"Cheri has a need to serve and a desire to make a difference, and with those architect traits, it's a powerful combination."
John Yonushewski, FAIA

sions are governed by reason and logic. They must take into account not only what is good right now, but also what will be good in the future,” says Witwer. “Cheri brings analytical rigor … she breaks down complex problems into manageable components, which she then solves one at a time. The result is better public policy.”
     Those in the profession agree that the rigorous training and practice make her well suited to the ins and outs of the legislature. “Architects are natural problem solvers … and they understand quality of life issues, too,” says Yonushewski. “Cheri has a need to serve and a desire to make a difference, and with those architect traits, it’s a powerful combination.”
     Gerou credits her background with her ability to seamlessly make the switch from architect to legislator, too. “I am used to process-oriented problem-solving, or studying a problem in search of a solution without preconceptions,” she says. “Many of the programming processes we use in architecture can be applied to sponsoring and researching legislation. But mostly, the ability to take a long view of a problem and proposed solutions has been of the most value in the legislature. Just as with each part of a design
solution, each piece of legislation impacts the whole and produces either a better or worse quality of life for the user. There is a very direct and immediate correlation between architecture and legislation.”

A Look Ahead
     Gerou has found that as many hours as she works, as much as she listens, there is always more to do: 120 non-stop days in the session, hundreds of daily emails to answer, public events to attend, committees that meet constantly, votes to be cast. Making a positive impact on her state is a humbling and daunting aim. “My goal is to do no harm,” says Gerou. “Understanding the unintended consequences of legislation is a minefield. That is what will keep my attention steady in a seven-and-a-half-hour committee meeting when we are listening to public testimony. What we do does make a difference and it is that difference that worries me most.”
     But no matter the challenges for the state or profession or mistakes she might make — “I love to learn and I’m good at making mistakes,” she says with self-deprecation — Gerou looks at it all with a characteristic upside. She believes that everyone can and should get involved, that everyone has the responsibility and the power to help make the state a better place, that she is grateful for the chance to serve, and that the future is bright for architects. “The profession is made up of smart, wellmeaning, hardworking, talented people, and the tools we learn will continue to make the world a better place,” Gerou says. “Our training makes us more observant and therefore more empathetic. Most of us don’t ever put down our mantle of problem analysis and problem solving. We love to solve puzzles.” ❚

Above: Cheri has practiced with her husband for over two decades and credits him with much of her architectural success. Here, Phil joins Greg and Sara.

"Cheri brings analytical rigor...she breaks down complex problems into manageable components, which she then solves one at a time. The result is better public policy."
Rob Witwer, former state representative.

     But the impetus to volunteer comes from even further back in her personal history. “My drive to give back to the public and profession was a gift from my grandmother,” she says. “Living and working on a ranch is a very solitary life, but making certain the community is strong is vitally important. My grandmother was a schoolteacher in 1917 in a one-room schoolhouse on the plains of eastern Wyoming. She and my grandfather worked hard to build their ranch and raise their family, all the time participating in their community. Barn-raisings, brandings, caring for the sick
— it was all part of the community.”
     It would be Gerou’s interest in and concern for the architecture community that would lead her path to the Colorado Statehouse, completing the circle that began with her grandmother’s inspiration. Her AIA leadership position led her to testify on behalf of the profession at the state legislature, and that testimony got her a governor’s invitation to join the State Licensing Board of Architects, which led to a request to run for the State House of epresentatives. “I think more than anything, my involvement in AIA has led me to public involvement,” says Gerou. “It was because in large part of the incredible support and help I received from the architectural and construction industry that I was able to win my seat in the legislature. It is a circle of involvement; it grows larger and is
enriched, but it keeps growing.”

A Run for the Statehouse
     Gerou calls her involvement in politics “an act of blind faith,” but others who watched her see it a little differently. Rob Witwer has known the Gerous for more than 20 years, and when he decided to retire from the state legislature, he contacted Gerou to gauge her interest. “She approached her candidacy in a systematic way,” says Witwer. “Instead of jumping in willy-nilly, she spent time doing due diligence. She talked to knowledgeable people, learned what she needed to do, developed a plan and executed the plan. She was the best first-time candidate I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen quite a few.”
     She has taken the same approach to office: talking, thinking, learning, planning. Each of the five bills she has sponsored was passed unanimously out of committee and on the floor. “I believe that speaks to an architect’s ability to build consensus — that’s the
best way to solve a problem. That’s what we do best, and that’s also why I firmly believe we need more architects in public office. We are good at what we do and we can do much good for the people we serve,” says Gerou.
     Again, her success is not a surprise to those who know her well.
“Public policy decisions are often influenced by emotion, but emotional responses sometimes lead to the wrong long-term results. The best deci-

Left: Cheri's children Sara and Greg join her swearing-in ceremony to the Colorado Legislature on January 7,2009
Right: Cheri Gerou, AIA, one of only seven architect-members of the state legislatures across the country and the only one in Colorado.

Above: Cheri campaigns with supporters in the Evergreen Rodeo parade. Longtime friends credit her intelligence and preparation with her win.

