Personal Statement

Ms. Roettger teaches in the undergraduate architecture studios. She stresses the importance of abstracting, diagramming, and re-presenting information as a way to design interventions integrated with their sites. Betsy prepares students to develop their own design methodology by establishing and using a thesis or argument as a way to make design decisions from the scale of the region to the detail. Roettger also works in the departmental administration on many projects involving both faculty and students. Ms. Roettger's research interests lie in the collaboration between the design disciplines, community development, and politics. Growing up in West Virginia and briefly outside New Orleans on the Mississippi Coast, she is very interested in promoting more effective planning and building practices as a way to preserve local culture and ecologies in traditionally underserved populations. An active volunteer at the Charlottesville Community Design Center, Betsy helped secure the grant money for the 2005 Urban Habitats Competition, in collaboration with Habitat for Humanity, served as a facilitator for Charlottesville's Neighborhood Design Day to involve citizens in the strategic planning for the city, led efforts in re-designing Meade Park, serves on the steering committee for the annual Design Marathon, and now serves on the City's Parks and Rec Advisory Board. Prior to her return to UVA, Betsy worked in Boston and Cambridge, MA while teaching at the Boston Architectural Center. While her professional design experience has been institutional work, Betsy hopes to take on more work with dense affordable housing projects.