Kay Van Dyke doesn’t rest on her laurels. The great-grandmother is semi-retired after a long career in architecture, but she recently opened a new office on Gloucester Main Street where she’ll continue her design work while also overseeing a small art gallery in the same space.
Van Dyke said when she rented the office in the same building as Oasis Books she realized it had more space than she needed, so she decided to open up the front area for artists who want additional opportunities to display their work.
“There’s so much room here,” she said. “I wanted to fill it with art.”
On Tuesday morning, the walls were alive with colorful paintings by several local artists, while a number of dramatic sculptures were on display in the windows. Van Dyke had an eye on everything while nestled in her work area toward the back of the room.
Although she is an artist herself, Van Dyke is modest about her accomplishments and doesn’t sell her work, instead donating it for fundraisers or giving away pieces to friends and acquaintances. She carries that same generosity into her architectural design work, offering pro bono architectural advice and services to nonprofit organizations as they gear up for construction projects.
A San Diego native, Van Dyke received a bachelor’s degree in environmental design from the University of California at Berkeley and spent a number of years planning and designing marinas in the San Francisco Bay area before earning her master’s in architecture, also from UC-Berkeley. Not long afterward, she and her late husband moved to Virginia, where he took a job at Jefferson Labs, and they bought a farm in the Achilles area of Gloucester. There, they raised their three children and watched their family grow, eventually adding four grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
All the while, Van Dyke held positions with various architectural firms or worked independently, designing everything from churches and hospitals to restaurants, recreational facilities, and retail shops. She even worked on a small airport terminal and a CIA training building. Along the way, she developed expertise in ADA compliance.
When Van Dyke’s husband became ill, they took two years to travel around the country, ending up in Seattle. After he passed away, Van Dyke returned to Gloucester, and during the economic recession, she purchased a building on Main Street, renovated it, and established Gloucester Arts on Main. She ran the nonprofit for several years before stepping away and selling the building to the organization, describing the gallery’s continued success as “really wonderful.”
She has now launched her newest endeavor, always looking forward to the next thing.