Welcome
Bringing together the potential of people and place is an ideal that is not only reflected in our work but also in our workplace and the way we work with each other.
Potential is always there—how we realize it is how we shape our lives and the lives of the people we design for.
Our
Approach
Culturally, you could say that we’re principled, playfully pragmatic, and creatively thoughtful. It’s a personality that, while modest, is more the measured maverick who knows how to make the most of constraints, the resources on hand, and the means to put them to work.
In the words of Lauren, a Principal at Aetta, it’s about optimal synthesis—a holistic view with a budget that couples building performance with well-being defined by multi-variate criteria ranging from aesthetic expression to traffic flow, comfort, productivity, and maintenance cost to energy efficiency and safety.
We’re about optimally moving these metrics in the right direction and delivering projects that are not only functionally and aesthetically resolved but also contribute to personal and community well-being.
In an environment where clients are often challenged by creative but unviable solutions, budget overruns, miscommunication, and unmet needs, we couple deep regulatory knowledge with ingenuity to deliver community-centric commercial projects.
balancing ingenuity and viability
As a multi-generational practice, we bring a rich intersection of perspectives, experiences, and skills that enable a high level of knowledge transfer and generative collaboration.
Finding the balance between ingenuity and viability is where we thrive.
The space between the needs of people and place—the regulatory and budgetary constraints, building processes, performance, and aesthetics—and how they are solved defines the quality of their interaction.
Balancing them to realize favorable outcomes is what sets us in motion.
Our numbers
We are Aetta
We’re a company built on and out of relationships with a reputation for reliability extending to our origins in the 80s.
Our people are here to be a part of something. They know they’re valued and bring their best to their clients and the communities they call home.
Amanda Baghdanov, IIDA
Interior Design Degree from WSU. Love my family time—engaged, active, together. Onboard since 2021.
Cara Doty
HR Management Certified from PSU. 10 plus years in Office & Business Management. Formerly in NPOs and teaching. Artisan soap maker. Onboard since 2021.
Carlos Espinosa
30 plus years PM experience. Michigan native who bleeds Maize & Blue, but couldn’t love the PNW more. Family life is the good life—wife, kids, and dogs. Reminisces wistfully of the younger mountain bike days. Onboard since 2018.
Carolyn Wilson
Graduated from BYU Idaho with a Degree in Virtual Design & Construction. Enjoys photography and capturing the best of this world through a lens. Onboard since 2022.
Craig Collins, AIA
Practicing architect for over 35 years. Founder of Collins Architectural Group (CAG). Outside the office, three kids and grand kids is what he enjoys most in life. Onboard since the 2022 CAG acquisition.
David Biesterveld, CSI
Over 30 years architectural expertise in the US, Australia, and New Zealand. Loves horror films & books. Knows his way around the bass guitar. Avid traveller, hunter, marksman, and outdoor appreciator.
Don Luthardt, AIA, LEED AP
Practicing architect for over three decades. Mentor of all things regulatory. Soft touch, big impact. Onboard since 2021.
Erica Ryon, CSI
Industry PM, production, and marketing veteran. Local and regional leadership in the Construction Specification Institute since 2000. Society for Design Administration member since 2008. Lifetime native Oregonian. Self-professed Sc-fi geek. Loves concerts and time with family, friends, and furry pups.
Jared Bradshaw-Vinson, AIA, NCARB
Bach of Arch & Masters of Arch from WSU. Vehicle restoration specialist, motorcyclist, and avid world traveller with husband Ajay. Clocks in R and R with felines Leannder and Allder and his dog Axxel. Onboard since the 2022 CAG acquisition.
Jennifer Lee, NCIDQ, AIA Associate, CSI
Louisiana, New Jersey, Tennessee transplant. Focused on holistically integrating interiors and architecture since 2006. Enjoys sewing, metalsmithing and QT with her cat, Dorian. Onboard since 2022.
Karl Johansson, AIA, NCARB
Practicing architect since the 80s. Owner of the archival Johansson Drafting and Design jersey. Pragmatic optimist. Licensed to practice in twelve states. Resident fire station and public safety advocate. Founded Johansson Architecture, now Aetta, in 2006.
Lauren Johnson, AIA, LEED AP
Working with leading firms in the PNW since the 80s. Champion of the idea of optimal synthesis. Focused on realizing community-centric and earnestly human spaces, especially in education and school district developments. Onboard since 2020.
Lisa Dillsworth
Working in Design and AEC since 2012. Hiker and beach dweller with husband and dog by her side. Swimmer, giving Michelle a bit of competition. Onboard since 2023.
Marcus Morales
Working in architecture since the early 2000s. Avid golfer and resident Aetta representative at the annual AIA Golf Tournament. Big 49ers fan. Onboard since 2018.
Michelle Cary, AIA, NCARB, ICC
Practicing architect since 2004. Enjoys travelling, gardening, hiking, and beaching it with husband, daughter, and dog in tow. Known for swimming laps and giving Lisa a run for her money in the pool.
Ryan Wing, AIA, LEED AP
Practicing architect since 2014. Prodigious output, light on words, easy smile. Partner at JWA, now Aetta, since 2018.
Steve Soladey
Working in architecture since the mid-80s. National and local billiard player with both the Billiard Congress of America (BCA), and at the local level with the Lower Columbia Men’s Pool League. Dotes on his loving wife and two kids.
Tim Root
Practicing architect since the mid-90s. Tall, curly blond with long legs. Cycled the Giro d’Italia in 2023 and can be found clocking watts throughout the Pacific Northwest. Onboard since 2021.
Terry Werdel, AIA
Practicing since 1990. Sees architecture as a series of puzzles—the organization of people, place, proportions, and regulatory protocols. Hiking boots and backpack, standard issue for the great outdoors. For the indoors, scale models are enjoyment in the minute. Onboard since 2021.
Our History
From thinking about how to better connect rooms as a five-year-old to the impression of fifth-grade textbooks with pictures of blue and white cyanotype drawings, the idea of architecture as a system of organization and expression found its way to many of us at Aetta as children.
Founded in 1982 as Johansson Drafting and Design by Karl Johansson, the son of Northern Swedish immigrants to Alaska, the firm established itself in the Pacific Northwest as Johannson Architects before growing into Johansson Wing. In parallel, after serving as a Principal in leading firms since 1985, Craig Collins established the Collins Architectural Group in 2000, developing landmark projects throughout the port districts of the PNW.
Today, the merger of Johansson Wing Architects and Collins Architectural Group is a growing 20-plus group of multi-generational professionals bringing deep institutional knowledge to new approaches in community-centric architecture.
Our Name
Aetta is rooted in the word ætt, and pronounced eight-ah, an early Norse word used to convey relations—an extended togetherness—and used in a modern context to mark taxonomies and systems of organization.
Our wordmark is constructed from strong verticals and horizontals contrasted with rounded letterforms with a tall x-height and open apertures, presenting a solid, attentive approachability. The double “tt” logo punctuates the wordmark and stands confidently, while its connectedness conveys the idea of togetherness, relation, and relationships.
