Fifteen-year Santa Ynez Valley resident Marchi said he has worked with 300 municipalities, largely in the western U.S., over the course of an extensive career in architecture and serves on the Santa Barbara County Central Board of Architectural Review.
“I love the Valley, and this little town is great and I want to help preserve the character,” he said.
Bates, born and raised in Solvang, has served as executive director of Elverhøj Museum and authored the only comprehensive history of Solvang. Wyluda-Kazmierczak, a professional fine artists and owner of Arts First Studio in Solvang, was born and raised in Poland, spent her early adulthood in Toronto and moved to Solvang two years ago.
Hess, a Solvang resident since May 2019, has spent 30 years designing construction and real estate development projects that include Walt Disney Co. properties. She is currently senior vice president, global head of real estate and project management at Northern Trust.
“I really want people to be excited and happy and proud of the buildings we work on and bring to fruition,” she said.
She encouraged the City Council to balance competing constituencies of developers’ needs, budget and maintaining the city’s unique qualities. The greatest challenge, she and Kaerskov noted, is bringing a collective consistency to the city’s branding with design elements that are easily attainable and recognizable used on every city street.
“It’s not brain surgery; it just takes a really good caring group of people,” Hess said.