When opportunity knocked, Christine Kelley answered

Ph.D. candidate Christine Kelley refers to herself as a nontraditional student. At first glance, her path to Virginia Tech’s doctoral program in architecture looks straight, but closer inspection shows that Kelley pays attention to opportunities that knock when least expected.

Like many baccalaureate graduates, she worked professionally before attaining her first graduate degree, then returned to the work world. What happened next was not planned and led to her current award-winning work.

A Northern Virginia native, Kelley had the opportunity to study fine art as a high school student at the Corcoran Gallery. She thought she might continue that route when she considered college and attended Virginia Tech as an undergraduate, earning a degree in architecture in 1987.

“The truth is that I went to Blacksburg interested in design but did not have a specific focus.” she said. But one day she walked into the School of Architecture at Cowgill Hall. “I remember thinking, this is it,” she said. “It was a great experience.”

From professional firms to teaching

After graduating, she worked for a firm in Boston, then earned a master’s degree in architecture at the University of Texas, Austin. She said her work as a student at Virginia Tech received attention when she applied to the Texas program. “In particular, it was the hand drawing from earlier art studies that was developed further when I was a student in Cowgill Hall,” she said.

After completing her master’s degree, she spent 15 years working in New York, living in Brooklyn and Manhattan, and eventually returned to Northern Virginia. She took some time away from work after her daughter was born, then accepted an offer to work as an adjunct professor, leading a design studio and a course on lighting, in another university’s interior architecture program. This set the groundwork for yet another opportunity.

Her adjunct position led her to Virginia Tech’s Washington and Alexandria Architecture Center (WAAC). “I knew the WAAC was here in Old Town because the Alexandria extension of the architecture school was in its early stages when I was an undergraduate,” she said. “If I remember correctly, the studio was then located above a local drug store.” Currently, the center is in a historic school building on Prince Street in Old Town Alexandria.

She talked with Professor Paul Emmons, who directs the architecture doctoral program at the center. “Dr. Emmons told me about the program, and we toured the building that reflects the spirit of the WAAC’s academic environment. I went home and talked it over with my family and I put in an application,” she said. “I didn’t know what to expect.”

Managing degree work and teaching

She was accepted into the program in 2020, as the COVID pandemic halted in-person courses. “We were all online. I thought it was fun and fascinating. The faculty have so much to offer.” Since then, she has worked as an adjunct and as a graduate teaching assistant. In 2024, she received the College of Architecture, Arts, and Design’s doctoral student of the year award.

This fall, she will be an adjunct instructor for the integrated building design studio, a requirement for fourth-year undergraduate students. “In a way it’s a practice studio. The students are asked to put it all together; their design work and the various building systems,” she said. The studio also will explore some of the architecture and history of the greater Washington, D.C., area as well as Virginia Tech’s new academic building in Alexandria.  

Kelley said she particularly enjoys the integrated studio course because in some ways it mirrors the atmosphere in many architectural firms. She said the difference in studio classes is that students are younger and “they just need a little more direction.”

Research earns attention

As a doctoral student, she also is engaged in research. Her work explores the idea of chiasmus — things or phrases that are repeated as an inverse parallel — and specifically the chiastic presence of shadow and light in Le Corbusier’s mid-20th century chapel, Notre-Dame du Haut at Ronchamp. Her article on Le Corbusier was published in 2023 by LC. Revue de recherches sur Le Corbusier, at the Le Corbusier Foundation.

“That was truly an experience. I was surprised to hear back from them when they first showed interest, and I just kept the conversation going,” she said. “I wrote the essay in the summer. Fortunately for me, it was a very rainy summer, so I spent a lot of time at my desk. The paper was expected to be both detailed and concise. It was great preparation for writing my dissertation.”

A real adventure

Kelley said she takes time to step away from work, focusing on her family, taking the dog for long walks, and sometimes playing tennis. She plans to graduate in spring 2026 and is in the midst of her dissertation work in addition to all else. She credits Emmons and Professor Emerita Marcia Feuerstein, Professor Susan Piedmont-Palladino and Professor Emeritus Paul Kelsch for their ongoing support and encouragement as she has progressed on her doctoral journey.

“Paul and Marcia lead the doctoral program, and I would not be doing this without their expertise and extensive knowledge,” Kelley said. “I came with an idea, but the faculty guided its development and it evolved. I had the opportunity to take a topic and really dig into it from a new perspective. The WAAC made that possible. It certainly would not have happened on my own. It’s been a real adventure.”