Glazer, a Yale School of Architecture alum who serves on the advisory council of the newly-formed Asheville Sustainability Center, says her firm’s most ambitious commercial project so far is Lexington Station, a 1.7-acre, green-built, mixed-use space not far from The Orange Peel downtown. It houses businesses like Vigne, Mountain BizWorks and the Dawgstar Coffee Bar, and there are 66 high-end condos on top. The brightly colored Lexington Station exhibits some of the same arty, funky details that Glazer herself is known for. She owns 500 pairs of earrings, many made by local artisans, which are organized by color on a wall in her 1920s-era North Asheville home.  

When you first arrived in Asheville, did you like the architecture?  The fact that they haven’t torn down all the old stuff—like they have in Charlotte, for example—certainly helped. But I’m not one of these purists who thinks that because a lot of [Asheville’s] downtown buildings are old that anything new should also necessarily look like it was built in the ‘20s. I think a nice healthy mix creates vibrancy. 

Having lived in six countries and eight states, why did you choose Asheville instead of a larger city? Probably, in a city like New York, even when you are one of the most famous architects, you end up doing some small interior renovation and that’s it. We do feel like we’ve been able to make our mark on Asheville. I’ve been in Asheville for almost 30 years, and we’ve been able to create a niche for ourselves in downtown renovation projects. We’ve done 35 of these projects. When I moved to Asheville, there was nothing happening upstairs in any of the downtown buildings. We take great pride in walking around town and seeing that we’ve renovated the upper levels of these buildings.  

Why do people call you the “Code Queen”? The building code is one of those necessary evils. To us, it’s kind of fascinating. By being really familiar with the code you can figure out the best way to achieve code compliance without having to compromise what you’re trying to do in terms of openness or flow between one space and the next. Several of us in the office are code geeks. We’re not trying to skirt the code—it’s really important that people not die in your building—but knowing the code well actually frees you up. 

Why are there so few women architects? It’s a fairly grueling deal—going through all the years of school, and then working for three years before you get licensed. It’s many, many years of learning experiences, and buildings are fairly complicated. It’s also fairly competitive out there. Often, if people are going to invest that much time and energy, they would choose a field that is not necessarily less stressful but more lucrative. Law and medicine, for the same number of years, bring in a whole lot more money. 

Is green design all it’s cracked up to be? Green has become very popular. But we’ve tried to include many sustainable principles in our buildings and always did before it became a buzzword. People may think it’s a newfound thing. Before it was called green it was called good design…For example, we refurbished the Green Sage coffee house. It has solar hot water, they’re composting their food scraps, the plates are compostable, their countertops are made of industrial scraps, and there’s a waterless urinal in the men’s room. They can brag on these nice features but they don’t have LEED [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design] certification. 

Would you encourage a young person to go into architecture? I would, but I would also say that the reality is that there are long hours, relatively low pay, high stress and high liability. One thing that’s good about it is that people in the field are usually very passionate about it. I’m really proud of my firm and my staff—we’re all really passionate about what we do, and we feel like we can impact the world in a better way. 

But isn’t there some glamour in being an architect? Some parts are glamorous, some parts are drudgery. People must think we sit around all day and do beautiful drawings. Sometimes you’re actually doing building code analysis or sizing downspouts. The thing that makes it intriguing is that it’s such a holistic thing. We start with some ideas and a piece of paper—in the end, it’s magic.