Our Story
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Our practice is named after Baseline Road, a landmark near our home that marks the Earth’s 40th parallel north. We were drawn to the idea of a baseline as something foundational and steady, a quiet reference point that grounds and orients. That idea continues to shape how we think about architecture and place.
We met at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD). In the decade after earning our Master of Architecture degrees, we moved to California, built our architectural careers, and started a family. After our second daughter was born, we relocated to Colorado to be closer to family, find our forever home, and raise our girls against the backdrop of the Rockies.
Founding Baseline Design was part of a broader recalibration. In the years following Juta’s recovery from a medical condition, we became more intentional about the kind of practice we wanted to build. Our experiences across regions and firm types helped clarify the values that now guide our work, and Baseline Design grew from that focus.
We share similar values but bring different ways of implementing ideas, which has made for a strong partnership in both life and work. We serve as sounding boards and counterpoints for one another, relying on dialogue, iteration, and trust. While we each begin with a clear and straightforward design process, it is the exchange of perspectives between us, our clients, and the site that ultimately strengthens the work.
Creating a sense of place is central to every project we take on. That sense may come from a site’s context, a material vocabulary, or the way spaces support daily life. We see place as something discovered through collaboration, where a client’s identity and priorities are distilled into architecture that feels rooted, specific, and fitting.
Above all, we love the process of design and believe strongly in the power of architecture to engage and challenge, to calm and delight, and to heighten everyday experience. Whatever the project, we are passionate about creating spaces that people genuinely love to inhabit.
Our Approach
At Baseline Design, we see architecture as the alignment of design, performance, and lived experience. Our approach is grounded in rigor and guided by judgment. Every project balances technical demands with clarity, restraint, and a strong sense of place.
We begin with context. Site conditions, climate, zoning, and building codes shape every decision that follows. We spend significant time understanding these forces early, not to limit design, but to give it structure. Clear parameters allow more thoughtful questions to emerge and more durable solutions to take shape.
Design is central to our work. We are interested in proportion, light, materiality, and how spaces are experienced over time. Our aim is architecture that feels calm and deliberate, contemporary without being tied to trends. We do not pursue a fixed style. Instead, we focus on forms and spaces that feel appropriate to their setting and meaningful to the people who live in them.
Performance is woven into that design thinking from the start. Much of our work is informed by Passive House–level performance thinking, used as a framework rather than a prescription. Building science helps us understand how buildings actually work so that comfort, durability, and efficiency are integrated quietly into the architecture.
Resilience is a design priority. Lives change, climates shift, and buildings must adapt over time. We emphasize durability, flexibility, and careful detailing so that architecture can respond to evolving needs while remaining coherent and long-lasting.
We pay close attention to details because details are where intent becomes reality. How assemblies are layered, how materials meet, and how systems are coordinated all influence how a building performs and ages. Our drawings are thorough and our documentation precise, supporting continuity from design through construction.
Collaboration is essential to our process. We work closely with clients to understand their priorities and with consultants and builders to test ideas against real conditions. Through dialogue, we refine ideas, resolve constraints, and reduce uncertainty at every stage.
Ultimately, we believe architecture should feel intuitive to occupy, resilient to change, and rooted in its place. Our approach is not about maximizing impact in the short term. It is about creating buildings that remain thoughtful, functional, and meaningful over time.
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