     By a young age, Gerou had distilled a number of lessons that would continue to prove valuable to her over the course of her career: Although she worked for larger national firms — Kaplan/McLaughlin and SOM among them — the atmosphere of a small firm was to her liking; while there were fewer women in the field, she felt no difference in practice because of gender; and the greatest control for her would come from owning her own firm. “Architecture is this amazing mix of art and reality,” Gerou says. “I can think of no other profession where an individual can leave such an indelible signature of involvement. Cultures influence rchitecture,
but beauty truly belongs to the designer.”

Personal Balance
     Two architects, one firm: With any other couple, the push/pull and hectic demands of the profession might show its strain. But Gerou and her husband made it work, creating a successful portfolio of commercial, retail, interiors, historic and design/build projects. “Phil has been my greatest mentor in architecture,” Gerou says. “I can’t adequately express how much he has taught me about practice and construction.”
     The pair have been married 30 years and have two children—Greg, 27, a software engineer in Denver; and Sara, 25, a writer in Chicago. It doesn’t surprise Gerou that neither child chose to follow her or their father into the profession. “Both Greg and Sara are incredibly talented and creative in their own professions,” Gerou says. “When people find out that both Phil and I are architects, they often ask if the children decided to enter the field. We tell them that two parents who work together, who never stop talking about architecture, live for architecture and even vacation to architecture tend to be a bit overwhelming.”
     That whole-life absorption doesn’t mean that Gerou has lost the little bit of magic she feels surrounds the profession. “I enjoy watching the clients as their dreams and, in a sense, their identity becomes reality,” she says. “The delight and joy they experience through the process is very rewarding. Clients whom we have worked with over the years have become friends; I can think of no greater satisfaction.”

Public Leadership Begins
     Gerou’s motivation and intelligence were natural precursors to her
leadership in the Colorado and Denver chapters of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Gerou began with the Denver chapter as an associate director and worked her way up the ladder, finally serving as AIA Colorado president in 2006. For those who volunteered with her, Gerou’s enthusiasm was contagious. “You get drawn in with the energy and passion she has for what she does,” says John Yonushewski, FAIA, principal with Buchanan Yonushewski Group, LLC, in Denver. “She uses her great personality
to befriend people and get her point across on what she’d like to
do in a way that takes you beyond volunteer work.”
     From high school jobs to AIA leadership: In hindsight, each one is a natural steppingstone to the next in the progression of Gerou’s career.

"Public policy decisions are often influenced by emotion, but emotional responses sometimes lead to the wrong long-term results. The best decisions are governed by reason and logic. They mnust take into account not only what is good right now, but also what will be good in the future."
Rob Witwer, former state representative

the Statehouse

     If you had asked Cheri Gerou, AIA, when she was a little girl if she’d make that trip, you might have gotten a quizzical look. Sure, she could take the highway on a sightseeing mission, but would she make the journey as a member of the Colorado legislature? To a young girl raised in a Wyoming ranching family, it probably would have seemed a mildly farfetched thought.
     But make the trip she did, from family ranch to higher education to practitioner and then to state representative. As the only member of the Colorado legislature who is an architect, Gerou brings with her a skill set that no other representative in the state can claim. The road that led her from Wyoming to Colorado is an interesting one. But to those that know her, it is no surprise that Gerou is devoting her days, nights and weekends to serving the needs of others.

Beginnings
     It had all the makings of an idyllic, albeit hardworking, childhood:
school weeks spent in Casper and weekends at a family ranch in Douglas, Wyo. That was how Gerou — the only girl in the middle of two older and two younger brothers — spent her growing-up years. “While the ranch belonged to my grandparents, my brothers, cousins and I spent almost every weekend and a portion of every summer working — well, mostly playing — at the ranch,” Gerou says.
     It was work and leisure guided by the outdoors—hunting every fall for game that the family would eat during the winter, camping and backpacking in the summer. A self-described “enthusiastic” Brownie and Girl Scout, Gerou also played the trumpet, piano, soprano bugle and mellophone.
     Her default indoctrination into the boys’ world of her brothers gave her a practical understanding of the lives and interests of the people around her. The daily and seasonal rhythms would, by necessity, always be bound by hunting, fishing and ranching. It didn’t hurt that she mastered the art of compromise at an early age. “You learn to negotiate well when dealing with four brothers who love to tease and pester their only sister,” says Gerou.

Professional Leanings
      Even with her background and family history, Gerou’s interests pulled her toward creative fields, especially after a high school job as a secretary for a small architectural firm in Casper. “The architect I worked for had graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and was very active in the community,” Gerou says. “I fell in love with architecture while working in his office. In those days the firm drew the drawings, wrote the specifications and printed the specs in-house. It was common for the whole office to work through the night before a project was let to bid.”
     She worked her way through college, and by the time she graduated with a degree in art history, she had been employed by at least 10 architects, married another architect, Phil Gerou, FAIA, and started a firm with him, where she first worked in interior design.

The road from Casper, Wyo., to the Colorado State house in Denver runs about 270 miles, give or take. There's a gentle easterly bend to it, through plains and ranching land in southeastern Wyoming, before the craggy tops of the Rocky Mountains come into view in north central Colorado.

Newly elected representative Cheri Gerou, AIA, capitalizes on her design and construction skills as well as her lifelong passion for giving back.

An Architect in