Kevin Browne, Kevin Browne Architecture

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Today it is my great pleasure to speak with Kevin Brown, who is a main licensed architect, a member of the National Council of Registration Boards and a member of the American Institute of Architects. He's also a member of the U.S. green Building Council and the Portland Society of Architecture. He lives in West Falmouth with his wife and two children. Kevin is an active member of the Falmouth Memorial Library Board of Trustees where he is currently co chairman of the Library Expansion Committee. You've got a finger in every organization, don't you?

Kevin Browne:

I try to. I don't attend all the meetings, but I try to. It's nice joining other colleagues to communicate every once in a while.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah, I think that's pretty great. It seems like you have really made a lot of connections within the architecture community and the community at large.

Kevin Browne:

I've been trying, I've been trying. It's been a long process, process, but it's, it's getting there.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, tell me a little bit about yourself. Where are you originally from?

Kevin Browne:

I grew up in eastern Pennsylvania and I lived there for a little bit after I graduated from college in 1998 for about a year and worked in a commercial firm, architecture firm that did mostly colleges and schools and realized that, you know, you're much smaller when you're in a big organization like that and wasn't really what I wanted to do. So my roommate from college worked in Camden at the time, so he was like, we're looking for people. So I ended up moving to Camden, Maine and lived there for three years and worked in a high end residential firm which was the first time I've ever worked on the residential side of things and fell in love. And I've moved south after living there for three years. But it's just such a great area. That's why I enjoy it so much.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Why architecture? Why did you decide that this was the way that you wanted to spend your working life?

Kevin Browne:

Well, you know, I didn't really know in high school, you know, I took a bunch of technical drawing classes which were just, you know, basically drafting with pencil at the time. Now it's all computerized, but. And I started out after high school after taking three years of that technical drawing type. Of course I went to community college because my parents wanted to make sure if they were paying for college that it's a five year program. So they wanted to make sure before they spent all that money that this is something I was serious about. So I went to community college for two years. I got my associate's degree in architecture. That Was in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, like the next town from where I grew up. Then from there I went on to get my Bachelor of architecture in Vermont at Norwich University. At that point, at the end of the community college, I really liked it. I really got a sense of what it was all about. Even though you really don't get a full sense until you get into the real world and then you really understand, you know, all the stuff that you do in school is sort of, you know, dream world, but it sets you up for what you're gonna encounter in the real world.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

When you were growing up, what types of things did you like to do? I mean, did you like to do art? Were you interested in math or science?

Kevin Browne:

I was, I was more of a hands on, more my. I'm more of a technical person. I'm not as much. And that sort of helped my decision. When I was looking at schools. There was a lot of schools that were more art related than there were more that were more technical. And I've always been sort of a hands on, sort of trying to understand how it works. It was either architecture or engineering was the other thought that I would go into. But that's kind of sort of my. I think it goes back to. My grandfather was the same way. He used to be a drafter and my mom shared some of those drawings as I was growing up. You know, old steam engines, he would draw and stuff like that. But as I went along I realized it was the right profession and you know, track for life.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I like that your parents wanted to make sure that you are certain. As a parent of a couple of college age children, I'm very interested in getting a good return on investment.

Kevin Browne:

Oh sure, yeah. It's much cheaper to do a community college. And the community college was really a great professor that ran the architecture program and made a world of difference.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So you said that you started doing basically home building, home architectural design when you came up to Maine. What were you doing before you did that?

Kevin Browne:

It was a commercial firm that there was probably 30 people. But we did. We had a lot of universities that we did work for and we did sort of field houses. They also did medical like hospital, smaller hospital additions and things like that. So at that point I was low man on a totem pole just fresh out of school and I actually interned, I think the summer before I graduated with the same firm. And you get little pieces of the puzzle, you know, you don't. No one gets to take jump right in full two feet. After college you have to work your way up and I felt like it would be a much longer procession to do that in a larger firm or going to residential. You jump in and you're doing all aspects of a project. It's a little scary at first and it took a little getting used to. But it was a great learning experience, learning that way.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So if you're working on say a hospital project or healthcare facility, what aspect of that would they give you to work on?

