portland architecture

The Architect's Questionnaire: Risa Boyer Leritz

Our continuing series on local architects' influences and favorites continues with Risa Boyer Leritz, whose firm, Risa Boyer Architecture, celebrates a decade in Portland this year after being founded in Los Angeles in 2006. A 1998 graduate of the California College of the Arts, she began her career at Tanner Leddy Maytum Stacy (now Leddy Maytum Stacy) in San Francisco before spending four years with Los Angeles firm OJMR Architects and then opening her own firm. Recent projects include a midcentury-modern renovation in the Mt. Tabor area and the all-new Riverwood residence in Dunthorpe.

Portland Architecture: When did you become interested in architecture as a possible career?

Risa Boyer Leritz: I was around the age of seven, or at least that’s how I remember it. It may have been more like 10 when I committed to becoming an architect. I was really into playing with Barbies and looking at my mother’s Metropolitan Home and Sunset magazines. While that may sound random, I spent a great deal of time sprawling all of my Barbie furniture out in the living room and creating dream homes based on the inspiration I found in the home design magazines. I recall asking my mom, while blissfully playing, what I could do to for the rest of my life that would be like this. She responded with architecture. My mother jumped at my new-found career interest and proceeded to fill my youth with architecture books, trips to Frank Lloyd Wright exhibits, and visits to interesting architecture sites. And thus, my career path was paved.

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