She started out as her father’s draftsperson. She now runs her own architect firm
Arielle Condoret Schechter grew up studying cubist artists like Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró.
As the daughter of the late renowned local architect Jon Condoret, she trained at NC State’s School of Design and got her start working as her father’s draftsperson in the 1980s. For decades, she sketched by his side designing some of the Triangle’s most celebrated modern homes, including Chatham County’s Fearrington Village.
Striking out on her own wasn’t a priority. “I never thought I was brave enough,” she said, pointing out that women represented “almost none” of the architects coming up at the time. After getting harassed on multiple work sites, she almost quit “many times.”
Then her father died in 2010, and she had no choice, she said. “I didn’t want to work for anybody else. I just wanted to work for him.” So at 50, she became the principal architect of her own firm.
Roughly 15 years later, Schechter is one of the region’s most sought after modernist architects. She has her own line of customizable modernist homes ranging from 150 to 1,500 square feet called Micropolis Houses; and seven houses currently under construction in the Triangle.
The now 64-year-old has a year and a half waitlist and credits her father for her success.
“My dad always told me that I could do anything,” she said, touring one of her newly built homes in Durham this week. “He’d be thrilled that I’m not afraid and I just did it.”
Eight houses, all designed by women
NCModernist is hosting its annual Modapalooza Architecture Tour on Saturday, Sept. 14, and Schechter is among the lineup.
Starting in the Research Triangle Park at around 8 a.m., tourgoers can pay $179 per ticket to ride around in a fleet of air-conditioned buses with other modernist fans, peeking inside some of the region’s newest modern homes.
Architects, like Schechter, will be on hand to answer questions. But unlike previous excursions, they’ll all be women. All eight homes on the tour are designed by women — for the first time in its history.
“Women have been historically underrepresented or not given due credit,” George Smart, founder and executive director of NCModernist/USModernist, said in the release. “This year, we finally got the critical mass of homes and designers to devote to an entire tour.”
In addition to Schechter, AIA, the tour includes Erin Sterling Lewis, AIA, Raleigh; Katherine Hogan, AIA, Raleigh; Sharon Xu, Chicago; Alicia Hylton-Daniel, Durham; Rebecca Necessary, Raleigh; and Jessie Braverman, Raleigh.
Once a male-dominated profession, women made up 43% of the architect population in 2023, according to the National Council of Architectural Registration Board. That’s a five-percentage point jump from 2018.
“Honoring them isn’t just about celebrating their talent,” Smart said. “It’s about acknowledging the unique perspectives they bring.”
A ‘true modernist’
This week, Schechter offered an early glimpse.
The Lerner-Campbell House, at 4712 Ganesh Place in Durham, is one of her most recent projects and will be part of the whistle-stop tour.
The 2,460-square-foot single-story home sits on 3.6 acres of wooded land at the edge of Duke Forest. Encased by trees, the three-bedroom, three-bathroom is built on a gentle slope, rising from the earth like a jagged boulder with dark-gray siding, natural-wood accents and inverted trusses — one of Schechter’s “trademarks.”
“People used to say women like frilly things, like vintage Victorian. That’s totally wrong,” Schechter said as she walked the grounds. “I don’t like wimpy architecture. I like it to be powerful.”
Unlike her father, an Algerian transplant who dabbled in many styles, she’s a “true modernist,” she says. (At NC State’s School of Design, her nickname was “Modie” for her devotion to modernism.)
For her, it’s all about key elements: natural light, clean lines, open floor plans, functionality. “I like to have peeks and views, and special little sight lines.” She also relies on sustainable materials, like wood and concrete. Most of her homes are net-zero, or “net-zero ready,” generating as much energy as they consume by using solar power and other upgrades.
Inside, 14-foot vaulted ceilings and giant walls of glass offer sweeping “tree-house views” of the forest. Down the hill, a giant screened-in porch sits slightly removed from the house as a separate “recreation area.”
“It becomes this topic of conversation with every Uber driver who drops me off [at home],” said Ken Lerner, a marketing executive who works from home. “They look at the house and they’re like, I’ve never seen that before. That’s really cool.”
Lerner lives in the house with his wife, Sharon Campbell, a biochemistry professor at UNC-Chapel Hill. In 2019, the couple bought the land and existing house, subdividing the lots. Longtime modernist fans, they commissioned Schechter to build their “dream house” with lots of “internal drama,” he said.
Less than two years after moving in, they’re welcoming the public into their home. It still smells new, but Lerner said he isn’t worried about foot traffic.
“This is my connection to people,” he said. “If it helps them get inspired by contemporary architecture, absolutely.”
NCModernist’s 2024 Modapalooza Architecture Tour will take place on Saturday, Sept. 14, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more details, go to ncmodernist.org.
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