Featured Homes
Lisa DeStefano
This architect builds homes by building relationships
BY
Wendy Killeen
PHOTOGRAPHY
Dave Petty

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For Lisa DeStefano, architecture is about relationships––with her clients and the Seacoast region of New Hampshire, especially her native Portsmouth.

“My roots are very deep here,” she says. “I feel fortunate I can work in a career in the community I grew up in, and see and be part of growth and change.”

You can’t go far in the city without seeing the handiwork of DeStefano Architects, the Portsmouth firm she launched in May, 1995.

There are the Haymarket Condominiums, Porter Street Townhouses, Gaslight Restaurant, Hilton Garden Inn, renovation of a hardware store into the children’s boutique Goody Two Shoes, and, in progress, redevelopment of the Parade Mall. “It’s a wonderful feeling to have a piece of art on the landscape and be able to see it in the community,” DeStefano says. “And we know the people behind the windows and doors.”
Whether it’s residential or commercial––and DeStefano tries to keep a 50/50 balance in the firm’s projects, which stretch from coastal Maine to the North Shore of Massachusetts––“it’s all about that human contact,” she says. “It’s about how people feel in the space and how it works for them,” DeStefano continues. “Is it warm and inviting? What do people hear, see, and smell? We find we are successful when we can touch as many senses as possible.”

When homeowners are asked about their wishes, DeStefano listens. “And it’s more than hearing words,” she says. “Someone could say they want a comfortable home, but their sense of what is comfortable could be different. We want to create something unique to them.”

DeStefano also likes to share the latest information about environmentally-friendly and efficient materials with clients, and to bring in consultants such as interior, lighting, and audio visual designers. “We are a resource to bring the project together,” she says. “Whether it’s the first time someone is building or renovating a home, or the third time, there are a lot of decisions to be made.”

In the end, she says, “When the homeowner is living in the space and we are invited to sit on the patio and share a cup of coffee or glass of wine and see the family living in their surroundings, it’s a joy.”

DeStefano Architects
23 High St.
Portsmouth, NH 03801
603 431–8701
www.destefanoarchitects.com