staff

Rob Harrison, Principal

N. Kim Pham, Project Architect

Lydia Marshall, Project Architect

Frith Barbat, Interior Designer

Matthew Throssell, Intern Architect

Amanda Reed, Summer Intern

Rob Harrison, AIA - Principal

I have over 29 years of experience as a design professional, including 22 years as principal of my own firm. I grew up in a small town in northeastern Ohio and studied architecture at the University of Toronto. From my first project onward, my school work centered on sustainable design. My thesis (with my teacher Alberto Perez-Gomez) was inspired by my summer in Seattle in 1978. Titled The Return of the Seasons, it was a landscape art project in High Park in Toronto that explored ways of connecting architecture with the cycle of the seasons. After graduation from University of Toronto in 1979 I moved to New York City and pursued parallel careers in architecture and music. I worked as a draftsperson for Buckminster Fuller and Isamu Noguchi, for residential architect Alfredo DeVido, and later as a modelmaker for Cooper Eckstut Associates (master planners of Battery Park City), and recorded and performed music with Glenn Branca, Sussan Deyhim, and Christian Marclay among others. In 1984 I opened my own design office. My practice in New York included high end residential interiors and commercial office renovations. I returned to Seattle in 1990 to pursue work in line with my values. In 1992 I opened my own office again, dedicated exclusively to green architecture.

A co-founder of the Northwest EcoBuilding Guild, I was executive editor of the Guild's journal EcoBuilding Times from 1993 through 1999. I was a board member of the Pike Market Child Care Center from 1992 through 1996, and developed specifications for the use of healthier materials and finishes for a renovation at the Center. I have facilitated workshops on green design at Building with Value '93 and '96, Celebration of Community, and for permit reviewers at King County DDES. I have given talks at the Sustainability: From Ethics to Action conference, for University of Washington students and the City of Seattle rainwater conference, as well as for members of American Society of Interior Designers, American Institute of Architects, Voluntary Simplicity Association, Seattle Tilth, King County Master Recyclers and Northwest EcoBuilding Guild chapters in Seattle, Portland and Olympia. With my firm I have been a participant in AIA Seattle's "What Makes It GREEN?" program since its inception, and I served as a panelist in 2004.

Education

• Architecture + Children Level I Workshop
  An integrated approach to the education of children through architecture, this workshop is preparation for teaching the curriculum in schools, or involving children in the process of design.
• University of Toronto
  Bachelor of Architecture 1979
• Hiram College, Hiram, Ohio 1973 - 1974
  Studies in comparative literature, history of art and architecture.

Professional Registration

• Washington

Affiliations

• American Institute of Architects
• Northwest EcoBuilding Guild
• Seattle Tilth
• BuiltGreen

N. Kim Pham - Project Architect

I have come to see a building as a living organism. It is in this aspect of living that a structure sustains and renews itself with time. A successful building will not only integrate all its diverse systems, that is, structure, heating and cooling and so on, but also its dreams and desires, as well as its constraints and limitations, into a coherent and uncompromising whole that all can be friends with, that all can interact with and continuously discover. The house is not only comprised of its physical realities but also its metaphysical ones: It is a vessel to hold our experiences.

The design process to me then is one of careful listening, of discovering this life force. Design always stays within the realm of the measurable but longs for the immeasurable; the ground of the form and the formless.

A former pilot in the Vietnamese Air Force, after the war I returned to college and studied architecture. I finished my graduate studies at the University of Washington; lived, studied and worked in Italy for over a year, taught design studios for ten years, and practiced as an architect in Seattle since 1993.

Professional Experience

• HARRISON architects  Seattle, WA  October 2007 - Present
  
• Suyama Peterson Deguchi Architects  Seattle, WA   2000 - 2007
• KimPham Architects  1993 - 2000
• Bassetti Norton Metler Rekovics 1988 - 1993
  

Teaching Experience

• University of Washington, College of Architecture and Urban Planning; Graduate and Undergraduate Architectural Design Studio Lecturer    1990 - 2000
  

Education

• University of Washington, Seattle WA, Master of Architecture, 1987
• University of Washington, Seattle WA, Bachelor of Art in Architecture, 1980

Professional Registration

• Washington

Lydia Marshall - Project Architect

Two decades of practicing residential architecture have taught me to ask bigger questions, to observe, listen and then engage and to care for people and place with humility.  It gives me the opportunity to combine my love for this region’s specific qualities with a specific set of client needs and values, creating at that intersection wonderful places for people to live.

