Kuhn Riddle Architects

Ribbon Cutting at Village Hill

Published November 21, 2011 in Community, Historic, Staff, Aelan Tierney, Chuck Roberts, Sustainability

Northampton Acting Mayor David Narkewicz (above, left), Wright Builders' Jonathan Wright (center), and Mass Development's Nancy Howard (above, right) were in attendance at the recent ribbon-cutting for Village Hill Northampton. 

More information about the event and photos are available from The Daily Hampshire Gazette.

The Next Generation

Published July 18, 2011 in Education, Pro Bono, Staff, Aelan Tierney, Elizabeth Morgan, Teaching

The UMASS Pre-College Summer Design Academy  is open to students who have completed 8th grade through 12th grade and who are interested in design.  Working with practicing architects and UMASS faculty, they spend time designing furniture, rooms, buildings, and landscapes with a focus on the elements that are common to all design projects: space, light, structure, scale and site.

Last week, we were pleased to host them in our office as part of their Pre-Professional component in which students learn about applying to design programs for college, visit a construction site and an architect’s office, and find out how to put together a portfolio of their work.  KRA’s Aelan Tierney discussed how she became an architect and what it is that we do all day.  KRA’s Elizabeth Morgan showed the students around our office, a former movie theater that once served as stables for Amherst College.

Join them (and us!) on Facebook to see what students have been creating.

Net Gain for Social Equity

Published July 18, 2011 in Social Equity, Staff, Aelan Tierney, Sustainability

KRA's Aelan Tierney will speak this Wednesday at the USGBC Massachusetts' "Meet and Greet."  She'll present our Northeast Veterans Training and Rehabilitation Center and will discuss how it achieves a "net gain for social equity."  RSVP's are requested.

Brought to you by the letter ‘A’

Published June 7, 2011 in Education, Staff, Aelan Tierney, Teaching

This spring, Scott Green’s 8th grade history and social science class at Hampshire Regional High School studied Islamic architecture and civil engineering. They produced plans and elevations for a mosque and built bridges and towers with straws, paper, and tape.

Mr. Green asked Kuhn Riddle’s Aelan Tierney to speak to his classes about becoming an architect. Thrilled to share her love of architecture with students, Aelan jumped at the opportunity. She shared the stages of her life that influenced her eventual pursuit of architecture, why architecture inspires her, what it takes to become an architect, and some of the exciting projects she has worked on.

I grew up in my father’s wood working design school, Leeds Design Workshops, in Easthampton, MA. Watching my father draw sculptural pieces of furniture and then turn them into reality inspired me to want to do something similar.

While in high school, I had the opportunity to participate in a program called SITE (Students Involved in Their Education) in which students could pursue internships with local businesses to gain experience in the real world. I knew I wanted to do something creative, so I opened the phone book (yes, this was pre-internet days) and, starting with “A”, did an internship in “Advertising.”  This was followed by an internship in “Architecture.” Fortunately, I wasn’t destined to become a Zoologist. 

Architecture stuck, and I choose to pursue my new-found passion at Carnegie Mellon University.  While in college, I had an opportunity to study abroad in Rome and then spent the summer traveling through Europe. This eye opening experience led me to want to travel and learn more about the world. 

Like many recent graduates in 1992, I found myself entering a job market in recession and without many prospects, a moment similar to today.  In order to put my architecture skills to work while also seeing the world, I entered the Peace Corps and worked in West Africa as a Health and Community Development Volunteer.

Through my Peace Corps involvement, I was able to put my architectural skills to work, providing drawings for renovations of several buildings into the Peace Corps Guinea Offices and Volunteer Housing; renovations of a storage building into a Lepi D’Mali Woman’s Cooperative, a school for girls and women teaching traditional indigo dying as well as tailoring; 10 public latrines for the Mali Public Market; and volunteer hut housing for Peace Corps volunteers.

Since returning to the United States in 1994, I have been fortunate to work on variety of projects, including residential, commercial and educational projects. As I told the students in Mr. Green’s class, I love my job because Architecture influences every aspect of our lives: where we live, where we learn, where we go to work, where we play. Every project is an opportunity to learn about people and how the spaces around them can enhance their lives.

Aelan Tierney

Greenbuild 2010

Published June 16, 2010 in Conferences, Staff, Aelan Tierney, Sustainability

We’re headed to the Windy City this November!

KRA’s Aelan Tierney will be in Chicago to lead a seminar about our Northeast Veterans Training and Rehabilitation Center at the 2010 Greenbuild International Conference and Expo on November 17.

The seminar, “A Net Gain for Social Equity,” will describe how the project team broadened the definitions of sustainability beyond environment and economics to include social equity. The panel will discuss the unique collaboration between two service/educational organizations, Veteran’s Homestead and Mount Wachusett Community College, as well as the technology that went into the project (e.g. 28 geothermal wells and over 8,300 square feet of photovoltaic panels).

Aelan will be joined by Neetu Singh from The Green Engineer, LLP, and Leslie Lightfoot, founder of Veterans Homestead.

More information can be found here.

We’re also going to be leading multiple workshops/seminars at BuildBoston this year. More to come on that later!