
Firm Culture
Introducing, Peter Altier!
Meet Peter Altier, joining Board & Vellum’s Interior Design team. Peter fell in love with architecture and design as a child, but his path to it as a career wasn't a straight line. Fortunately, his passion never waned. When he's not designing, Peter stays busy cooking, fixing up his house, and hanging with his pup, Finn.
July 7, 2020
Hello!
I’m Peter and I am thrilled to be joining the interiors team here at Board & Vellum!
I was born and raised in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. It was there that my love of architecture, art, and design got started. I spent countless hours as a kid playing hide and seek in a historic 400-year-old church and walking through the narrow streets of downtown Amsterdam with my parents. At the time, I thought nothing of this as it was the normal way of life.
My family was originally from Washington and when I was a teenager we relocated to the Pacific Northwest. The contrast between Amsterdam and Bellingham was dramatic, to say the least. But this change gave me an appreciation for the built environment that I had not noticed before. I spent middle and high school completely focused on the arts, dreaming of one day becoming an architect.
When I graduated high school, however, I decided to become a hairstylist and worked in salons for several years. My dream of becoming an architect never waned, so I enrolled at Bellevue College to work on prerequisites before transferring into an architecture program. My first class was Intro to Interior Design, and by the time the class ended, I was so enamored by the art of creating spaces for people to live and work in that I felt no other career could ever satisfy me.
Four years later, I had my Bachelor’s Degree of Applied Arts in Interior Design. I immediately started as a fulltime designer at the firm where I had been an intern. As a small firm focusing on multifamily and residential interior design, I was able to experience a wide variety of project sizes and types — getting fully immersed in all stages of the design and construction process.
Several years later, I set out in search of new experiences to further expand my skillset and experience. I went to a firm specializing in mid- and high-rise commercial office towers. I soon found that I missed the human connection and ability to improve people’s lives through thoughtful and personalized spaces. At this time, I was fortunate enough to cross paths with Board & Vellum which shared my passions and values.
This past year I got married to my husband and we bought our first home. We live in southeast Seattle with our dog, Finn. Weekends are spent slowly remodeling and improving our home, cooking for friends, baking, camping, traveling, or going to the theater.
I’m excited to get the opportunity to work with such a diverse and talented group of professionals and to be able to contribute to and help grow the amazing multifamily, commercial, and residential projects that Board & Vellum has in its portfolio.