Erik Bootsma has had a passion for building nearly his whole life.  Growing up the child of a contractor and a painter, architecture was especially apt vocation.   Working for his father's construction firm for his teenage and college years, he built up valuable experience in the field of architecture, learning intimately how a building really works.   Later, being trained in the classical liberal arts at Thomas Aquinas College's great books program, he became interested in the philosophy of architecture and aesthetics. This philosophy was the foundation upon which he completed his architectural education with a Masters of Architecture degree from the University of Notre Dame.