I was born in the Pacific Northwest and lived in Alaska for seven years between undergraduate and graduate schools.  My affinity for our mountains and waterways, the quality of our light, the nature of our neighborhoods and the nature IN our neighborhoods are integral in my approach to design.  I recognize residential architecture as a privilege and an opportunity to expand how people think of and engage in their rhythms at home.  At the same time I have learned to study the greater context while examining the details, and am in the process of both learning and teaching strategies for responsible building.

Architecture is a constantly evolving discipline that I seek to practice with “beginner’s mind.”

Professional Experience

• HARRISON architects  Seattle, WA  June 2008 - Present
  
• deForest Architects  Seattle, WA   2000 - 2006
• Stephen Sullivan Architects  1994 - 2000
• James Cutler Architects 1988 - 1994
  

Teaching Experience

• University of Washington, College of Architecture and Urban Planning; Graduate and Undergraduate Architectural Design Studio Lecturer    - 2008, Guest Reviewer since 2003.
• Teaching Assistant for the Sustainable Building Advisor Program, 2008-2009.

Education

• Sustainable Building Advisor Program, Certified SBA 2008
• University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, Master of Architecture, 1988
• Smith College, Northhampton, MA, Bachelor of Arts in Printmaking, 1976

Professional Registration

• Washington

• Barbat Design
• Harrison Architects
• Lue Palmer, ASID
• Susan Stanfield, ASID
• Kravet/Lee-Jofa, Seattle Design Center

• Bellevue Community College, Diploma of Arts (Interior Design), 2002
• Sophia (Jochi) University, Tokyo, Japan, Japanese Studies, 1986
• University of Queensland, Australia B.A. Linguistics and Japanese, 1985

Matthew Throssell - Intern Architect

The summer after sixth grade, I took a two week course in architecture that culminated in the design of a home. This was my first exposure to architecture and design. That experience stuck with me and after high school I found myself in Bozeman, MT ready to study architecture. Many trials and late nights later I feel extremely fortunate to be starting down my professional path, exploring the opportunities and possibilities that architecture provides.

• HARRISON architects Seattle, WA,  December 2007 - Present
• Artemis Institute and Montana State University, Pray, MT  Fall 2006     

• Mullen Heller Architects, Albuquerque, NM  Summers 2003 - 2005
• Sandia National Labs, Albuquerque, NM   Summers 2003 - 2005 

• Montana State University, Bozeman, MT. BA in Environmental Design, 2008

Amanda Reed - Summer Intern

I am currently pursuing a Masters of Architecture degree at the University of Washington and am particularly interested in integrated ecological design, with its attention to unique site character, responding to local climate, and the health and beauty of our planet. At school I have actively pursued taking courses in climate analysis, energy modeling and integrated design practices. I am excited to begin to see how this all comes together in the real world of architectural practice at Harrison Architects.

Professional Experience

• HARRISON architects Seattle, WA, Summer 2008
• Built Green, Bellevue, WA, 2005-2006

Education

• University of Washington, Seattle, WA, Master of Architecture, expected 2009

Study Abroad: Architecture in Scandinavia, Summer 2007
Graduate Courses in Sustainability: Environmental Control Systems, Spring 2007; Integrated Systems, Spring 2008; High Performance Buildings, Spring 2008

• Sustainability Seminars, Seattle, WA, Jan 2005 – June 2006. Variously hosted by the NW EcoBuilding Guild, City of Seattle, Built Green, & International Sustainable Solutions.

• Reed College, Portland, OR, Bachelor of Art in Art History, 2003

Finlandia Foundation Trust Fellowship, 2002-2003
Commendation for Academic Excellence, 2000-2001 & 2002-2003