Through architecture, Julia Miner, AIA, NCARB brings stories to life. The Principal of East Side Studio Architects in Concord, MA, Julia’s design work responds, first and foremost, to her clients’ hopes and dreams. She weaves that individual story into the greater context of local climate, topography, materials and culture. She has coined the term The Poetry of Place,™ to explain this process of distilling a myriad of conditions and narratives into an efficient, artful building design. Historic preservation and renovation have been a specialty — exploring the narrative of the setting and the people and creating spaces and forms that respond to modern lifestyles. As a Renaissance woman, Julia is a leading voice in the architecture and art community. She has been featured in AIA Voices, Metropolis Magazine, the Arizona Republic, the AIA Journal Drawing Awards, and various book reviews. She has taught planning, architecture and drawing at the college level and given book talks and workshops in schools throughout New England and the Southwest. Prior to starting her career, Julia joined the first class with women admitted to Dartmouth College and earned a Master of Architecture at Yale; afterward, between working for award-winning architecture firms in Connecticut, New York and Boston, she gained inspiration from her travels to Europe and the Middle East. In 1990, she moved to a historic adobe house in Arizona. While starting a family, she delved into architecture projects, paintings, book illustration, and teaching at ASU. After a decade, Julia returned to Massachusetts where she has continued to create a poetic sense of place through her design work.
A sense of timelessness can make a building or home remarkable. I recently visited a large project I completed decades ago. As a suburban retirement community, its purpose doesn’t conform to the more standard principles of smart growth, which include mixed demographics and walkability.
Continue reading >