pass on what I’ve learned, but support the professional growth of those around me in all areas—as listeners, designers, critical thinkers, mentors and mentees. I’m also passionate about expanding the public work that we do and demonstrating good design that is both practical and meaningful.
Q: What do you hope to accomplish as an SEA principal?
A: As Principal, I want to continue the work of increasing diversity in the firm and in leadership roles, and I want to continue building our internship program to inspire the next generation of designers. I also hope to bring in public and community-based work that sparks in others the same enjoyment and professional fulfillment that it has in me, and that I think is a big part of what makes SEA a great firm.
Q: Can you tell us about your personal and professional background?
A: I grew up in Montana, and ended up in the Pacific Northwest after graduating from the architecture program at Montana State University. Is it stereotypical to say that I was a Lego kid who liked to build forts and draw, and that’s what drew me to architecture? Even at a young age, it’s all I remember wanting to do. You experience buildings your whole life, and there’s something about capturing space, shaping it, that resonates with me.
Q: What are your strengths as a designer?
A: I think my strength is about being able to visualize space and understand how putting the pieces together is going to feel for those using it. I’m good at living in both worlds—seeing the big picture and the details simultaneously—and I can be relentless in my pursuit to understand, and then craft, what that space is meant to be. If I were to use an analogy, I’d say it’s akin to fashion design. What is every article and piece of an outfit doing? Belts, buttons, buckles, the texture and feel of fabric, is it waterproof, does it breathe? And then when you take a look at the whole thing together, does it work? Does it make sense? I am good at making the parts and the whole make sense (except maybe not ACTUALLY fashion…).
Q: Do you have a favorite typology or area of interest as a designer?
A: Places that juxtapose an experience with something unpredictable are compelling to me. Same with large format infrastructure buildings—there is something cinematic about this type of architecture. I think putting something unexpected, like a four-star restaurant inside the Hoover Dam, how fantastic would that be? Creating the circumstances for things to happen and making people think and question is a part of architecture that I love.
Q: What personally motivates you in your career?
A: Giving what inspires us a chance. How can I help peel back the veil that prevents things from being both functional and compelling? I want to set up the conditions that lead to a building where people experience not only its basic purpose (and done well, of course) but do so in a way that makes that experience feel special.
Q: Why are you passionate about being a leader of this firm?
A: I want to be a catalyst for people to make the best work that they can. Design is a collective effort, and every single step of every single project is unique, so how do we balance all the components? I’m passionate about being a leader at SEA because I think there is a way that we can question everything while still operating within a framework, getting to the essential ‘Why’ of it all, and producing better design because of it.
Q: What do you hope to accomplish as an SEA principal?
A: I think my answer to this is a continuation of the other answers. I want to bring a sort of professorship to the firm—cultivating a place of making and learning that leads to strong, balanced, and meaningful designs. I want to help facilitate an approach that considers the story of who will use the space and how they’ll use it. And I want to bring emotion and playfulness into the experience as well. If as Principal I can accomplish making this type of work environment, then I’d be happy.
Q: Can you tell us about your personal and professional background?
A: My interest in the field started in a pretty non-traditional way—in high school, I was active in the theater and loved set design. I thought I was passionate about designing complex set designs for movies as a career but once in architecture school, realized that my true passion was designing real buildings that have a real impact on people’s lives. After undergraduate school and working for a few years in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I moved to Oregon. While I earned my Master’s degree from the University of Oregon, I worked at a small healthcare firm. This work influenced the direction of my career and set the foundation for my love of healthcare design.
Q: What are your strengths as a designer?
A: My biggest strength as a designer is to come up with responsive floor plans that are highly efficient and functional, but still leave space for wonder and delight. In project management, I excel in bringing forth great designs that are considerate of people and place, and I am good at simultaneously looking at a very small detail and the big picture and determining how one changes the other. Because of this, I like leading complex projects—it’s a great feeling when all the pieces come together.
Q: Do you have a favorite typology or area of interest as a designer?
A: I care deeply about healthcare design, in particular community design for wellness. In so many ways, our healthcare system is broken. We spend so much of our resources in emergency care when we’ve had ample opportunity to intervene much earlier in the health process. Although, I love all types of healthcare design but find the ones that concentrate on wellness to be the most fulfilling. I find intersectional projects that combine healthcare with residential, retail, or community spaces enticing because we can utilize a multi-typology approach to make stronger designs.
