Bill Austin has been living in the Pioneer Valley since 1969, first as a student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, then as a carpenter and builder, and since 1984 as an architect. From 1984 to 1993 he was a principal with Kitchell and Austin, Architecture and Community Design. From 1993 to 2000 he worked out of his home and an office in Shelburne Falls. In 2000 he bought a two-room schoolhouse in Colrain with his partner Joan Rockwell which is now the office of Austin Design, Inc. & Joan S. Rockwell & Associates.