Board of Directors

SPOTLIGHT...

Although she was born in Des Plaines, Illinois, Terry Squyres, AIA was reared in Glen Mills, a suburb southwest of Philadelphia. She remembers wanting to be an architect since she was in grade school, but, when asked about who or what inspired her, she says she has no idea. “Perhaps it was just an innate desire. I remember drawing a subterranean house and swimming pool when I was about nine or ten, as well as enjoying art lessons and projects,” she recalls. After public and Catholic grade school, and Catholic high school, she earned a 5-year B.Arch. from the University of Notre Dame, an institution of family tradition from which several relatives had graduated. As part of the school’s architecture program, Terry spent her third year studying in Rome, and traveling throughout Europe. Experiencing some of the earliest examples of formal architecture in person made a deep impression on her and has since consistently influenced her sense of order in design. Throughout her undergraduate work, Terry’s program concentrated on cultural and educational institutions – the same project types she now does with GWWO, Inc./Architects. Working with clients whose missions are founded in the arts and life-long education provides inspiration for her work.

After college, Terry returned to Philadelphia for about five years, working first for Casaccio Architects, and later, DWKCB Architects. She moved to Baltimore and joined GWWO in 1997, where she has especially enjoyed two projects. Franklin High School offered the opportunity to work on a project where the spaces were created with the intent of having a positive influence on the learning process for students. Since 1995, GWWO, and later Terry, have had a long relationship with George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens in northern Virginia. The Mount Vernon Inn addition and renovation was completed in 2001. Currently, Terry is working on a visitor center and museum project for the Estate. Terry’s professional interests include continuing education in lighting design and serving on juries for the Morgan State architecture school program, as well as visiting Baltimore and Washington’s great museums and cultural arts institutions.

While working outside Philadelphia, Terry found the distance too great to become an active member of the local AIA chapter. However, since moving to Baltimore, she has taken advantage of the opportunity to be active in the AIA and to attend our events. In the late 1990s, Terry first became involved with the Spring Lecture Series Committee, serving as its co-chair with Jesse Henson AIA in 1999 and 2000. She later joined the Urban Design Committee. In 2002 she became an active member of the Communications Committee and became its chair the following year. She has built upon the work of her predecessors and worked with the current committee members to expand the coverage of architecture and the built environment by the metropolitan Baltimore news media. Terry feels there is unlimited potential for all of us to help the public to better understand the role and value of architects in society. She has recruited members to help with several outreach efforts including Letters to the Editor, editorials, magazine and newspaper articles, and she writes the "Ask the Architect" column for CHESAPEAKE HOME magazine. She has enjoyed this as a unique outlet for her interest in residential design. “Public discourse on the built environment should always include the educated perspective and expertise of architects. We are obligated to contribute our unique combination of skills to the benefit of our shared habitat.”