Q: What personally motivates you in your career?
A: I am personally motivated to help create places that support community wellness because I believe that so much of the human experience depends on it. And really, my motivation all goes back to people. I enjoy helping clients build whatever it is they’re passionate about—we get to collaborate with people who are realizing their life’s work in built form, and the responsibility and opportunity in that is inspiring.
Q: Why are you passionate about being a leader of this firm?
A: For better or worse, I spend a lot of time analyzing the architectural process, how we work, and how we can grow as designers, and how we lead projects. Because of this, I think that I have a lot to offer to SEA’s culture of design and project management processes, and as a Principal, I’ll be able to really lead through example. I’m passionate about driving unique thinking and exploring different methodologies to create great projects, and it’s important to me to create space so that all ideas can be heard and support environments that are open to new ways of doing things.
Q: What do you hope to accomplish as an SEA principal?
A: I want to find opportunities to make all aspects of our designs, our firm, our collective experiences, incrementally better. For me, this looks like pulling from what we already know and rethinking things in a new light simultaneously, then rebuilding our approaches based on this examination. I want to be a mentor but also someone who learns from everyone around me because regardless of experience level, we can all learn something from everyone. And I want to be an advocate for those from historically marginalized groups, both within the architecture industry and by practicing good, equitable design in our communities.
Associate Principals
The Associate Principal role is new at SEA and we’re excited about the opportunity it offers to both individuals as they grow in their career and to our evolving leadership team. Their energy, unique strengths and focuses, and ability to lead, has us looking forward to the direction our firm is going.
Alexi Meuwissen grew up in the Portland metro area, and after seeing and experiencing all the great things the Pacific Northwest has to offer, can’t imagine living anywhere else. She earned her Marketing and Advertising degrees from Portland State University and like many A/E/C marketers, sort of fell into this industry and learned to love and appreciate the important work that each firm contributes to bringing a building to life. When asked what it is about marketing A/E/C that she enjoys, she’ll tell you that the community aspect, and the vital role that the built environment plays in society, make for meaningful work to market. Alexi also shares that she’s personally motivated to inspire the next generation of women in the industry to challenge barriers and strive for leadership roles within their firms. Her days are busy balancing parenthood, work, and volunteering for industry organizations, and she’s eager to demonstrate that it can certainly be done, and done well.
Alexi is driven to create positive energy and growth at SEA, and she’s passionate about being a leader here because it allows her to contribute her marketing and business development experience to firm decision-making. As Associate Principal, she’s looking forward to working closely with the entire leadership team to develop goals for building meaningful relationships and pursuing opportunities that lead to the type of design work we want to be doing. Alexi will also continue to promote programs within the firm that help push our JEDI efforts forward and contribute to the longer-term professional growth of staff.
Brandon Dole has lived in the Portland area for over 20 years, moving here from the Southwest and attending the University of Oregon and Portland State University for his Architecture degrees. He realized early that this career path aligned with his creativity, interest in art history, and desire to make a positive impact. Doing good architecture, using design to positively shape how people experience the world, is a personal motivation, as is providing opportunities for other young designers to be inspired and excel in their own careers.
Reflecting on his path, Brandon shares that he’s always had examples of strong leaders, and he credits this as being part of his professional growth. He’s passionate about being a leader who is available to others to learn from and be supported by. Brandon is also passionate about making and building upon connections with those outside of SEA—from community members to clients to design partners, he views the work he does as a team collaboration, and that team is more extensive than often meets the eye. As Associate Principal, he hopes to continue growing the firm’s work in the public sector and find opportunities to offer what he’s learned practicing this type of design to the larger architecture community.
Dave Mojica was born in California, grew up in Colorado, and attended the University of Florida for his Masters of Architecture program. Before moving to the Pacific Northwest nine years ago, he lived in the Northeast and worked on a variety of new construction project typologies across multiple markets. His path to architecture was non-linear, as before getting his Masters, he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a focus on Architectural History and worked in museum curation. It was here that he rediscovered a connection between art and the built environment and decided to pursue a career that would allow him to integrate the two. This integration is indicative of his personal motivation to create meaningful, community-based places informed by context and culture.
