SBJ photos by McKenzie Robinson

No Ceiling: Stephanie Ireland

Ireland Architects Inc.

BY: Christine Temple, Features Editorctemple@sbj.net

Posted online November 30, 2020 | 3:03 pm

On Challenge

“This one professor, of course, in front of the whole class, proceeded to tell me he doesn’t know why I’m even trying to become an architect. I’ll never be one – I’m female, I’ll just get pregnant anyway. That was hard to hear, but it was also the push that I said, ‘Watch me.’”

Stephanie is the owner of 20-year-old Springfield architecture firm Ireland Architects Inc. She says it’s no wonder she ended up in this field – her dad was a woodshop teacher and her mom an interior design and architectural history professor. But the road to gaining her license was not easy. She took a non-traditional education path and she experienced a setback early in her career when she was laid off. But Stephanie says she’s drawn to a challenge. She discusses that desire has led her to spend much of her career designing health care clinics and psychiatric hospitals.