Architect, Tate.Hill.Jacobs: Architects
LW-susan-hill-0414
Photo by Mick Jeffries
Solving problems is a way of life for Susan Stokes Hill. As a principal architect at Tate.Hill.Jacobs: Architect, she has spent the majority of her career asking questions.
“Architects, as individuals, don’t have necessarily the only answer or don’t have the best answer,” Hill said. “But by asking really good questions, even asking lots of questions ... architects are particularly skillful at putting together that collection of ideas and seeing an idea or an opportunity that we might not have seen before.”
Hill’s passion for problem solving began as an undergrad at the University of Kentucky, when she attended a symposium put on by the College of Architecture and the English department. Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller, a famed architect best known for creating the geodesic dome, was the head speaker. Hill, along with the rest of the audience, was mesmerized.
“After giving a lengthy speech to a packed audience, [Fuller] mentioned that the symposium was running long and whoever wanted to leave, could,” Hill remembered. “No one left.”
One thing that struck Hill during this speech was the magnitude at which architecture could affect people’s lives.
“I went home and knew at that point that architecture would completely be in my world for the rest of my life,” Hill said.
Hill upheld that promise. During and following graduation, she completed competition work with Richard Levine. Shortly after, she began working with Sarah Tate and Greg Fitzsimons in Nicholasville, Ky. In 1993, both she and Margaret Jacobs joined what became Tate.Hill.Jacobs: Architects. When Tate retired in 2008, Hill and Jacobs continued with the firm.
Hill’s time at her office is often spent problem solving. She likes to call this process the “bubbling of ideas.”
“It’s about putting that collective group of questions together and then beginning to break them down and to find possibilities that could come together to help solve the particular problem,” Hill said.
She said it is important to live a balanced life in order to give her best work.
“We offer our clients the best in thinking and energy when we also give attention to those parts of our lives that give us great joy,” Hill said. “That helps to clear our brains and bring perspective about what we do.”
One way Hill finds her joy is through community service. She has been involved in the Actors Guild of Lexington, particularly during early years of board and staff development, as well as Bluegrass PRIDE. Hill is on the advisory committee for Lexington Citizen’s Summit, the planning committee for the Unity Festival and also works with PEW National Civic Entrepreneur Initiative. She serves as an officer for her neighborhood association and with the experiential-based career education mentoring program for Fayette County Public Schools.
During her volunteer work as a mentor, Hill tries to paint a realistic picture of life as an architect.
“We try to expose them to design problems, construction sites, all the types of activities that we’d do on a typical day,” she said. “Either their personality and their approach to life just intersects beautifully or they run fleeing from it,” she said.
Hill often says that those “comfortable with being uncomfortable” are a good fit for a career in architecture.
“Every project brings something that you’ve never experienced in another project,” she said.