Kevin Browne:

Probably I think what I was working on I did a lot of models actually, which I really enjoy and I've always liked building things. I did a lot of models for as I was and I tend to give the fresh out of school kids to do. So I did models for interiors of the spaces and I did an outside model for a field house at Susquehanna University at the time. So those types of things. And then other times I would just do what they call red lines is basically the lead architect on the project would mark up drawings just to make corrections and adjustments and all those things. So I would pick up. It's a much, you know, it's kind of like just busy work, you know, there's not a lot of you just shifting things and adjusting them and to what they mark it up. But they do all the sort of thinking about it and then you're just sort of almost like a drafter in a way.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So if you're building a model, you're actually building like a scale version of what, something that's going to be built.

Kevin Browne:

Exactly.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So that's kind of perfect for somebody who likes hands on stuff.

Kevin Browne:

Yeah, that's why I enjoyed it so much. We don't get to do that much these days because it's all computer. So it was nice doing that a lot early in my career.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, tell me about that. I mean I think about. I write a lot and I still like to go back and put pen on paper. There's still something that's very tangible, something very satisfying about that. I love the sort of. I can go in the computer and I can write an article for Maine Magazine and I can make edits really quickly. That's great. But if I want to do any really soulful writing, I get in there with my pen and paper. Is there something similar about that for an architect?

Kevin Browne:

Definitely. Every project I start, you can't jump onto the computer and start designing and getting your thoughts out freely because you'll hit a roadblock right away. Every project I start very rough, very schematically is the first stage of project we call a schematic design. And really it's with trace paper, you're doing trace after trace after trace, and you're just trying to get something that feels like it flows good in terms of a floor plan and space between the spaces. And at the same time, you've got to understand what the mass of the house is going to look like on the outside. And sort of trying to doodle. You're doodling, basically, and it's very rough and it may not make any sense when you look at it, but you and your mind know that your pen marks mean something. And then from there it gets refined and refined every time. And it's just a lot of repetitive sort of tracing and tracing over and sort of tweaking as you go along. But that's the way I start every project. And just to then from there, then you get to a certain point where you have certain pieces of the house that seem like they work. And then to develop them further, I then start putting them into the computer program. If it's something you're tracing, you know it works and you're going to develop it further as you. And it's just sort of the progress, the process as you go through it.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So I'm sure this sounds like a silly question, but is that why it's called drafting?

Kevin Browne:

Exactly. Yeah. And when I. Going through school, we didn't do anything on the computer. Right after I graduated is when we did some. We learned, but they wanted you to learn that way. And you did everything with pen and ink as your final drafting, but you used the slide rule. And I still have one, but I don't really use it because everything's freehand that I'm doing by hand. And then from there it's. Plus it takes up a lot of space too, to have the big drafting boards. But yeah, so it's the drafting part of it.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You have become very involved in your. Not only the architectural community, because at the beginning I listed off all these different organizations you're a member of, but. But also your own community as a member of the board of trustees and a co chairman of the library Expansion Committee for the Falmouth Library. Why has that been an interest of yours?

Kevin Browne:

It goes back probably five or six years ago. I was approached to sort of team up with another Falmouth architect to do a facilities analysis for the library because they were. They are bursting at their seams and they wanted to expand. And so we did an exercise to see what was. What were the options. And at the time, the Falmouth was looking to build a new school but the old schools, the elementary school was going to be. Two of the elementary schools were going to be vacated. So myself and Mike Hayes, the other Falmouth architect, teamed up and collaborated on sort of just doing some facilities studies and it was just really schematic sketches like we were talking earlier and just trying to come up with space planning ideas. Could we use this school or the other school that was vacant or do we build new? So that was an exercise that we went through over a course of months and, and ultimately went to a town wide bond issue that we had a vote on and it never did pass. But years later it's been revisited because everybody soundly said that the library wanted to stay on site. At the time I wasn't on the board of trustees. But the next, when they were trying to reorganize and go try to get this library because they ultimately still need to expand, I was approached to join. There was a vacant seat on the board of trustees and they were looking to assemble any new board members with people that have experience in building or construction and just trying to help guide them through the next years to get to where they need to be, which they've been trying for I think 10, 15 years to try to get the expansion going. And it's exciting because now I'm able to give back to the community which. Which I've tried. I've been on a couple committees in town before there was a Trails committee because I do a lot of mountain biking. So it was sort of a Falmouth Trails committee, but that got absorbed into another group. So this to me is more meaningful because I can really give my expertise and help them as we go through this process. But it's also nice being on the other side of the table and not actually having to do the work, but actually overseeing and it's commercial work. So it's a little different than in my world, than I'm used to in the residential end of things. So it's been really exciting. It's a lot of time commitment. We meet once a week and it's probably an hour, hour and a half each time we meet, but we're slowly getting through this and now we're going through the fundraising stage. So we're trying to balance the fundraising and. But it's been a good process and it's a great committee to be a part of and everybody gives a different aspect to the committee. So it's been interesting and learning for me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I've enjoyed the conversations in the past that I've had with Your fellow architects, Rob Witten and also Scott Simons.

