page_title: Vince Lee (explorer)
section_title: Architect
hierarchical_section_title: Vince Lee (explorer) / Architect
caption_attribution_description: English: File represents a dwelling in Jackson Hole, late 1960s
context_page_description: Vincent "Vince" Richards Lee, now retired, has served as a Marine Corps officer, founder and chief instructor of his own mountaineering school, western residential architect, Andean explorer, scholar of megalithic monuments, avocational Southwest archaeologist, and author of several books on many of those subjects.
context_section_description: Lee received his MFA in Architecture Magna cum Laude from Princeton in 1966. For his  Master's thesis, he created a design for the newly formed, all-year North Carolina Outward Bound School (NCOBS) in Asheville, NC. Adapting to the remote rugged building site, Lee produced a design utilizing small, light-weight structural components that easily could be assembled by the students. His unique design got very favorable "local boy makes good" news in local newspapers and the Tarrytown Daily News.
  Also favorably reacting to his design, the NCOBS Board hired him in Fall 1966 for its construction drawings. Accepting his first architectural commission, the Lee family moved to Asheville where Lee joined a local firm and began the detailed plans. However, the NCOBS program was downsized and the new building project fell through.  In Spring 1967, Dani and the kids temporarily returned home to New York while Lee headed west to the Tetons in search of a job and home for his family.  Stopping at Lander, he worked a season as an instructor/guide with the new National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) led by Paul Petzoldt.
  In the Fall of 1967, reunited with Dani and family, he settled into a small log cabin in Jackson Hole to endure their first of what would be many winters at the foot of the Tetons. He found employment with a local architect designing the new Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. After nearly a year with this first employer, he was fired in a disagreement over time off to climb with Pop Hollandsworth's Asheville School.  Not losing a stride, he soon found a position with a long-time local designer. Lee and his new boss, John Morgan, formed their own architectural design firm 'Design Associates, Architects' (D/A), in Wilson, a small village near Jackson. When Morgan retired, Lee became sole owner. In 1968, he bought a 1 1/4 acre field on which he built his first house.
  Lee had become an active environmentalist at the time of the first Earth Day,1970. His activities caught the attention of Wyoming's Republican governor, Stan Hathaway, who appointed him to the state's then new Air Quality Advisory Board. He was re-appointed to three terms on the 7-seat Wyoming Environmental Quality Council by Governors from both political parties. He also became the local representative of The Nature Conservancy, served on the Jackson Hole Scenic Area Study Group, and filed briefly for County Commissioner of Teton County. He was a founding board member and 6-year chairman of the Jackson Hole Land Trust (1980–1997), When he later moved to Cortez, Colorado, he continued his activism as a member and 2-term chairman (2009–2013) of the Montezuma Land Conservancy, a conservation program for the Four Corners region.
  During his more than three decades in Jackson Hole, Lee and his firm designed over 400 projects in the region, mostly custom residences.  The home of one of his architectural clients was covered in the "Jackson at Home" supplement to the local newspaper, which detailed the features that appealed to its owners.  Nearing retirement in 1998, Lee passed along the firm to his third son Christopher, who transformed it  into a fully modern digital design studio.
caption: Lee's first house, Jackson WY, 1968; photo by Vince Lee
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