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Heidi is a founder and the managing partner at HK. She runs the HK office’s day-to-day activities.
Her architectural career began with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Heidi also worked with Richard Meier & Partners and Ellerbe Beckett. At age 29, she started Heidi Hefferlin Architects during her time in Los Angeles before moving back to Chattanooga.
Heidi’s approach is both practical and artistic: she works closely with the owner, contractors, and craftsmen during the construction process, balancing the challenges of design, cost, and schedule. She loves the conceptual phase and often develops her designs in model form. She studies the forms and sculptural qualities of the buildings and then investigates the building materials and systems at great length to find materials that are interesting and appropriate for each project.
Heidi likes the outdoors and horseback riding. She’s also heavily involved in the Chattanooga community. Heidi is on the board of the Austin Hatcher Foundation for Pediatric Cancer, served on the Chattanooga Public Art committee, and served a term as president of the Chattanooga Chapter of AIA. She has lectured at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and the American Institute of Architects Tennessee Convention, and her work was included in an exhibit at the Los Angeles City Hall “Reflections of Working Women: Building the Public Environment”.
Craig began his career with a series of international projects. He was a senior designer by the age of 26, and worked with agencies like Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and was a design partner at IEDC in Asia. With such an intense start, Craig developed an aptitude for site planning, master planning and solving complex problems. His business experience comes from starting several firms with close friends and coworkers.
Craig thoroughly enjoys urban design. Craig has designed numerous multi-family housing developments in urban areas. He enjoys collaborating with landscape architects, engineers, and graphic designers – each important to urban design. He is especially skilled in mixed-use projects.
If he could choose anything, Craig’s favorite project would be an office building for a segmented business that needs room to grow, but is confined to an existing property. Working on Melissa and Daud’s studio was a dream come true – collaborating with the artists and not being totally in control was refreshing, he says. “They wanted an interpretation of their life, and the outcome was great. We were all thrilled with it.”
Craig speaks French, enjoys drawing, plays tennis and loves to cook.
Clif says, “I go to bed at night looking forward to orange juice, granola, yogurt and work.” And his background shows a dedication to his craft: Clif graduated from GA Tech, studied abroad with La Villette in Paris, worked for DHW, built dotcoms on the west coast for a while, and moved to Chattanooga to work with H+K for four years. After a three year stint in New York, Clif came back to H+K and Chattanooga, and he’s been here ever since. Clif is a matchmaker: he breaks projects into tasks and pairs those tasks with the H+K colleagues who will love them and perform them best. He himself likes measuring existing buildings and dealing with any of the complex mathematical tasks. Clif reviews designs to ensure they meet national codes and standards, and also the standards of H+K. He also has an eye for design and takes the opportunity to pick up pen and pencil every now and again.
Gabe works with Heidi and Craig to execute H+K projects efficiently. He spends his days working out design details and coordinating project parts. Gabe graduated with honors from the UTK College of Architecture and Design. He worked in Atlanta, GA for three years before joining H+K in Chattanooga. He had a lot of exposure to sophisticated building systems and working directly with consultants and various building trades. Gabe is a problem solver; he loves the creativity it takes to multi-task all of his responsibilities. He also loves the challenge of small, highly detailed projects. If Gabe could work on any project in the world, he’d pick a small custom residence with no budget. When he’s not working, Gabe hunting and being outdoors, spending time with his family, and cooking.
Daniel read about Chattanooga while he was studying architecture at Mississippi State University where he graduated with honors and was the recipient of the AIA Henry Adams Medal. He says, “I always remembered coming around the bend on I-24 and seeing the mountain, the river, and the city.” Impressed by the urban renaissance in downtown Chattanooga, he moved here after graduating and joined H+K, where he designs and draws anything from details to master plans. “I prefer designs that are sustainable, honest to the materials used and respectful of their characteristics,” he says. Daniel possesses a rare talent for lifting a rational, buildable design out of a complex project quickly and artfully. Daniel’s dream project is an off-the-grid residence, but he’d be torn between European and indigenous styles of architecture. Daniel admits that he reads philosophy and theology, and that he likes to use his hands: building, drawing, creating, painting, and playing music. He’s currently learning claw hammer style banjo.
Matthew has been with H+K for three years. He studied architecture at the University of Tennessee and at Bauhaus University, Germany. Matt designs projects and oversees construction through site visits. He says design has made him a good problem solver “because any good design is set by its parameters,” and the designer must be creative to deal with existing spaces and requirements. Matt wants one day to design his own home and thinks it would be fun to design in Europe, especially Switzerland. He is passionate and artsy, open-minded and a strong member of the H+K team. Matt says, “In Chattanooga, there’s lots of warehouse and industrial space being converted to clean and useful buildings. I love it. I’m looking forward to the progress Chattanooga will make in the next ten years. It’s a great city.”
Jessica has used her LEED certification as a team member or sustainable design coordinator for eight projects since she joined H+K in the summer of 2009. She deftly coordinates the LEED documentation and paperwork for projects, assists with drafting and design details, and is working toward her architecture license. Part of Jessica’s background is with a company that makes Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) and does relief building in Haiti. She loves low-budget, high-design efforts and believes strongly in sustainable construction. Jessica says, “If I could do any project I wanted, it would be small-scale, sustainable, humanitarian projects. Green building is intended to create a better quality of life for the users, and it outlines an additional series of challenges and parameters for the designer.” Outside of work, Jessica enjoys painting, reading, hiking and horseback riding.
Misty’s father owned an upholstery business for most of his life, so Misty grew up around design and pattern and colors. She never thought those childhood influences way back in Michigan would lead her to interior design with an architecture firm in Chattanooga, TN. Now Misty works with interior materials daily, communicating with product reps, filling in on graphic design and visiting the job sites. Her eye for colors and materials is experienced and sharp, and she can complete a room in any style within any budget. Misty loves interior design for commercial spaces, and her dream job would be working on churches. “There is such opportunity for design within a house of worship,” she says. Outside of work, Misty is active in her own church. She also enjoys various outdoor activities with her husband – from hiking to gold-panning – and she relaxes by painting and crafting.
Mary is a graduate of UTC, with a degree in Interior Design, and to H+K, she’s an intern-turned-employee. Working at H+K, she makes presentation boards and floor plans, outlines sections and elevations, researches products and communicates with clients and reps. Mary is an eager learner, incredibly quick to master new software programs and enthusiastic about every new project. Mary enjoys space planning and design, but aspires to architecture: plans are underway for her to attend architecture school. Her dream job would be creating a sustainably designed building and using the building materials in innovative ways. When she’s not designing, Mary makes jewelry and hikes the many trails around Chattanooga.
Donna is a Florida girl at heart, but she loves Chattanooga for the green trees and rivers. And to H+K, Donna is necessary: she manages the business paperwork, tracking timesheets, billing, payables, and balancing each month’s figures. She warmly engages with everyone who contacts the H+K office and deftly handles the layers of responsibility that come with managing the firm’s daily workings. With a degree in Organizational Management and a background in accounting, Donna is right at home at H+K, and in Chattanooga, for that matter. She loves to flatwater kayak. Donna says, “I love all the trees! And the ways they’ve preserved the green around the city.”