Dave believes that the best projects are those where the design process encompasses the voices of diverse design teams, committed contractors, owners, and clients, and those who will one day occupy the space. He’s passionate about bringing this approach to his role as a leader at SEA and helping cultivate an environment of connection-building. As Associate Principal, he’s eager to continue leading SEA’s internal Design Forum and finding new ways to promote engagement and the firm’s design culture. Dave’s focus is also to forge connections outward, helping the firm identify opportunities to participate in the broader architectural community’s knowledge-sharing and continue his efforts as the founder of AIA Oregon’s first Housing Advocacy Committee.
Jill Arnold grew up in Arizona, attending Arizona State University for both her undergraduate and graduate degrees in architecture. When she was young, when her friends wanted to play house, she would often spend hours drawing the house, not realizing that she was actually drawing a floor plan. She also started noticing the built environment around her and was inspired by how present architecture is in our daily lives. She decided to pursue it as a career when she realized the impact design has on communities and how much it aligns with her strengths and interests.
Jill draws her personal motivation from the desire she has to give back. Her primary focus is in healthcare architecture, and her decision to design this typology originated from her experience as a child when she had family members in and out of medical care. Jill saw firsthand how architecture influences how a space feels and functions, and she cares deeply about providing good design for the betterment of all. When asked why she’s passionate about being a leader at SEA, she shares how valuable the culture of mentorship and design at the firm has been for her growth, and she wants to play a role in continuing it. As Associate Principal, she plans to be accessible as a resource to staff and demonstrate compassionate design. Jill believes in the value of being able to wear many hats and that being an architect skilled in all facets of the profession allows you to follow your own path and allows you to be successful while doing it.
Sara Ruzomberka grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and even as a young kid knew she wanted to be an architect. She enjoyed playing with Lincoln Logs and Legos and was also interested in fine arts, all the components that lead to architecture, or so she’s heard. She attended the University of Illinois for her undergraduate degree and took an opportunity to study abroad in Versailles, France, where she grew to appreciate Neoclassical architecture. Between her undergraduate degree and graduate program at the University of Oregon, Sara served as a construction manager for Habitat for Humanity, where she learned the sequencing of building single-family homes and how paramount design for constructibility is in practice.
Sara’s personal motivation has evolved over the years, first focusing on learning and growing as quickly as possible, and now centering more on creating a positive project experience for all parties involved—designers, consultants, the client, the contractor, and those who will use the space. She’s passionate about continuing the culture of SEA that she loves and feels that as a firm leader, she’ll be able to add the value of her experience, transparency, and open communication. As Associate Principal, Sara wants to encourage involvement by younger staff in project ins and outs and hopes to promote an environment that supports mentorship and investment in everyone’s collective success.
Tom Byrne’s background is well-traveled, to say the least. He was born in Canada, lived in Australia as a young child, and spent the rest of his childhood growing up bouncing between Australia and Bend, Oregon. His high school drafting class inspired him to pursue architecture, and he attended Central Oregon Community College, the University of Oregon, and a study abroad program in New South Wales, Australia. He then practiced architecture in Brooklyn, New York, and Sydney, Australia, before finding his home here in Portland. Tom is personally motivated to bring order to entropy, incorporate sustainability into his work, and to use design to encourage civic engagement and responsibility.
Tom approaches his work with the intent to make places that are both meaningful and beautiful, and he’s careful to consider non-material elements like daylighting and placemaking as he develops his designs. As a leader at the firm, he’s passionate about inspiring others to be just as excited about all the components of architecture as he is and looks forward to fostering an environment of learning. When asked what he hopes to accomplish as Associate Principal, he shared that he’d like to keep building the scrappiness, sophistication, and expertise that make SEA’s approach unique, and pursue projects that continue to diversify the typologies we’re designing.
Senior Associates and Associates
We are thrilled to share our newly named Senior Associates and Associates. Each individual was selected because of their leadership within the firm, demonstrated ability to encourage and inspire, and efforts made to produce excellent work and contribute to all that makes SEA great.
Senior Associates
Associates
