Richard Berg received his B.A. in Architecture from the University of Washington in 1979. As part of his studies he attended the UW Department of Architecture’s foreign study in Rome program., and then the following year returned to Rome as a teaching assistant for the program.
Following graduation, Richard joined Ibsen Nelsen and Associates in Seattle, where he worked on projects such as the Museum of Flight, the Inn at the Market, the Stewart House mixed-use project at Pike Place Market, and the Merrill Court luxury townhouses in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. He decided to return to school in 1983, attaining a Master of Architecture degree with honors from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, while interning at the firm of Imre & Anthony Halasz, Inc. in Boston.
After graduation from MIT, he joined Whitaker Architecture & Planning, Inc. There he worked as a designer, architectural project manager and occasionally as a project manager for the firm’s construction side, Whitaker Construction Corp. Moving back to Seattle in 1988, he managed the architectural division of Glory International, Inc., a Japanese real-estate development firm that focused on vacation homes and resort projects in both Japan and the U.S. In 1991 he acquired his Washington State Architecture license and accepted a position as Project Architect with Timbercraft Homes, Inc. in Port Townsend. At Timbercraft he was responsible for the design of all their timber-framed projects, which included houses (including his own home addition) and commercial buildings located mostly in western Washington, with occasional projects elsewhere in the US and Japan.
In 1997, he founded Richard Berg Architects in Port Townsend. In 2001 the business expanded and was incorporated. A bookkeeper was hired as well as the firm’s first full-time designer and draftsman. By 2005 the firm had outgrown its quarters in the Bergs’ home and moved into new office space next door at 719 Taylor Street. In 2010 Richard Berg Architects transformed into Terrapin Architecture. The name change reflects that the firm operates as a collaboration between Richard and his talented and experienced associate architects, combining their expertise and talent in design, construction knowledge, timber-framing, and historic preservation. In 2012 the firm moved into the newly renovated space where they currently reside at 727 Taylor Street.
Richard currently serves on Port Townsend’s Historic Preservation Committee, a design review and advisory board for the City’s National Landmark Historic District. He just finished a term as Chairman of the Board of the Jefferson Community School, a 7th – 12th grade school focused on innovative and experiential learning located in a historic downtown Port Townsend building, and has also served on the Board of the Port Townsend School of Woodworking and Preservation Trades. In the past, he has served as Chair of the Port Townsend Planning Commission and on the Design Review Committee for Port Townsend’s commercial zoning districts.
