around the world with 30 offices. When I started at HKS, we did a lot of office buildings and quite a bit of architectural record work, working with black cape architects. At the time, we were primarily a commercial office. I remember, as a project manager, we thought we might expand into health care. Fortunately, we did, and now we’re the largest health care provider in the United States. I remember saying “perhaps we do some sports” and now you see where that’s led. I dabbled in all of that. I did a lot of corporate headquarters and a lot of high‑rise construction. The president of the firm knew that my wife was from Utah. He said, “I would like you to open the office in Utah.” When I talked to my wife, that was a very quick conversation, “Absolutely,” because she wanted to return to Utah. That was 25 years ago. What I was primarily asked to do was to be the senior construction administrator for the McKay-Dee Hospital and for Utah Valley Regional Medical Center, with the instruction to keep Intermountain Healthcare happy. I was here for six months, and I knew I did not want to return to Texas. I’m a Texan. I love Texas, but I love Utah even more. I parlayed anything that might use my experience — office, corporate headquarters and other work. The office grew from just a handful to just under 50, and we did work up and down the Wasatch Front. I had good seed money with the two projects to begin the office, but it was really up to me to expand the office, and that’s what we did. I taught construction documents at the University of Utah. I absolutely love teaching at the U. I would pick off one or two of the best students every semester for eight or ten years. Emir Tursic is now our office director. I passed the baton to him. He’s been with us 20 years. Almost every one of my six principals at HKS has been a student from that class. Is doing architecture different in Utah than elsewhere? I have worked in 28 states and a handful of foreign countries. I’ve lived in Texas, California and here. I would say that there is a can-do spirit here that is genuinely different. I think Utahns, for the most part, are fairly conservative. They don’t get out over their skis. They just have this entrepreneurial spirit: “We don’t know everything, but we’ll figure it out and we’ll get it done.” When the president of our firm was here, he commented, “Your employees are just so engaged.” I tell people back home in Dallas, “I have the best job at HKS. First, I get to work on big projects. Second, I like everybody that I work with, and I like everybody that I work with because I’ve hired them. And third, this is the most beautiful place to be. Where would be better? Where would be easier? Where would be nicer?” Talk about some of your projects. People say, “What’s your favorite project?” My response is, “What do you got; what do you need?” I remember my first project with HKS. It was an 18-story, 1,000-room, 750-key hotel, on axis with Disney World in Florida. It was a full complement of a convention hotel, rooms and restaurants. We created a lake and cabanas around the lake. I remember sitting with the owner in the 18-story atrium. We saw people come into the atrium and watched them look up. The game was, “Okay, is the husband or the wife going to look up first?” It was so much fun and engaging to be with the owner in a completed space. I recall completing McKay-Dee Hospital. In the user group meetings, the doctors, nurses and maintenance people were telling us which space they liked the best and how they liked it. What about this? What about that? That’s the best part. Every one of the projects when you finish is the best one. Finishing Eccles Theatre and being there with Cesar Pelli, who was our partner, was over the top. I learned so much from both Cesar Pelli and Mitch Hirsch. But being in the completed space and going from that very first discussion with Cesar explaining to him what Utah is to assisting with the design, competing for the project, winning the project and then completing the project. And then being there on opening night with the Tabernacle Choir and all of the leaders from Salt Lake, and being with Cesar and seeing the space that we had imagined … that was the best project until the next project. In addition to the projects, what are you most proud of in your career? I like to think that I’m a mentor. I feel like a proud papa. I brought these kids in from the university. They were young college kids. I saw them date, marry and have 8 REFLEXION
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