Kevin Browne:

Yeah, he's working. Yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Who worked on the Portland library. And it's an interesting, it's an interesting idea for me, the idea of working on a library in particular, because it's got such emotional attachment. It's actually not unlike working on residential spaces. These are going to become people's homes and people become very attached to ideas about what they want that to look like. But a library. I remember growing up in Yarmouth, I was at the library two, three times a week as a little kid dragging my wheelbarrow full of books back behind me to my house and, and the idea of kind of keeping it the same and yet allowing it to expand adequately, to move into the next era of use. That's an interesting one.

Kevin Browne:

Yeah, it definitely is. And it's been great working with Scott because he's done so many of these libraries. And it was clear when we were making the decision on who the architect should be, it was clear his expertise in the state and beyond, you know, that he was capable. But it's been a real, you know, I have to say, I live in Falmouth, but I don't attend the library a lot. So it's so to me, it's, you know, listening to the staff and understanding where libraries are going. And I've gone to a couple workshops with our committee just on, you know, designing a new library. We went down to Boston, to the Boston, Boston Public Library last year and they had an all day seminar just on where the libraries are, the future and what you need to account for and its flexibility and technology. And everybody thought the advent of sort of the ebook would sort of make libraries non existent, but it's not the case. From what the data I'm seeing from a library in Falmouth and just everybody else and what, you know, the library of the future is more of a community center and people come, so many people work remotely and that's where, you know, we're planning for this with the new Falmouth libraries, you know, just planning for that. The laptop stations the technology and the challenge is we don't know where technology is going to go. So the biggest thing is making sure that this new facility spending, we're just going to be spending this money on this facility, makes sure it's flexible enough to adapt to the future. And we don't know what it is, but we have to make sure we make it flexible enough with the lighting and technology and all that other stuff. So it's been a real learning Curve for me, but understanding what a library really has become. Because in a town like Falmouth, there's not really a downtown. So in a way, the library being on that side of town where there's a lot of businesses and other things, it's. People come and it's a community center, and they come and have coffee together or whatever. So it's kind of exciting. When I started on the board, that was sort of what was brought to my attention. And it was really kind of exciting to be a part of that building and planning for the future. And it's only going to help the real estate values, I think, and just everything.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, Falmouth is an interesting example of how growth is managed and how it's managed well, just the town in general having, you know, Yarmouth is just on the other side of Falmouth, so I'm in Falmouth all the time. They've, you know, there's obviously been a business boom, but there's great sidewalks that have been put in, which I think the businesses at the time weren't that exciting along Route 1, but it's so great now to see people running on the sidewalks down Route 1. And you're right, the library is tucked back behind, you know, a bunch of different businesses that, you know, I don't know, they came into being, I don't know, maybe 20, 30 years ago, but it's still. There's still enough of a town feel to it. Yeah, And I think that that's really important.

Kevin Browne:

And I think they're trying to. They've done extensive work, especially on Route 1, I think, which you're referring to, to make it more of a community walkable, very pedestrian friendly. And we've been where, in a way, that sort of master plan that they have on Route 1 stretches up to the library in a way. So we're trying to sort of make that pedestrian connection as well with the new design and bike racks and sort of pedestrian crosswalks and things like that. The town also wants us to put parking and keeping the building closer to the setbacks, just to give you that more of a community feel. And so I think overall, they're changing their zoning to sort of make it more of a. A community like that. They're even talking about out by where I live in West Falmouth, out along Route 100, putting sidewalks in the next couple years. And it's pretty, you know, they're trying to build that part of the business center of Falmouth, just making more business friendly and more pedestrian friendly. At the same time.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah, I think that that's actually one of my favorite things that has happened to my town and to places like Falmouth is just the recognition that people will use the side of the road if they feel safe. You know, they will walk, they'll bike, they'll bring their kids out there. And so, and so it's not just put a nice building somewhere, it's make that building accessible and make it kind of human friendly. So you talk about being human friendly, maybe also earth friendly. You are a member of the US Green Building Council. Talk about what that has meant to you as far as perhaps your approaches to architectural design.

