Bola Architects

Specialty: Historical preservation planning

Principals: Susan Boyle, Rhoda Lawrence

Year founded:2000

2003 revenues: $611,000

Projected 2004 revenues: $590,000

Biggest current project: Nakamura Courthouse

Principal Susan Boyle of Bola Architects said the collaborative work her firm picked up more of this year is a little bit like marriage. “You choose who you work with,” she said. “You need mutual respect.”

And while collaborations aren’t for everyone, rapport between team members that complement one another offers new dimensions to work and seems to broaden possibilities.

Joining other architects, interior designers and engineers on collaborations this year has given Boyle a chance to appreciate the kinds of approaches people from other disciplines take. Landscape architects can talk about entry sequences with architects, and teaming up early with mechanical and structural engineers is especially useful for rehabilitations of older buildings.

Preservation of historic buildings and adaptive use projects are the kinds of work that Bola specializes in. Principal Rhoda Lawrence said the hard part is keeping up with new technologies to document and design the restorations.

Boyle and Lawrence both have backgrounds in preservation planning. Sonia Skokel Ferez, a preservation planning expert, was recently added to the firm.

Business has been picking up since the beginning of the year, due in part to the private sector learning about Bola’s expertise.

Bola was one of four architects involved with the Cherry Parkes Building renovation at the University of Washington Tacoma campus. The building, and several others on the campus, have achieved silver LEED status by the U.S. Green Building Council.

The 75,000-square-foot Cherry Parkes Building reopened in January. Turning the space into retail stores and classrooms shows people “this is something that’s 100 years old as well as something of today,” said Boyle.

Bola is finishing a one-story in-fill project in the Ballard Avenue historic district. New prospects are rehabilitations for two community libraries, the Roslyn City Hall, the Snohomish Carnegie Library and a building in Pioneer Square.



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