Catherine and VW Fowlkes attended architectural school together ? not at the same place (Catherine graduated from MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning, VW from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design) but at the same time: ?We lived together and had our own shared hell together,? says Catherine, with a smile. ?I can’t imagine living with someone who was not understanding of the maybe false urgency that I felt, at all times. It was incredibly stressful as well as exhilarating ? so it would be really hard to communicate to someone who wasn’t going through that, what the big deal was. Why are you so excited"?
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Now, they share their personal lives and their business, Fowlkes Studio, in Washington, DC. For this week?s Milkshake, we asked them what it was like working in one of the world?s power capitals. ?DC has a lot of, let’s say, Type A people ? a lot of busy people, though I don’t think that’s necessarily unique to Washington,? Catherine says. ?A lot of our clients are stressed, they’re busy, and to the extent that we can make their home an oasis, it can be calm, maybe they even feel like they’re on vacation in their own home ? those are parts of the conversation we’re having.? VW adds: ?There?s a cliché that people have “power walls” in their houses, like pictures of them shaking hands with senators,? VW says. ?I don’t think we?ve done that ? but it is true that it’s known to be a c...