Our town of Easton is home to architects and landscape architects. To recognize some of these members of our community we present ‘Easton Architects as Artists.’ This special invitational exhibit highlights seven of our local architects, including Christopher Hull, Dave Beem, Jeri Barrett, Eileen Duffy, Ray Duda, Howard Raabe and Beatriz M. De Santiz. These creative licensed professionals will be showing projects that represent their designs of decades of training and experience.
This exhibit is curated by Dolly Curtis and Sheila Weaver, board members of the Easton Arts Council, and will be on display in The Small Gallery from Feb. 19 – March 30 at the Easton Public Library. A reception is scheduled Saturday, Feb. 25, from 4-7 p.m.
We celebrate the following Easton Architects as Artists:
CAH Architecture and Design LLC, Christopher Hull always enjoyed building, creating, and cobbling things together as a child. When he coupled this with his love of drawing his path to architecture became clear. He graduated from Miami University and earned his graduate degree at the University of Michigan before coming to Connecticut in 2000 to further his career. After gaining experience in a high-end Greenwich architecture firm, he founded the firm which would become known as CAH Architecture and Design, LLC in 2005. It didn’t take long for people to take notice of his talent as his work was shown on NOVA and featured on “This Old House.” He and his team of excellent designers and technicians have created numerous award winning residential, multi-family, and commercial designs ranging in size from outbuildings to 120-unit apartment buildings, athletic facilities, and anything in between. Hull and his team have never met a challenge they didn’t love!
JD Barrett & Associates, Jeri Barrett is a registered Landscape Architect in the states of Connecticut and New York. He leads an innovative design team of experienced professionals coordinated to address the challenges inherent in today’s increasingly complex land-use projects. Since 1998, this team approach has provided clients, architects, engineers and planners with the comprehensive technical knowledge and creative ability necessary to achieve optimum results in site design projects, often on very challenging sites. The firm specializes in environmental issues, site planning and wetland permitting for a variety of projects that range from residential (pool design), to large-scale master planning for agriculture, commercial and institutional clients.
Beem Management LLC, Dave Beem founded Beem Management in 2015 with a holistic vision for project management. Beem Management bridges gaps, builds consensus, and delivers project success. Dave has directed hundreds of highly successful projects in the U.S. and Europe. Dave’s transition from Designer to Design Manager is chronicled in a chapter in Stephen Emmitt’s 2016 book “Design Management.”
Eileen Duffy Architectural Design was founded by Eileen in 1999. Focused on residential projects, the firm has completed over 150 projects ranging from new estate homes to extensive renovations, including phased master plans for homeowners who retained her to create an architectural road map with a holistic vision. With work spanning the Tri-State area, many of the projects are Connecticut-centric, including several located in Easton.
Howard S. Raabe Jr. Architect, Howard has been the architect for extremely large buildings in Connecticut. Howard has consulted on foundations in New York State to provide a sensible solution to a muddy, watery condition. He has been a code consultant in CT, NY and St. Martin along with designing structural solutions for more than 3,000 projects in his 43 years as a Registered Architect in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Florida and Georgia. He has conducted many field tests to determine deflection and soil capacity and has been retained to conduct forensic investigations on structural failures and to determine a solution. He is also employed as an expert witness in many of these cases.
BM Design LLC, Beatriz M. Santiz was born in Guatemala and raised between Guatemala and Greenwich. She graduated from the Universidad Rafael Landivar as an architect and moved to Connecticut ti raise her family. In 2001 Beatriz started working as a junior architect in Building By Design, a young firm in Stamford. In 2010 Building By Design closed doors as an architectural firm, and Beatriz worked as a consultant in interior design firms such as Rinfret LTD in Greenwich and Forehand and Lake in Fairfield. In 2014 Beatriz started as a project architect in Robert Storm Architects in Westport, a position that she held until 2018.
In 2018 Beatriz formed BM Design, a design firm that specializes in high end architecture, which was the realization of a dream to build a company that would allow her to create for her clients with more freedom and to realize projects with unique qualities, giving each project the attention to detail and unique living experiences which her company strives to give to each client. In 2020, the Santiz family moved to Easton to a historic antique home that Beatriz and her husband are designing and preparing documents to restore to its original beauty.
Raymond Duda was a long-time architect and resident of Easton for 40 years when he built his own home in 1983 on Deepwood Rd. He worked with Fletcher Thompson Inc. for 24 years. Raymond worked on his own for a few years then worked with SMS Architects until his retirement.
Christopher Hull and his team of excellent designers and technicians have created numerous award winning designs. 
The firm specializes in environmental issues, site planning and wetland permitting. 
Dave Been has directed hundreds of highly successful projects in the U.S. and Europe. 
Howard Raabe has been a code consultant in Connecticut New York and St. Martin along with designing structural solutions for more than 3,000 projects. 
BM Design LLC, Beatriz M. Santiz
