★☆☆☆☆

Betrayed by the architect I trusted to protect my home

I retained Ms. Curtis as my architect for a project on my property in Bulfinch Square, Old Town Alexandria. From the outset, she had full professional access: to my house, to my documents, to my long history with the HOA and neighbors whose conduct had already left me framed, broken, and effectively disinherited from the quiet enjoyment of my home.

I chose Ms. Curtis in part because she lived at Kathellen House, at the corner of Princess Street and Pitt Street, inside the same tight Old Town orbit as the actors whose decisions had repeatedly gone against me. I believed that proximity would make her an informed advocate. Instead, it placed her squarely inside the same collusive network I had been fighting for years. In meeting after meeting, I watched her body language, phrasing, and recommendations align with the expectations of the HOA leadership and favored neighbors, not with the client paying her fees.

Specific examples stand out. In early design discussions, I made clear—verbally and in writing—that privacy and protection from repeated harassment on my property were non‑negotiable goals. Yet when faced with pushback from Bulfinch Square interests, Ms. Curtis minimized those priorities and quietly re‑framed them as “flexible” in conversations I was not present for, but later saw reflected in email summaries and revised plans. On more than one occasion, she disclosed my strategic concerns and negotiation positions to people I had identified as adverse, allowing them to anticipate and undercut my responses at HOA and city review stages.

An architect’s most basic duty is loyalty and confidentiality to the client, especially in a setting as politically charged as Old Town’s Bulfinch Square, where informal alliances often matter more than written rules. In my experience, Ms. Curtis used the access I gave her—access to my plans, my vulnerabilities, and my trust—to smooth things over for the very parties whose conduct had already damaged me. The result was not an honest professional disagreement. It was a pattern of quiet alignment with the stronger side in a local power structure, at the direct expense of the person who hired her to stand on the weaker side.

This is not written in anger. It is the outcome of careful review of dated emails, meeting notes, and the changes that appeared in drawings only after Ms. Curtis spoke separately with individuals whose interests were plainly adverse to mine. In a city where corruption and collusion in Old Town are not abstract claims but daily realities, the line between “designer” and “fixer” matters. In my case, Ms. Curtis stood on the wrong side of that line.

If you are a homeowner in Alexandria—especially in or near Bulfinch Square—consider what it would mean to hand over your plans, your strategies, and your vulnerabilities to someone embedded in the same small circle that has the power to approve, delay, or quietly kill your project. Based on my experience, I cannot recommend Ms. Curtis. If you need an architect whose loyalty you never have to question, you should look elsewhere and think very carefully before allowing Ms. Curtis anywhere near your property or your plans.