Ross Chapin

His Work: Architect and operating owner of firm

“I feel like I can concentrate and I can be inspired.”

I ask Ross Chapin to tell me about his workspace. He says “we are in a relatively small room, it opens out to what looks like an outdoor window, opening out to an atrium with trees. I’m back to back right on the property line so I can’t have any windows outside directly so we’ve got skylights. And we’ve got a skylight in here and it’s open a little bit so there’s a little bit of a spring breeze coming in. I’ve arranged myself here because I can sort of be aware of comings and goings without being the first one people see when they walk up the stairway. I can have this as a focused space but I can also quickly engage with the others here.”

Mr. Chapin is in a unique position because, being an architect, he actually designed this whole workspace. I ask him to tell me about some of the decisions he made in this design and why. He says “so I’m right handed, and so I want an “L.” He points to a small mirror on the wall and tells me that Feng Shui says he should be in a different position than he is in, that he should be facing the door more but he says “I go not by the rules of Feng Shui exactly, I go by my feeling and my feeling says I want to be able to focus, and want to have work stuff and a library but I want to see who’s coming and going so I put a little mirror there. And I want light coming over that shoulder because I’m right handed” and he gestures towards the skylight letting in sunshine from above us. Mr. Chapin tells me he has a little table so he can engage with others.

I look at this array of different images posted on the office wall. Ross Chapin tells me “I’ve almost always had images that are inspiring, that are…tapping into— it’s like they’re little windows to the world and so I’ve always had a wall with something like this.” He says the walls are very light gray and he tries painting walls different colors “the light gray kind of helps bring things together but it also allows the images like this to jump out from the wall a little bit. It’s really subtle.” Ross Chapin thoughtfully tells me “this room is basically shaped around the space that I need and the space that feels good. Directly across from me is the window, it looks like it’s a window to the outside but it’s to the garden, looking out at trees and sunlight coming in through the trees in the window.”

I ask Mr. Chapin how he feels working in his space here and he replies “I feel like I can concentrate and I can be inspired. The other thing is that because this room is slightly away I can have a phone conversation and be engaged with them as well.” This allows him to have conversations without disturbing others in the office.

I ask Ross Chapin how he would describe the work environment he feels he works best in. Mr. Chapin says “it’s got a refuge, it’s got a certain amount of enclosure and also its open. It’s got an outlook.” I ask him what he means by refuge and he replies “it’s a place that I feel protected and sheltered and psychologically emotionally safe, although I don’t ever feel non-safe even out in the world. It’s like a place where I can just rest in being. There’s nobody coming up from behind me, the distractions are my choice like images.” I ask about design features that make that possible for him. He explains “certainly natural light, colors of a workspace that I like generally are dusty softer colors.”

When I ask Ross Chapin to put his experience with his work into a few words he offers and insightful response. “I think what I’m doing is creating windows between the inner and outer worlds. I’m engaging in the world and I’m creating a place and places in the world but in so doing I’m also being able to have a way to feel into and live into an inner world, both the inner world of feelings and images and dreams and relationships—sort of the soul side of being. But I see how the physical environment can be the window, the doorway to that, or it can be a wall, a blockage a hindrance, and I’m really working to have the physical world help us so that everything in the world is transparent, so that we’re able to engage at our choice, through the different levels when we choose to.” Mr. Chapin tells me he usually doesn’t talk about this with clients but that “this is something that’s really at the heart of my work, trying to understand how this happens.” Ross Chapin truly loves his work and he tells me “if we each can do the work that we love than I think that the world as a whole, and humanity as a whole will begin to function and will begin to come forward rather than fray the fabric of life.” He tells me that he is glad that I am asking questions, that most people don’t.

Ross Chapin has been in business for 27 years with his small firm and is in the process of writing a book. There are five other employees in his company. Closing our interview he tells me “here’s one thing, to know that we each have choices, in our physical environment we have a whole variety of choices. And you can spend a lot of money or no money, it’s not related to money— it’s related to choice.” He creates his space as a balance between focus and engagement.