When Laura Standridge, principal and owner of a planning and civil engineering firm, is out and about in her travels, she can’t help herself — she’s pretty much always in engineer mode. “I look at the big picture: How places are laid out; how people and buildings and green spaces are situated in the environment,” said the owner of Standridge Design. “I look at how they engage and interact in situations and how it all creates a place. I enjoy it. If I must, I have to kind of force myself to turn it off.”
Name: Laura Standridge.
Residence city/neighborhood: Minnehaha.
Business name: Standridge Design Inc., 113 W. Seventh St., Suite 200, Vancouver. 360-597-9240; www.standridgeinc.com
Age: 44.
Educational/professional background: I grew up in Houston and moved around a bit and ended up in Alaska, where I obtained my bachelor’s of science in civil engineering from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. There is a wide variety of work that you can do with a civil engineering degree and my focus has been in land and site development. Over the last 20 years I have worked on projects that start with doing studies to see if a neighborhood subdivision or commercial building would work well in an area, and then if the answer is “yes,” moving it through planning, engineering, and construction administration. I also work on projects with architects and landscape architects in both Oregon and Washington that include large buildings and regional parks.
How — and when — you got started in your business: I have always been interested in figuring out how things work, how to put things together, and streamlining processes. Growing up I would be the one who my family would go to in order to fix or build things, and they would say “You’re such an engineer.” Over time I found that I really enjoyed managing projects.
