Every place on earth has a voice. This voice resonates from the shaping events that have long passed and the current conditions that continue to give each place its individual character. The voice continually evolves as the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth leaves its trace. This voice in its endless variety of forms expresses the beauty that is inherent within each and every location on earth.

The potential of architecture is the translation of this voice into human terms and the formal declaration that we as humans play a meaningful part in the cycle. The guiding forms, surfaces, substances of architecture allow the human body to move in grace, unhindered, and inspires the mind to sense the essential connection between matter spirit; between the individual and the whole.

The role of the architect is to become sensitive to this voice; to silence the mind enough to hear, and to respond to it in material form. The resulting dialogue between the edifice and the encompassing site reaches a certain completeness that enriches the living experience of the end user, bringing the wandering mind to the present long enough to inspire the thought that "I belong here, among all of this."

The technical training required in order to gain an inherent understanding of structure and materials takes years of experience in the field of architecture. However, it has been the focus of my graduate career to further develop this sensitivity to the site and make my first attempts at formulating an architectural response, suggesting structures that could achieve this engagement with the end user and the site itself.