Paul Bertelli | Jonathan L. Foote & Associates
Paul Bertelli, Senior Design Principal and President of Jonathan L. Foote & Associates, joined the firm in 1979 before purchasing the firm with three additional partners in 2000. Paul studied architecture at Boston Architectural Center and at Montana State University. Paul is currently a board member of the Montana State University School of Architecture Advisory Council and the Yellowstone Business Partnership. Paul is a much sought-after designer who has created some of the most unique houses in the country. The practice is nationally acclaimed and is published regularly in major design publications. For almost three decades, JLF & Associates has been at the forefront of modern place-based architecture in the American West and throughout the Country, and has fostered innovative breakthroughs that are setting new standards for design-build.
Louis Bieker | 4240 Architecture, Inc.
Louis Bieker is a Senior Associate at 4240 Architecture, Inc, and has been practicing architecture for over 15 years in both Colorado and California. Bieker’s professional experience includes a variety of building types, ranging from museums to research laboratories to mountain resort planning and design. Currently, Lou is involved in many of the projects in Vail, Colo. including the Vail Ritz Carlton Residences, the Lodge at LionsHead Redevelopment, the LionsHead Parking Garage Redevelopment, and Rucksack. He led 4240’s effort on the West LionsHead Master Plan, the LionsHead Arcade/LiftHouse Lodge and the West Vail Conceptual Master Plan. While at another design firm, Lou provided a major role for the San Francisco Airport Commission Aviation Library, Copia Center for Wine, Food and the Arts, and the People’s Hospital in Shanghai, China.
Matthew Dalbey | U.S. EPA’s Development, Community and Environment Division
Matthew Dalbey is a senior policy analyst with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Development, Community and Environment Division, which collaborates with a network of environmental, land use, transportation, design and community-based organizations to highlight the environmental benefits of best practices and innovations in smart growth development. He is a principal author of Communities of Opportunity:
Smart Growth Strategies for Colleges and Universities. He has managed or been a primary team member on projects in Teton County, Idaho; Spokane, Wash.; and Greensboro, N.C. Prior to joining EPA in 2004, Dalbey spent five years on the faculty at Jackson State University in Mississippi where he taught in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning.
Seabring Davis | Big Sky Journal
Award-winning journalist Seabring Davis is the editor-in-chief of Big Sky Journal and Western Art & Architecture. She has written about the trends in architecture around the Rocky Mountain West for the last decade from her home in Livingston, Montana. She is also the author of the forthcoming book, Big Sky Journal’s New Montana Cabin: Contemporary Approaches to the Traditional Western Retreat (Globe Pequot Press, August 2008) and is currently at work on a book about the architecture of national parks.
Darin Dinsmore | Regional Planning Partners
Founded by Darin Dinsmore, Regional Planning Partners is an innovative consulting firm comprised of planning professionals based in Truckee, California that encourages communities to think regionally and act locally. A professional urban planner and landscape architect, Dinsmore and his firm are working to pioneer a new approach to redevelopment that will preserve the distinctive character and environmental resources of communities, by using a comprehensive community-based planning process to plan at both place-based and regional scales. Darin’s unmatched knowledge of Western historic town patterns and best practices in developing vibrant, pedestrian friendly, and compact communities gave him a solid foundation to coordinate the planning of Truckee, California’s railyard development project and the redevelopment and revitalize of Lake Tahoe communities.
John Frece | National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education
John Frece is Associate Director of the National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education and an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland. He has been a spokesman, policy adviser and writer on Smart Growth issues for the past 11 years. His responsibilities include public outreach and response to media inquiries related to Smart Growth generally and Maryland’s Smart Growth initiative specifically. He serves as the Center’s principal staff for the Governors’ Institute on Community Design, a project of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Environmental Protection Agency. At the University of Maryland, he coordinates publications, web page content, writes and edits articles, and assists in the development of Smart Growth educational offerings.
