Spotlight: Steve Utz

In 2003, Steven Utz left his job at a Walnut Creek architecture firm when his wife accepted a teaching position at Allegheny College in Meadville, PA. In addition to his design and historic preservation work, Utz began working with local nonprofit organizations. With only one architecture firm in this rural rustbelt community, he realized that "no one was focusing on low-income housing in a town where 51 percent of the families are living on less than $14,000 a year."

A number of agencies in town needed help with building renovations so needy families could be housed. Utz began working with Crawford County Coalition on Housing Needs, which provides services to the area's homeless, near-homeless, and low-income families. They had no money to pay him, so he volunteered his time. "It was clear they needed someone with architectural training," he says.

When Utz learned that the Frederick P. Rose Architectural Fellowship of the Enterprise Foundation offered a stipend for such work, he applied and was awarded one of the prestigious fellowships for 2004–7. Utz will spend those three years working with nonprofits, redevelopment authorities, and city officials to revitalize Meadville. His projects will include constructing transitional housing, renovating single family homes utilizing green design practices, and improving the South Main Street neighborhood with pedestrian corridors and nature and bike trails.

When asked how it felt to receive the fellowship, he replies, "I'm proud that I came to understand the community I'm living in and can make the major shift away from historical preservation to the more necessary work of fulfilling the needs of a community." When the fellowship is over, Utz hopes to become manager of a Main Street or Elm Street Program in Meadville, through a federally funded program that assigns independent managers to improve commercial or residential streets.

From Glance, 2004

Born 1971

CCA degree:
BArch 1997

Other education:
AA 1992, computer-aided drafting specialist in architecture and certificate in building construction documents, Sierra College

Current occupation:
Enterprise Foundation, Frederick P. Rose Architectural Fellow

Influences at CCA:
John Bass, Richard Sommer, Connie Treadwell, Opal Palmer Adisa