Meet Jill Rerucha, Owner at Rerucha Studio, an architecture and interiors design firm that believes that imaginative, responsive, and relevant architecture reflects the story of the client and site.
“It is a very powerful experience watching your vision being built,” says Jill Rerucha, who always wanted to create ever since she was a little girl. Jill is an architect who started out as an interior designer until she realized her true love for architectural designing. She had always been a creative person who spent a lot of time imagining, drawing, and designing as she was growing up. She would catch frogs and build homes for them and for toy horses and trolls. But when she was asked to decide on a career, she chose interior designing for which she took up home economics in college. Studying at Oregon State University, she once took an art class from an architect who told her she was in the wrong place. She transferred to another university and studied interior architecture. Thus started her career as an interior designer.
However, during a four-hour dinner with an architect colleague in a snowstorm struck Seattle, talking about career and desires; for the first time in life, someone said to her, “I think you should become an architect.” She was 27 back then, and becoming an architect was something she had dreamt of. Consequently, Rerucha received her master’s in architecture and spent a year traveling abroad. This changed her perspective and had a significant impact on her career.
She now integrates her interior design skills with her architectural knowledge to create a refined experience and homes for her clients. Talking about her company, she says, “Right now, we are a small workforce of 5 women. We design homes for people. Unique homes that reflect site and client. I strive to create meaningful, harmonious, and delightful spaces that mirror who the client is. I don’t want each building to be original and reflect my client’s life and dreams.”
When asked about current and past challenges, Rerucha says that “Confidence and believing in myself, it is still a work in progress. But it takes confidence to build buildings and at some point I just started doing what I wanted to do and stopped worrying about what others thought.
The more authentic my work became, the more attention, respect, and success came,” she says. Rerucha is living what she is supposed to do and is constantly inspired by the camaraderie around creating something with builders and craftsmen.
It took a little more time for Rerucha to pursue a career she had always wanted to. She did not follow a straight path, but now that she is here, she has no regrets. Leaving an inspiring message for her readers, Jill says, “I think love has a lot to do with success. Loving what you do, creating teams that love what they do, teams that have pride and love for all the details. I strive to create an environment that is inspiring for all. A love-based environment is critical to achieving beautiful projects. Love, not fear, should rule the workplace. Women are good at that.”