Patrice Frey | National Trust for Historic Preservation
Patrice Frey joined the National Trust for Historic Preservation as their Director of Sustainability after working in the field of community development and urban research. She received a Master's degree in historic preservation planning from the University of Pennsylvania, and certificate in real estate design and development. Patrice completed her Master's thesis on the application of the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED standards to historic buildings. Before joining the National Trust, Patrice worked for the City of Goleta, Calif., where she coordinated the acquisition and preservation of coastal open space. Prior to her time in Goleta, Patrice worked for the Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy in Washington D.C., where she served as the executive assistant to the center director.
David Hale | Hale Development
David Hale grew up in Portland, Oregon and graduated from the University of Oregon in Eugene with a degree in Journalism. After working for a volume homebuilder in Portland, he decided to relocate to Boise to start his business, Hale Development. Since 1997, David has become a leader in developing infill residential and commercial projects throughout Boise. Most recently, he received an Idaho Smart Growth award for his redevelopment of an underdeveloped, underutilized area of downtown called the Linen District — a six block area of downtown Boise that consists of shopping, restaurants, service related businesses and the Modern Hotel. Hale is the first developer in Boise to utilize the Brownfields redevelopment program, which aided in the clean up of contaminated soils and paved the way for the Linen District.
Niles Hushka | KLJ Engineers
Niles Hushka is a Professional Engineer, with KLJ Engineers who covers Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota. His professional memberships include the American Consulting Engineers Council and the National Society of Professional Engineers. Niles is a gifted strategic thinker with the unique ability to articulately convey his vision in a way that inspires and facilitates team and consensus building. He is well versed in funding and business financing strategies and a voracious reader of authoritative business and energy trade journals. Niles is sought out for his insight into local and economic development opportunities. He has an infectious passion for environmental conservation, renewable fuels and their impact on National energy independence.
Ralph Johnson | Montana State University School of Architecture
Ralph Johnson has taught urban and community design at Montana State University since 1986, where he was also the Director of the Community Design Center until 2005. Additionally, he maintains an active planning and design consultancy with an emphasis on providing sustainable, contemporary and creative responses to planning and preservation issues faced by Rocky Mountain communities. He has recently completed a book entitled Building from the Best of the Northern Rockies, which articulates sustainable planning and design principles through case studies. Johnson is the planning consultant to the cities of Manhattan and Three Forks, communities for which he has facilitated and developed master plans, capital improvement plans and community impact analysis.
Grant Jones | Jones and Jones Architects and Landscape Architects
Grant Jones FASLA—landscape architect, poet, and co-founder of Jones and Jones Architects and Landscape Architects—has practiced and preached ecological design for more than 30 years. He and his colleagues’ pioneer methodologies in landscape aesthetics, river planning, scenic highway design and conservation planning—including the Intrinsic Landscape Aesthetic Resource Information System (ILARIS), a micro-watershed GIS modeling system—have set the standard for environmentally responsive design and have brought the firm a stream of awards. Grant received a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Washington, and an MLA from Harvard’s School of Design. He is an Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington, has held academic positions at the University of California, Berkeley, Harvard, University of Oregon, the University of Virginia, Texas A&M, and Ohio State.
Arne Jorgensen | Hawtin Jorgensen Architects
Arne Jorgensen AIA, LEED-AP is a partner with Hawtin Jorgensen Architects, PC, in Jackson, Wyo. where his firm strongly focuses on community involvement and takes great pride in our related work as well as the individual efforts of our employees. Arne has worked on projects including single-family housing, multi-family housing, offices, schools, City and County facilities, light industrial, and commercial uses, with several winning American Institute of Architects Design Awards. He has a long-standing interest and involvement in community planning, sustainable design and affordable housing issues. Arne is currently an emeritus and founding board member (1990) of the Jackson Hole Community Housing Trust, a board member of the Wyoming Community Foundation and was part of the early efforts of the Yellowstone Business Partnership’s Yellowstone Sustainability Framework.
