As a child Melissa was drawn to puzzles, starting with the jigsaw variety and moving on to the crosswords and brain teasers that currently occupy her time. This same process of finding the missing pieces and figuring out how the components fit together is what drew her to architecture, a field where she could swim in details and be provided with ever shifting design puzzles to her heart's content. Melissa is inspired by architecture that blurs the lines between the polarities of interior/exterior, and is fond of Richard Neutra's work.
Out of the office, Melissa seeks this same balance of indoor and outdoor life; she prefers mountaintops and great heights, despite the fact that heights terrify her. Her candy store is the yarn shop, a place of bliss filled with the promise and potential of new projects. To relax and clear mental clutter, Melissa turns to her love of music, particularly playing the piano and a few other instruments she's picked up since initiating music lessons at the age of seven. She loves to laugh, and considers hearty coffee, physical challenges (such as the 2010 Portland Marathon), and hearing the geese fly south in the fall essential elements of her happiness.