OUR TEAM
TOBIN T DOUGHERTY
Tobin T. Dougherty, AIA is a registered architect in California, Idaho and Hawaii and member of the American Institute of Architects.
Growing up in a construction industry family, Tobin was fortunate to find his passion for drawing, detailing and building at a young age. He began designing his own commissioned homes at age 17 and shortly after, opened his full-time residential design practice, which, over 40 years later, continues to thrive and produce successful projects of all sizes.
The artist he is today is the result of a unique educational path for a licensed architect — forged by experiences, not a formal university education. Seeking out an elevated level of design and education through working closely with other industry professionals, including other architects, resulted in a well-rounded education through hands on experience while allowing him to fulfill the requirements of the California licensing exam process.
Today, Tobin is proud to lead a team of professionals that resonate with and propel his unique creativity and passion for his life’s work.
VALERIA MESPLES
Valeria Mesples, AIA is a highly creative California licensed architect with 20 years of experience in project management, architectural and interior design. Valeria is originally from Argentina, where she grew up in the northern city of Salta. In 2001, Valeria moved to California, where he worked in various architecture and management firms gaining extensive experience in managing institutional, commercial and residential projects, from design conception through construction completion.
Valeria sees architecture as a tool to provide conscious and creative solutions to our society and environment, visualizing her work as an exploration of our roots, identity, creativity and needs; and directing it towards the objective of developing sustainable societies, maintaining cultural identity and creating healthy living spaces.
Valeria received her Bachelor in Architecture and her Master in Urbanism from the Catholic University of Cordoba in 1994.
KELLY EDWARDS
Kelly Edwards graduated from the University of Washington Foster School of Business with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration - Accounting. For over three years she worked for Airbnb as Training and Content Expert, helping the company protect itself and travelers against online and offline fraud and developing content for internal support teams. She then moved to Los Angeles where she worked for India Hicks, a luxury lifestyle brand - developing content, training material and event assistance.
From a family of multiple generations of builders and developers in Washington State, since a young age Kelly has been in and around home construction sites. Her passion for living spaces, architecture and home design expanded through her world-wide travels and experiences living in countries outside of the US.
In 2017 Kelly joined the Tobin Dougherty Architects team as the Office Administrator. With a skillset that prioritizes intuitive organization and aesthetics, she handles a variety of tasks from invoicing to web design.
OUR CORE VALUES
DESIGN EVERY INCH
Integrate. We pay particular attention to each home’s natural surroundings, views and connection to place. We design in harmony and balance with site geology, solar orientation and ecology to build homes with a profound sense of place. Existing neighborhoods also come in a wide variety of styles; and we recognize that we build in a time and place that sometimes blends a contemporary way of life with a protected historical vernacular context. Your home should inspire and delight your neighbors and local community and offer a good, pleasing and harmonious fit.
COLLABORATE
Our design process is intuitive, active, collaborative and creative, where every element of the process is interrelated. Collaboration with our clients is fundamental in the design process, they help us focus on their needs, they feed us with ideas and desires, providing us with the tools to achieve a quality product. Collaborating with the institutions, each of the consultants and the builders, is key to achieving a project in a reasonable time, within budget; and always taking into account the existing neighborhoods and their needs.
MAKE DREAMS CONCRETE
…Or your preferred finish material. What we mean here is the collaborative process in which an idea moves to a conversation, becomes a drawing on paper, becomes a tangible, real life building that you walk into and experience — all starting with your idea for a dream home or functional space. Ideas are the seed that can bear fruit for lifestyle and experiences. We appreciate the opportunity to be part of that process through design and architecture.
RESPECT ENVIRONMENT
Proponents of designing in environmentally conscious ways and incorporating key principles of green construction and use of energy efficient materials. Our portfolio of passive and active solar home designs has long pioneered the use of local, natural and recycled building materials. Designing and building high quality, sustainable, long-lasting, functional and energy efficient homes – buildings that also function as an economic value proposition and incorporate proven practices – is an art unto itself.
SIMPLIFY
We find beauty and efficiency in the simplicity of all aspects of a project. Fluidity through the spaces that connect with the exterior living space, in a simple and organic way. Our designs reflect the true identity of the materials, the spaces, the site - dispensing with the superfluous, the unnecessary and the non-essential - and as a result our buildings are coherent and easy to understand and live within.
BALANCE TRADITION + INNOVATION
Our innovation prioritizes precision, ecological sustainability and durability while carefully attending to the practical and financial aspects of architecture. As residential design, construction, practices and lifestyles continue to evolve, we carefully evaluate new technologies, products, building methods and design trends to assess how best to incorporate them within each of our designs. It takes years of hands-on experience to find the right balance between emerging approaches and time-tested best practices in siting, orienting, detailing and equipping homes.