The Firm

PATTI GLAZER, AIA is the principal of Glazer Architecture. She is registered in North Carolina and is NCARB certified. She received a Master of Architecture degree from Yale University School of Architecture, a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design and a Diploma in Building Construction from Asheville Buncombe Technical College. Committed to sustainability, Patti is a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Accredited Professional and a member of the US and WNC Green Building Councils. She is a member of the City of Asheville's Economic Development Advisory Committee and is active in downtown and preservation organizations. Known locally in the industry as the "Code Queen" she is a Fulbright Scholar, a U.S. Patent Holder and a 25-time Griffin Award winner for Excellence in Preservation. Having lived in six countries, Patti enjoys travel, diverse cultures and foreign languages and is active in Servas, a non-profit travel and hosting organization. Her ever-growing collection of over 600 pairs of earrings and 250 handmade mugs helps support the arts community and contributes to the economy.

Patti was featured in Verve Magazine (Nov/Dec 2008) in an article entitled "The City that Patti Built" by Jess McCuan, photographed by Rimas Zailskas.  "It would be an exaggeration, of course, to say she built the whole city of Asheville. But you’d be amazed at how many prominent Asheville buildings architect Patti Glazer has had a hand in designing, building or refurbishing. She and five employees at downtown Asheville’s Glazer Architecture have won 15 Griffin Awards for preserving classic structures like the 1921 Castanea building, now home to Sensibilities Day Spa, Jewels That Dance and other shops; the 1914 WCQS Elk’s Home Building; and the Echo Mountain Recording Studio, housed inside a 1928 church. The firm has created commercial buildings for everyone from Asheville Savings Bank to Earth Fare to Habitat for Humanity...." 

Carolina Home + Garden's Summer 2009 issue featured Patti's mug collection. By Melanie McGee Bianchi with photos by Matt Rose.

"Even by big-city standards, Patti Glazer is a busy woman. A designer and renovator, for the past 30 years, of some of Asheville’s most distinctive buildings, she might be forgiven for getting her coffee on the go.

However, Glazer—the eyes and energy behind the mixed-use villa Lexington Station and the sumptuous recording studio Echo Mountain, among other recent projects—enjoys her morning joe at home. What’s more, she’s careful to start the day off well by choosing just the right cup in which to pour it. Which has to take a while, since she’s got enough of them to last six months without repeating a selection.

Owning nearly 200 handmade mugs was “never intentional,” says the multiple-award-winning architect (although her 600-plus pairs of earrings suggests that her affection for accumulation can’t be so easily dismissed). “I guess once I had amassed 60 mugs or so, I realized it could be perceived as a collection.” And now that they’re there, she fully intends to use them."