Bio:

The Great designer, Ashley byars AIA. Project Designer/Project Architect with experience consisting of a range of project types, from signage, gallery installations, residential work, to new ground-up commercial construction. She has a passion for working with clients to craft and execute designs that reflect the uniqueness of their vision and believes great projects marry poetics of design with pragmatics of our everyday built environment. Ashley has taught as an adjunct faculty at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln.

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How did you first learn about architecture and when did you decide that built environment profession was an area of interest for you?

My mom was the first one who planted the idea of studying architecture in my mind; suggesting it could be a profession that would align with my talents and interests in both the arts and sciences.

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What do you do?

I’m a project designer / project architect at TACKarchitects in Omaha, NE. I have the opportunity to work on a variety of project types and project roles: from programming, through design detailing and construction administration.

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What excites you in the work you do?

People and Places! Meeting new clients, getting to know them, their team, and their needs and working along side them to craft and execute a new environment that support their mission.

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Who or what inspires you professionally?

Traveling, continually seeing new places and new projects and observing their impact on places and people.

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What is your proudest professional accomplishment or achievement?

Tough question, getting to visit and enjoy spaces which I helped create in our community, with my peers, friends and family is my ultimate proudest achievement.

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Featured Project Name: 

BLUEBARN Theater

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Featured Project Location: 

Omaha, Nebraska

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Featured Project Completion Date: 

2015

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Role in Featured Project: 

Project Architect,  Min|Day (now Actual Architecture Co.)  

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Featured Project Description:

BLUEBARN is a 13,500 SF, 99-seat community theater that anchors the corner of 10th and Pacific streets. The Theater was built concurrently alongside a mixed-use residential development to the south (Boxcar 10), and a new public park to the west to revitalize the northern extents of the Little Italy neighborhood. To keep up with the scrappy nature of Bluebarn creatives, a flexible black box theatre located at the center of the plan to allow it to open-up to both interior and exterior audiences

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Photography Credit:

Paul Crosby

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Featured Project Name: 

Cochran Park bench|sign

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Featured Project Location: 

Council Bluffs, IA

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Featured Project Completion Date: 

2015

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Role in Featured Project: 

Project Architect,  Min|Day (now Actual Architecture Co.)  

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Featured Project Description:

The sign is an active entry portal to Cochran Park and a meeting place for the neighborhood – “meet me at COCHRAN”. The sign is large enough and broken into separate sections to become a spatial feature in the park – visitors can inhabit its diffuse interior and be inside the text. In addition to identifying Cochran Park with its super-graphic, the bench|sign provides an area for small gatherings and spontaneous interaction.

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Photography Credit:

Colin Conces

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Featured Project Name: 

Bucktown House

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Featured Project Location: 

Chicago, IL

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Featured Project Completion Date: 

2014

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Role in Featured Project: 

Project Architect,  Min|Day (now Actual Architecture Co.)  

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Featured Project Description:

Renovation of an existing spec-built 3-story row house in the Bucktown neighborhood of Chicago. A strong connection and extension of the existing interior living spaces to the outdoors was created through the use of wood design features throughout. These wooden feature were uniquely detailed to support the owner’s needs within that space: bookshelf in the living room, hidden desk and bench in the master bedroom and privacy screening at the exterior living rooms.

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Photography Credit:

Paul Crosby

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