Kelly A. Karmel | Design Balance, LLC
Kelly A. Karmel AIA, LEED AP is a sustainable designer and LEED consultant. She founded Design Balance LLC in 1996 after 16 years experience in architecture and engineering in order to improve building performance and reduce the environmental impact of design, construction and building operation. She advocates energy-efficient, high performance buildings that incorporate natural light, low toxic building materials, indoor air quality and climate-based site design. Kelly holds degrees in architecture from the University of Colorado and civil engineering from Stanford University, and a LEED Accredited Professional since 2001. Design Balance LLC, based Missoula, Montana, consults nationally on a variety of building types including educational, commercial offices, recreation centers, libraries and courthouses. Kelly has authored several sustainable design guides, including the recently published Guide to High Performance Buildings.
Don MacArthur | MMW Architects
Don is a founding partner of MacArthur, Means & Wells, Architects. His firm seeks to create an architecture that contributes to the community, demonstrates leadership in issues of sustainable design, responds poetically to the particularity of the site and climate, and features direct and inventive use of materials. Don, both AIA and LEED certified, has focused on the architecture and planning of residential projects. His work has been awarded state and national awards for design excellence. He is the past chair of the Missoula Consolidated Planning Board and has served on the board for 8 years.
James McDonald | A&E Architects
James McDonald is a Principal Architect and Partner in A&E Architects, P.C, after his firm of 22 years, James R. McDonald Architects, merged with A&E Architects, in 2000. He is also an adjunct faculty member at the University of Montana, where he teaches the preservation course, Architecture of the West. McDonald has extensive experience in the field of historic preservation, restoration, renovation and adaptive reuse of historic structures, which includes providing space for contemporary needs, bringing buildings up to code, new environmental systems and developing historic preservation standards. McDonald recently finished consulting services for the restoration and renovation of the 1902 Montana State Capitol in Helena, Mont. Presently, he is working as the principal architect for the renovation and restoration of the 1904 Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone National Park.
Ryan McEvoy | Gaia Development
Ryan McEvoy is a LEED Accredited Professional and a Certified Permaculture Designer who has been working on LEED projects in the LA area since 2001. McEvoy served as project manager and sustainability coordinator for Yorkshire Development during the design and construction of the Tricom Building, the first building to be LEED certified in the San Gabriel Valley. Through this project, McEvoy was able to introduce LEED to the city officials in Pasadena, who today requires all buildings 25,000 square feet or more to be LEED certified. McEvoy has been an active member of the USGBC-LA Chapter since 2001. As President and Founder of Gaia Development, McEvoy has consulted and managed over 35 LEED projects totaling over 7.5 million square feet in the Southern California area.
Heather McMilin | homeWORD
After graduating with a Master of Architecture degree and a Bachelor of Environmental Design from Montana State University, Heather moved to Missoula in 1998 to work with several architectural firms and deepen her understanding of sustainable building practices in construction and development. Since joining the homeWORD team early 2003 as the Housing Development Director, Heather has received extensive training and experience in affordable housing and expertise in sustainable design and construction. She headed the development team for the four latest construction projects in Missoula and Billings: the Acme, Orchard Gardens, Southern Lights and Equinox. With a strong personal commitment to sustainable practices, Heather sits on the Board of Directors for Home Resource in Missoula and the northwest regional organization, Rural Collaborative.
Lori Ryker | Artemis Institute
Lori makes her home in Livingston, Montana where she is the executive director and founder of Artemis Institute, a non-profit that offers a college level program called Remote Studio that focuses on the relationship between nature and creativity. Dr. Ryker is the author of Mockbee Coker: Thought and Process and most recently Off The Grid: Modern Homes + Alternative Energy and Off The Grid Homes. She was a founding partner of Ryker/Nave Design that focused on ecologically inspired and sustainable architecture. The Wapiti Valley residence received a Merit Award from Residential Architect in 2007. She has taught at Montana State University, Texas A&M and Auburn University.
