Cass Ensberg is an accomplished architect and artist. But when it comes to describing herself, she hearkens back to her childhood.
“I’m a girl scout and cowgirl from Montana,” she replies with a burst of pride.
It’s an apt description that denotes twin passions, the civic and the artistic.
The civic involves a scout’s zeal for community activism. In Ensberg’s case , it usually revolves around issues of design, housing and land use.
In the last decade alone, she’s served on about a dozen boards and commissions. She’s currently on the Santa Barbara Historic Landmarks Commission, the board of the Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara and a board member of the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
In addition, she created the foundation’s Kids Draw Architecture program in 1988, an annual event set from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., this Sunday at the Riviera Park, 2020 Alameda Padre Serra, that teaches children by having them sketch noteworthy public buildings.
She’s prolific in sharing her views on myriad development and preservation issues—from State Street revitalization to a proposed massive housing complex behind the Santa Barbara Mission. Her interests take many forms, whether it’s writing in the local press or speaking directly to the City Council.
Her artistic side is a never-ending involvement in architecture and art from a cowgirl’s western perspective. Her paintings are rich inspiration from nature and especially a love of horses. She generally hews to the classics when it comes to architecture including a warm embrace of Santa Barbara’s Spanish colonial style.
After decades of working to improve the quality of life in Santa Barbara, she just received a fresh round of recognition. On Jan. 14, Ensberg was presented with the 2026 Lois Phillips Founder’s Award from the Association for Women in Communications.
The association cited Ensberg for trying to bring about more affordable housing and aiding in restoring the El Pueblo Viejo Landmark District.
The honor recognizes the role she’s taken in city planning and her devotion to advocacy through op-eds, commission discussions or political debates. By taking public stances on important issues, Ensberg has been a role model for those who are reluctant to engage in controversies even when they know in their hearts that their viewpoints need to be aired, according to the association.
Ensberg is an “advocate for intelligent, thoughtful planning that considers the design and history of the city.” said Phillips, for whom the award is named, in a brief interview.
When they aren’t working together on projects for their firm, Ensberg and husband and architect Thomas Jacobs live in an art-filled postmodern ranch-style hillside home with sweeping mountain views.
Her artwork is distributed throughout the house. Much of it depicts horses in one form or another: an equine-themed playhouse for the grandkids, a child’s rockinghorse, sculptures and paintings. One of the most prominent works is a horse done in crayon, the medium that played a role in her life in taking up art at an early age.
Born in Massachusetts to a military family that moved frequently, Ensberg said her most formative years were in Montana where she mingled with the wonders of nature on family trips to national parks and the grand lodges. The outings introduced her to the world of art and architecture.
“I’ve always been an artist,” she said, fondly recalling the big box of crayons she received as a birthday present in kindergarten. “And my mom recognized that, and she
sent me to art classes.”
Ensberg stayed with it. When it came time for college, she studied art at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, throwing in classes that would prove useful in later life, like interior design and construction management. After earning her degree, she moved to Denver and worked at an interior design firm. On one project, she said she was mentored by one of one of the most prominent architects in Colorado at the time, Fitzhugh Scott, designer of Vail Village, the pedestrian-friendly town at the foot of the Vail ski resort.
It was from Scott she learned an important lesson about not losing sight of the big picture.
“He would always say, ‘Okay, stop everything. Step back. Let’s remember what we’re doing. And is everything here the way it should be?'” she recalled.
From there, Ensberg worked at one of Denver’s prestigious firms, Hoover Berg Desmond, before moving to a town near York, Pennsylvania, where the change of scenery instilled a new appreciation for traditional designs. At the time, the German Bauhaus style dominated: austere glass boxes with flat roofs that lacked style or adornment. The move was revelation into how different styles of buildings could fit a particular environment. In Pennsylvania’s case, she was exposed to more traditional designs.
“It was really an eye-opener because I just really remembered how old things hold up,” she said.
Traditional designs don’t go out of style, whether it’s in Europe, Santa Barbara or New York. “You walk into Grand Central Station and your breath has just been taken away,” she said. Santa Barbara was just that kind of city. She found Spanish colonial — with its thick walls that provide insulation from summer heat and winter cold—fits in beautifully with the climate.
She arrived in the city in 1987 and worked as a draftsman. She had never attended an architecture school, but she qualified for an alternative method to attain a license: she had worked under the tutelage of licensed architect for more than eight years. She passed the exam and earned her license in 1996. She later would be honored by being named a fellow for the AIA in 2016.
She and husband Jacobs, who had already made a mark designing and renovating golf course clubhouses, made the collaboration professional as well as personal starting in the same year.
Jacobs said Ensberg is a great working partner as well as wife.
“She works very well under pressure,” Jacobs said. “When she needs to make get something done, she makes it happen.”
Besides country club work, what they’ve made happen over the years has largely involved residential work.
Ensberg said she’s happy working in all architectural styles. “If they have a contemporary house, I would want to bring out the best of it,” she said.
But she says a big part of her job is listening to clients and finding the best solution to their homebuilding or remodel quandaries. She tries to find out more about them. Do they have kids? A dog? Then its a matter of coming up with an solution that satisfies both their desires and their lifestyle in the most efficient way—”the fewest number of moves”—because that’s going to be the most affordable and sustainable.
And, as she was taught, she still looks at the bigger picture. That means taking a hard look at the impact that any project will have on neighbors. Sometimes, the approach results in coming back with a different vision than the one that the client originally had in mind. But “nine times out of 10, they’re like, ‘Oh my God, this isn’t anything like what we were thinking, but this is exactly perfect,'” Ensberg said.
She thinks on a grander scale when it come to Santa Barbara as a whole. She’s an advocate for growth that’s in keeping with the city’s character.
So even though Santa Barbara is under pressure to build housing, she said she is opposed to high-density projects that are in areas that are not designated for them. As an example, she cited the project proposed near the mission, a 270-unit apartment complex that’s eight stories plus two stories of parking.
“This is a sacred space,” she said. “I urge the developers of this property to come together to abandon this idea and to come together with the community” and make it a park, she said. It’s not about being against development, she adds. It’s about being for the right development.
She also wants to see more affordable housing, which is in far shorter supply in the city than market-rate units. Affordable units are the most difficult to develop because they have to be subsidized.
But the incentives work against developers of affordable units compared to those building market-rate structures. Developers need only build one subsidized apartment for every nine market-rate ones.
On the plus side, it helps that more of the downtown has been rezoned to permit housing, she said. “But the issue with area is that it’s all historic buildings,” which are harder to modify or update without losing their character or becoming prohibitively expensive.”
Those kinds of issues are near and dear to trying to promote a better community. You can hear that girl scout inside her still talking.
“Why do I stick my neck out?” Ensberg asked. “I’m an architect. I have a responsibility.”
