Susan believes good design is born of an alchemy of collaborative relationships: with clients, the land, the built context and community, other design specialists and the building crew. A modernist at heart, she has been designing since childhood starting with modular pods and furniture, later studying art and earning a Bachelor of Architecture from Penn State. Her background includes residential and institutional architecture, project management and estimating, book illustration, gardening, and carpentry skills from working on historic homes and the two antique wooden boats she stewards. 

Free time finds her on camping road trips, rowing and solving cryptoquote puzzles. She raised two sons in Philadelphia.