“Everyone’s life is better with purpose,” summarized Sheryl Seaman.
HONOLULU (Island News) — A Kailua architect and interior designer says designing for the future is why she’s Aging Well.
Sheryl Seaman started her career over 50 years ago and discovered that creating purpose for buildings has helped her infuse purpose in her own life.
You may not know Seaman’s name but you likely know her work. Her award-winning portfolio includes several high-profile projects in Hawaii and the Pacific Rim. Her favorites include PBS Hawaii and The Salvation Army KROC Center Hawaii.
“The overall meaning of being an architect is improving the community you live in, doing things that help other people – and continue to help other people long after you’ve left the project,” defined Seaman, who became an architect in 1973. She joined G70 in 1978 and is now moving towards retirement.
“What I love most about it is that it’s very creative and always changing,” she reflected.
Her career took her all over the globe. She remembers a period in the early 2000’s with fondness that was “nonstop travel for five years, and I got to custom design everything and have it made in Asia.”
Her Kailua home is now dotted with many pieces Seaman collected along her world travels. It’s one of the things she loved about her career in architecture: that she got to see the world and she got to create bespoke structures for clients.
She’s planning life after architecture with as much care, aiming to study food sustainability in Hawaii.
“The world situation is getting really crazy and we are the most remote inhabited place on earth. It wouldn’t take much to interrupt the supply chain that brings us our food,” worried Seaman.
It may even become a second vocation for this 77-year-old.
“My mother will be 104 in July. That would give me another 25 years. That’s a career. I have to come up with something,” she half-joked.
It’s certain she’ll apply the same intentional thought process as she drafts the blueprints for her next purpose.