Kevin Browne:

When I started out my own practice seven years ago, my big goal was at the time. I've done a lot of high end residential over the years, but we never really paid too close attention to. And at the time it wasn't a big, the energy wasn't as big of a discussion point as it is now. But we built these huge houses but we never really paid close attention to the building envelope which is the perimeter of the house. It's insulated and air sealed and all those things. As I developed my own practice, I could take it anywhere I wanted. And that was kind of the goal was to learn, just school myself. And I'm still learning. There's so much out there, all these new wall systems to use and just trying to build a better energy efficient house that you don't have to heat or cool as much because the shell of the building you spend time detailing. And I tell clients that if they're going to spend money to make sure that they spend a little extra in a building shell just because it'll be more comfortable over time and it's going to save them over time. They may pay a little bit more up front, but I think over time it's a much more comfortable house to live in.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And have you seen an increased awareness of energy efficiency and maybe perhaps even more willingness to spend money in this area?

Kevin Browne:

Definitely. And I think the products that they use have come down. You know, when the green word came out, everybody was flocking to. And I don't like using the word, I like to use good design. It's really what it's about. It's good design and things that you learn about in school and you know, some of the seminars you go to. It's just detailing the house and it's good design and just doing it the right way and paying attention to how water sheds off the house. But I think there definitely is more Awareness. I know when I. Each project's determined by the client. And yes, we've had a few clients that they push the envelope basically to try to get this energy efficiency we size glazing based on the solar orientation and things like that. But it's not every client. And some people bring it up, but at the same time they may have heard bits and pieces, but they don't understand the whole big picture. It's sort of helpful for us to help educate those people and just sort of make them understand a little bit more what it's all about. And some of the things that would help and not cost a lot of money is just window placement and insulation. So it's definitely becoming more. I'm getting more and more projects where people are aware and want to push things a little further than others. But then there's other people that don't necessarily know about it. But our typical set of drawings and details is it's better than standard code. We always like to do things a little bit better and detail it out in a way where it's not just a spec house that's thrown up or something like that.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You and your wife will be renting an RV for two weeks and heading out west with your 7 and 10 year old.

Kevin Browne:

Yes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

How do you think that might inspire you in your architectural daily work?

Kevin Browne:

I think it would. You know, I've never really explored much of sort of the Colorado, Utah, Wyoming area. So I think just seeing the architecture, I've seen a bunch of images and magazines and websites and things like that. So I think every time I see something unique and new architecture, sort of creation, I always take pictures of it. So. And it's just inspiration and help, you know, just sort of integrating, you know, a little bit of the west maybe into some of the stuff that I might do here. You know, there's definitely a certain things that you see in certain parts of the country, but, you know, there's nothing to say you can't integrate some of those elements. But so I've always been one that the nature, the scenery and sort of, it just excites me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Kevin, how can people find out about the work that you do and the designs that you are currently working on and maybe the work that you're doing with Falmouth?

Kevin Browne:

Yes. I have a website that I have@KevinBrownArchitecture.com and I haven't been good about updating it for the last year, but my Facebook page is the most up to date and I have an Instagram account that I. I update pretty frequently with construction of current projects and sketches or anything that we might be working on or just interior things. And it's all at different level. We have a lot of different projects at different stages right now. So it's a little bit of all that. I would say between those pieces, it's probably the best way to find out what we're doing. The other thing is I've been trying to even and around the greater Portland area we have that's most of our work. And we put signs out in some of the construction projects just so people can see some of the stuff that we're doing.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I appreciate your taking the time to come in and talk to me today about the work that you do. I'm excited to see what happens with the Falmouth Memorial Library. I love libraries, so it'll be great to see on the other side of it where you guys go with that. We've been speaking with Kevin Brown, who's a main licensed architect and owner of his own firm and member of the Falmouth Memorial Library Board of Trustees, where he's currently the co chairman of the library expansion committee. Thanks for the work that you're doing and thanks for coming in and talking to me today.

Kevin Browne:

Thank you for having me.