Kristin Smith | WGM Group
Kristin grew up in Boise, Idaho and spent several years in New York City before landing in Montana. Her passion for helping to guide the changes that are taking place in the Rocky Mountain West led her to the field of planning. Kristin earned a Masters in Geography – Community & Environmental Planning from the University of Montana, and has been a planning consultant with WGM Group for three and half years. She has worked on a wide variety of projects across western and central Montana and is currently wrapping up a viewshed analysis development simulation project for the Northwest Passage Scenic Byway Advisory Team in north central Idaho.
Brian Solan | Morrison-Maierle, Inc.
Brian Solan is a registered Professional Engineer in Montana and a LEED Accredited Professional. He has vast experience on various types of building and facilities throughout Montana, Washington, Wyoming, Arizona and Idaho. He specializes in Energy Efficient and Sustainable Design of HVAC systems, LEED Certification Consultation, Energy Modeling and Construction Management. His experience with Sustainable Design and LEED Certification comes from both a designer and owner’s perspective with the Morrison-Maierle’s new LEED Certified Silver office building in Bozeman. Additionally, Brian brings a practical approach to systems, facilities and sustainable building practices.
Clark P. Stevens | New West Land Company
Clark P. Stevens AIA, APA, is president of New West Land Company of Topanga, California and co-owner of RoTo Architects of in Los Angeles from 1995-2007. A pioneering practitioner of conservation design, he has 18+ years of international experience in architecture and landscape urbanism. He received architecture degrees with distinction from the University of Michigan and Harvard University and been a visiting professor at Montana State, Texas and SCI-Arc. Clark’s honors include National and State AIA Design Awards and appointment to the National Design Awards jury. Clark's work has been featured in the Los Angeles and New York Times, Architectural Digest and Dwell magazines, appeared on television networks, and co-authored the book, Stillpoints: RoTo Architecture. Clark is a licensed to practice architecture in California, Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Hawaii.
James W. Tuer | JWT Architecture and Planning
James Tuer MAIBC, BCSLA, AIA, NCARB, principal of JWT Architecture and Planning, is a trained landscape architect and architect with a career path focused on bridging the two disciplines. These include the design of new communities, resorts and buildings where the interface between nature and the culture of building is key to the project’s success. The majority of Tuer’s professional experience has been in rural environments. His built work exhibits a regionalist approach to design, taking cue from context, culture and environmental factors. In the past 17 years, project has taken him to Australia, Scandinavia, the Middle East, Japan, Korea, China, The Caribbean, Central America, Europe, and throughout the United States and Canada. Much of Tuer’s work focuses on creating pedestrian oriented ‘places’ in mountain, seaside and desert settings.
Terrence Wagner | Bohlin Cywinski Jackson
Terrence Wagner AIA is a Senior Associate with Bohlin Cywinski Jackson in Seattle, where he began on the project team for the Gates Residence in Medina, Wash. Since completion, he has lead the design and documentation efforts for a number of large residential compounds including a ranch complex in western Montana that reinterprets great Western lodges. In addition to his residential work, Terrence has been involved in projects including the Turtle Bay Exploration Park Visitor Center in California and the Grand Teton National Park Visitor Center in Moose, Wyo. Both utilize passive solar strategies, engineered wood products, recycled products and innovative materials and techniques such as straw bale construction. Terrence was educated at Pennsylvania State University and lectures extensively on the architectural use of timber and wood.
Tom Ward | Ward+Blake Architects
Since Ward+Blake Architects inception in 1996, Tom Ward has focused on innovative design on various fronts, particularly environmentally sustainable design. A low impact method of construction utilizing rammed earth led him to successfully seek a patent for his earthquake-resistant post-tensioned rammed earth wall called EarthWall. The world’s first post-tensioned rammed earth residence was built in 2004 with another scheduled to break ground in spring of 2008. Architecture by Ward+Blake architects has appeared in Architectural Digest, Western Interiors and Design, Eco Structures, Environmental Design, Big Sky Journal, and Teton Living. Ward is a native of Wyoming, and received his Bachelor of Architecture from Arizona State University with an emphasis in passive solar design. Ward has practiced architecture in Arizona, New York and Wyoming.
