Carla M. Haskell attributes her early interest in old buildings to growing up in history-rich New England, a love of high school drafting classes, and the encouragement of family to pursue architecture and design. Despite this calling at a relatively young age, her passion remained in the background until after earning a degree from UMASS Amherst in 1982, marriage, and the arrival of her children. Carla finally pursued an architecture degree at what is now Boston Architectural College in 1999. Realizing her dream would take nine years of commuting from her new home in York County, Maine, and multiple internships with Maine-based architecture firms. In 2005, Carla co-founded Design Group Collaborative, which is now based in an adapted carriage house in Ellsworth. Her firm participates in the 1+ program, which challenges designers to dedicate 1% or more of working hours to nonprofits–but it’s clear that 1% is the floor.
Carla’s work pushes people to see architecture and its embedded histories in a new light, embracing original materials and craftsmanship. And to not simply observe these old buildings, but to actively tend to them and keep them relevant for current and future generations.
Carla’s professional imprint extends across Maine, including the St. Croix No. 1 Firehouse in Calais, the Burton M. Cross State Office Building in Augusta, York Middle School, and numerous projects closer to home on Mount Desert Island for Acadia National Park, Jackson Laboratory’s High Seas, Grey Rock Inn, and the Claremont Hotel. From 2012 to 2023, she served on the Advisory Committee for the Maine Community Foundation’s Belvedere Fund, which directed financial support to preservation projects statewide.
As a member and president of The Grand Theater board, Carla assisted in adding the theater to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. When the theater was shuttered during the Covid pandemic, Carla doubled down on Ellsworth’s cultural infrastructure and led efforts to restore the Art Deco marquee and lobby, instilling hope that this gathering space would welcome people again.
Carla demonstrates how preservation can function as a catalyst rather than a constraint. For 12 years, Carla served on the Ellsworth Historic Preservation Commission which safeguards the city’s historic downtown. Her experience later translated to mentoring small businesses and property owners developing façade improvements that would be reviewed by the Commission through the Heart of Ellsworth’s “Bricks & Clicks” program. This work came full circle when Carla reviewed those same plans as part of a committee administering façade improvement grants. Carla also helped research and create 19 interpretive panels comprising the “Museum in the Streets” installed downtown. This research contributed to the successful nomination of a 50-building historic district to the National Register of Historic Places.
When the Hancock County Sheriff’s Home and Jail was on the verge of collapse and eyed for a parking lot, Carla emerged as an informed, focused voice. The Ellsworth Historical Society acquired the property in 1976, but years of deferred maintenance and failing load-bearing masonry walls, landed it on our 2007 list of Most Endangered Historic Places. In 2021, Carla organized and led volunteers to prevent its ruin and chart a responsible path forward. Entrusted as the Chair of the Society’s Old Jail Preservation Committee, Carla garnered $1 million in grants and donations and managed a critical four-month brick repointing project that stabilized the structure. Work continues to transform the eyesore into a regional cultural heritage center. Her vision is quickly becoming a reality.
Architect Carla M. Haskell is a tremendous ambassador for preservation, exemplifying its virtues through her professional work and civic leadership in Ellsworth, Hancock County, and across Maine.
Photo Credit: No Umbrella Media; Bill Trotter, Bangor Daily News; Matt Cosby, Maine Home + Design; Letitia Baldwin, Ellsworth American; Ellsworth Historical Society
