“Generosity is the opening that allows new ideas. It helps something evolve.”
Elaine Kross’s job is to find the best solution—which usually means wrangling everyone’s wild ideas into something functional, beautiful, and within budget. It’s like herding cats, but the cats are clients, teammates, and the occasional zoning regulation. “Where there’s good communication, there’s a solution,” she says.
Listening is Elaine’s superpower. She believes it’s the key to authenticity and understanding, and she has the uncanny ability to hear what clients are saying—and what they really mean.
At Noll & Tam, she appreciates the level of community outreach and creating thoughtful designs for a larger audience. From this standpoint, the values captured in her work are the kind that last for generations.
Outside of work, Elaine has a deep appreciation for fleeting moments—like trains gliding past at twilight or the weightless silence of being submerged underwater. “I’m already missing it as I experience it,” she says with quiet wistfulness. She treasures the intricate details of life, which serve as gentle reminders to pause and savor the world around her—the sound of her children’s laughter, the earthy scent of wet summer sidewalks, the dance of sunlight filtering through trees. In these precise moments, she finds her greatest joys and endless inspiration, an ineffable sense of presence that fuels her spirit.