Alan Butler　

I was born in Southern California.  My mother and I relocated to Berkeley, California while my father was serving in Japan and Korea. Growing up in Santa Rosa, Northern California, I was in an environment with many Japanese accents. I studied Fine Arts, then Architecture in college. After getting my Masters of Architecture degree, I joined an architectural firm in Santa Rosa, California in 1985 and became a firm principal in 1995.  The focus of my work was architecture for colleges and other institutions of higher education with a strong emphasis on college library design. I retired in 2018.  I continue to take many photographs, sketch architecture, and maintain the www.miyagi1951.com and www.sonoma-sketcher.com websites which showcase my father’s photographs of Japan from 1951 and my explorations in sketching and watercolors.