Born a fifth-generation Californian and a descendant of Mayflower settlers, Magna Carta sureties, and families whose roots extend deep into early American history, Felix Etienne-Edouard Pfeifle developed an early appreciation for history, architecture, and the cultural landscapes that shape our lives. During a visit to Washington, D.C., in the week of the 2020 election, he rekindled his fascination with the nation’s capital and soon decided to make it his home.

Before becoming a professional guide, Felix spent more than twenty years in architectural design and civic arts engagement in Southern California. In 2022, he turned his professional focus toward interpreting the architecture, historic interiors, decorative arts, gardens, and cultural life of Washington, D.C., and the Mid-Atlantic.

Felix earned a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities, cum laude, from the University of California, Berkeley. He was subsequently awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to Vienna, Austria, where he studied the aesthetics of the Habsburg Empire before earning a Bachelor of Science in Interior Architecture from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. His education in the humanities, architecture, and design informs an interpretive style that is both scholarly and engaging while remaining deeply attentive to the experience of place. He has also taught urban planning and architectural history at The New School in New York City. Felix leads tours in German in addition to English.

Felix approaches architecture, gardens, historic interiors, and art collections as expressions of the societies that created them. His tours explore how design communicates ideas about beauty, ceremony, hospitality, power, and identity. Drawing upon his background in architectural design and cultural history, he helps guests recognize the connections between a place’s physical features and the people, traditions, and historical circumstances that shaped it.

Felix leads our Brandywine Valley tour, exploring the region’s architectural, artistic, and cultural heritage in Delaware and nearby Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, with a visit to Longwood Gardens.

He is also curating our Art of Power and Patronage tour, scheduled to debut in winter 2027 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Whether exploring a Gilded Age mansion, a diplomatic residence, a museum, or a historic neighborhood, Felix invites guests to look beyond appearances and discover the ideas, ambitions, and cultural values expressed through the built environment and the arts.