Ken’s design for the “Coburn Woods Apartments” won the “Best Special Needs Housing Award” from the City of Gresham. His design for the terrace of a California home remodel was featured in the Fall 2000 Better Homes and Gardens Garden, Deck & Landscape special issue. Ken has been in sole practice since 1998, and is a member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

Design services of Kenneth Moholt-Siebert

As a sole practitioner, Ken specializes in:
• Site selection and feasibility planning
• Quality housing for low-income and special needs persons
• Custom houses, restorations of old houses and remodels for private clients
• Row houses, duplexes, accessory units and apartment buildings
• Moving and lifting buildings
• Community and neighborhood planning, facilities planning for non-profits, feasibility studies and community workshops
• Green building and sustainable design.

In all facets of his work, Ken instills dignity in buildings, and designs buildings to respect and promote the dignity of people. More detailed design services are described by clicking here.

Kenneth Moholt-Siebert: my approach toward architecture

I am committed to the idea that good architecture can help heal a community as well as the habitants of a building. Typically, I work with urban sites where a new building replaces a parking lot, a restored building replaces a dilapidated one or perhaps an addition to a building adds density to an existing site.

As a rule, I work on sites that previously have been built upon or are designated for intensive urban use, out of respect for and a desire to conserve the natural environment. Challenging small-lot development and infill development form a specialty of my practice.

Almost all of my work incorporates courtyards or south-facing terraces. These incorporate the outdoors as a natural extension of living space. They also promote a healthy relationship to nature.

I work with clients to choose materials to minimize their impact upon limited natural resources and to avoid materials with toxic materials or manufacturing processes with degrading environmental impacts.

I have a “hands-on” approach and am personally active in all stages of a project, from initial concept through final construction, to ensure that the integrity of the design and the quality of the building is fully realized.

Kenneth Moholt-Siebert: biographical sketch

Born in Berkeley, California, Ken Moholt-Siebert was exposed early to a rich architectural heritage in the town and at the University campus. Although both his parents were scientists of the Sputnik generation, Ken's interests naturally leaned toward the creative arts. Both his grandfather and great-grandfather had been architects, so Ken's budding interest in architecture, stimulated by the built environment in Berkeley, was a return in a way to that earlier family tradition.

Bernard Maybeck and Julia Morgan are the most prominent of a number of humanist architects in Berkeley whose influence is evident in Ken's work. The stress on the interrelationship between building and landscape, the importance of a classical training even while working in modern or natural or rustic materials or methods, and the belief that buildings must have dignity to be worthwhile, are all influences that may be traced to these roots.

Ken was educated at UC Berkeley and Pomona College (in Southern California), receiving his BA in Classical Studies at Pomona in 1988. While at Pomona, Ken discovered the love of his life, from Portland, Oregon: Melissa Moholt. The two married in 1987, a year before Ken graduated.

After resettling to Melissa's hometown, Portland, Ken spent a year teaching high school before returning to architecture at the Oregon School of Architecture and Design and employment in architecture firms in Portland. After transferring and completing his MArch. at the University of Oregon, Ken joined the staff in the fledgling non-profit, Portland Community Design. During his stay there, Ken was able to develop his own approach to design, consistent with a deep commitment to the needs of the poor, disabled and disadvantaged.

In 1998, Ken began solo practice. He is presently licensed in three Pacific States: Washington, Oregon and California. He is a member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

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