A co-founder of A4 Architects, Kathleen Stevens Rosa seeks in her work to achieve responsive architecture: buildings that reflect the synthesis of their site and context, their owner’s personalities and lifestyles, and appropriate relationships among society, technology, space, light and materials.
Her interest in architecture was spawned by her frequent travels and exposure to diverse cultures as a child. She chose to study architecture at Auburn University, where she earned her Bachelor of Architecture in 1989. During her fourth year of studies, her distinction in her urban design courses led her to being chosen to participate in the Architecture/Community Planning dual degree program. Kay chose to further pursue this interest through an internship with the Barcelona office of Urbanism, where she worked with an international team of designers under the direction of Oriol Bohigas, on the Basketball Pavilion and Urban Park for the 1992 Summer Olympic Games. After her internship with the City of Barcelona was completed, she worked in the private sector, where she worked as cultural/technical coordinator as well as a designer on numerous urban projects such as the US Consulate General project. Not wanting to be limited to only the urban scale, she also designed sculptural elements and furniture including a sculptural exterior stair / sculpture for the Consulate which was subsequently published and very well received. In collaboration with an industrial designer, she designed control consoles for the Center for Traffic Control which won a design award. During her three years in Barcelona, Kay also studied “Art, Architecture and Urbanism” a post-graduate Masters degree course at the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Escola Technica Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona.
Upon her return to the United States in 1992, Kay accepted a job with a large A/E firm in Maine, and soon rose to head the Architecture Department, before moving on to a more adventurous small coastal Maine firm and eventually founding A4 Architects. Among the recent projects for which she was responsible count St. Saviour’s Rectory Addition/Renovation, the Natural History Museum at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, “Seascape” - the Mary Jones Residence in Bass Harbor (recently featured on HGTV in Bob Vila’s Restore America Series), and the Acadia Skating Association’s Ice Facility, in addition to numerous houses, both modern and vernacular. Notably, in 1999, Kay was named runner-up in a competition to design an ecological homestead prototype for the Maine Organic Farmers and Growers Association.
Kay is a member of the Bar Harbor Planning Board (Current Secretary, Vice Chair Elect) and has served as a Board member of Habitat for Humanity and is a member of the Eastern Maine Technical College CAD Steering Committee. Kay is a LEED trained professional and a member of the US Green Building Council. She is proficient with various technological tools including ArchiCAD, AutoCAD, and Photoshop. Her greatest accomplishments, however, are her four children. She speaks English, Spanish, and Portuguese fluently and has a zeal for writing and traveling.