Kriss’ Bio
Design Morality, my novel about a young architect and his trials and tribulations of the design process and what it can take to make a great work of architecture, is now published. You can buy the book in either paperback or as an eBook:
Design Morality eBook for Kindle
Design Morality eBook for Nook
Looking back, I can remember I wanted to be an architect since I was about 8 years old. Neither of my parents were in the field, but my grandfather was a draftsman in the Army in WWII, and I remember every time we visited my grandparents’ house in La Grange Park, Illinois, I saw his sketches and writing and loved how neat and clean everything was.
In high school I took drafting classes and in my senior year worked afternoons in a small architecture firm. I applied to college and decided on Kent State University majoring in Architecture.
After four years at Kent State, which included a half-semester of study in Florence, Italy, I graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Architecture with a minor in Business Administration. Most of my classmates continued on into a 5th year of study at KSU, but I left in order to work for a couple of years before continuing my education – which I think was the best choice for me at the time.
I ended up completing my Bachelor of Architecture degree at the University of Miami. It took me about a year and a half to complete my degree as I was working full-time at Spillis Candela in Coral Gables at the same time. Upon graduation I interviewed at Arquitectonica and ended up working there for about a year and a half.
After a couple of years of independent consulting, I did some traveling and wound up working for about two years on a large hotel development project on the island of Guam. It was a great experience, not only in terms of gaining more responsibility on architectural projects (especially construction administration), but also learning about more cultures as well as becoming a scuba master diver.
I moved to Boston in the early 90’s and worked at firms such as Kallmann McKinnell & Wood, The Stubbins Associates and Payette. I’ve been fortunate to be involved in many projects that have won design awards and been published in architectural journals, and have met some great architects along the way.
Images of a sampling of the projects I worked on can be found on my Portfolio page.
Throughout my years practicing architecture, I have always been writing, from design proposals and architectural feasibility studies at work, to articles on Entablature and now, my book, Design Morality.
From finance, cryptocurrency and the stock market, domain names and websites, to architecture and design to photography to writing to teaching activities and resources, I have been involved in a lot of different things. Take a look around and see a bit of the different types of creative outlets I have attempted. If anyone wants to give me feedback or ask any questions, please feel free to e-mail me at kpett@hotmail.com – I hope everyone enjoys this little website!
Cryptocurrency
Although I feel I’ve been behind the trends with my investing in the past, I’m now a cryptocurrency investor and YouTube creator, supporting Dogecoin, Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptos.
Architecture
In my Bio I describe how I’ve wanted to be an architect for as long as I can remember.
Dad
Being a father is the best.
Writing
Strangely enough, there is a lot of writing in architecture. I have written everything from design proposals and descriptions of concept and schematic designs to detailed specifications (ugh!) and contracts. However, the creative side of me has always looked for an outlet, which has included both my book, Design Morality, and many articles on architecture. I continue to write for many websites and have another book in the works.
Websites
The first website I developed was Entablature. The details on how Entablature came to be can be found on my Websites web page. I eventually sold the website (or rather, the domain name) to a construction company in New Orleans who had been operating on entablaure.net. They contacted me wanting to buy the .com, so after some negotiations, I sold the enbablature.com domain name.
This, of course, got my attention on the domain name market and the opportunities for more website development. After much research, I bought some domain names and started to develop one of them, starbent.com, into a website. I eventually sold that website and have continued to develop more, along with buying and selling more domain names. I started a company called Domain Direct Services, and you can see that website at www.DomainDS.com.
Photography
From the time I was about ten years old when I got my first Kodak camera, I have love taking pictures. Those first pictures don’t look so well many years later, the color somewhat faded, but I’m glad I still have a small collection of those old photos.
During college there was an opportunity to study abroad in Florence, Italy. For Christmas that year, before I left, my parents gave me a Canon camera with an assortment of lenses. On my European trip I took about a thousand pictures using slide film, then had the film processed when I got back. I still have a collection of 500 or so of those slides.
I continued taking pictures, although once I had children my photos ended up more about them. Of course, with digital photography, taking pictures became much easier. Now you can quickly snap many pictures and delete off the ones that don’t look good. The digital images are also much easier to share, from Facebook and Shutterfly to Instagram and embedded in text messages or emails.
Teaching Resources
I was first asked if I could create some clipart for a teacher friend of mine. She was trying to make a craftivity product to sell on the Teachers Pay Teachers website. I didn’t know anything about teaching materials or how one could even make products for sale. But after making cute clipart crabs for her product, I thought I might try to make my own clipart to sell to other teachers. After about nine months of making clipart products, I was getting some sales, but it was not very profitable. I was putting in many hours of work for not much result.
So I decided to try my hand at making my own teaching resources, starting first with a subject I love: Egypt. My first resource was an Ancient Egypt Activity Packet. Over the years I have gone on to make over 200 teaching resources, most of which are still for sale on my Teachers Pay Teachers site called KP Classroom.
Contact Me:
E-mail: kpett@hotmail.com
Kriss Pettersen 