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PrintTips & Trends: Profiles
Roger Strout: Strout Architects, inc. Sharon Burdick-Place:Trading Places Interiors, inc. Pete Moyer: Moyer Builders, ltd.
By Kisa Koenig
(page 1 of 3)
Roger Strout earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1968. He says he first thought about his chosen profession when he was in high school. “I enjoyed reading design publications and magazines like Sunset,” he says. “I was graphically artistic, and loved drafting/drawing studios. I worked with an architect one summer, who turned me on to Berkeley.” Starting out in California, Roger moved to Jackson in 1981, where he practiced in a partnership for a couple of years before launching his own firm in 1984.
TH&L: What is your approach to design in the Tetons?
RS: Creating living environments that are responsive to and reflective of the natural environmental context and the homeowners’ needs and objectives.
TH&L: What is your style? Do you have a signature?
RS: I avoid having a signature style that consistently identifies my work. I want my work to be a direct response to my clients’ needs, objectives, goals, and dreams; an environment reflective of their life and lifestyle, and the natural setting in which the structure exists.
TH&L: What do you enjoy most about the business?
RS: Design, and mentoring the young talent in our office.
TH&L: What are you planning for in the next ten years?
RS: Keeping the business alive and healthy. I want ultimately for others to be able to take over and continue what I feel has been a successful practice.
TH&L: What’s has been your most interesting project?
RS: All our projects are interesting and challenging, but the most unique project was a residence in which the design incorporated a system of cable supports to hang a good portion of the house over a steeply sloping site. The fundamental purpose of this was to minimize impact to a beautiful, heavily wooded, sloping site, as well as to create an elevated deck area that could take advantage of the views, as though you were up in the tops of the trees.
TH&L: What is something else people should know about you?
RS: I support an orphanage in Mexico, and view the children as part of my family. I raise funds through our church, and try to go down there at least once a year to perform some construction/repair work on their facility.
