Amy Fitzgerald Tripp’s New Baby Means New Work Priorities
Santa Barbara Architect Designs a Remote Work Routine
By Leslie Dinaberg | June 30, 2022
Even prior to the pandemic, Amy Fitzgerald Tripp and her husband always had a workspace in their home. “We both are designers and went to art school, so we’ve always had a love for having a space to work and make things,” said Tripp. “It really went into daily use when the pandemic started.”
A Santa Barbara–based architect for the past 15 years, Tripp has worked on a variety of projects, including The Biltmore, San Ysidro Ranch, and high-end retail stores for brands like Fendi, Hermès, and Louis Vuitton. She was on maternity leave after having her first child last year when she was recruited to work for the Housing & Hospitality division of Page (pagethink.com), a full-service design, architecture, and engineering firm with projects and offices around the world.
She works primarily remotely from her home office, with what she describes as a hybrid childcare system setup. Mondays through Wednesdays, their daughter goes to a small home daycare, which Tripp said they feel very fortunate to have found. “We really wanted our daughter to have the experience of interacting with other kids, especially since she’s getting older — eight months old — and moving around more.” Then on Thursdays and Fridays, her daughter is at home with a nanny to help during Tripp’s work hours.
Between the challenges with finding good childcare and not quite feeling ready to be completely away from her daughter all day, Tripp said it felt serendipitous when the offer to work with Page came in as a fully remote opportunity.
For her, that part of the transition to remote working was fairly seamless. “Even before the pandemic started, two to three days a week, I would have project meetings, mainly via Zoom. I had been kind of working this way for a long time and was accustomed to having project teams that are on the East Coast or in European time zones.”
She also sits on the AIA (American Institute of Architects) Santa Barbara executive board. Because she was remote, “I was actually able to join in and do more meetings, because it kind of cut out having to pack out, leave the office, go to the meeting, and then come back. I feel like it was somewhat more seamless.”
Currently working on Hotel Weaver in Petaluma, California’s bustling theater district, among other projects, Tripp said that in addition to the remote work flexibility, what drew her to the opportunity to work at Page was to “really be able to expand my network and work with a diverse, dynamic team. To be able to be here in Santa Barbara and work with some really talented folks in San Francisco, but also some really talented folks in Austin and Houston right now, it’s been just a really great opportunity to really push my development and knowledge as an architect.”
Read all of Leslie Dinaberg’s stories in our special issue, “The Way We Work,” here.
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