I just didn’t know that much about construction, to be honest. I went to a college prep school, so there were no drafting or construction classes. I learned how to do a lot of stuff from my dad. He was a do-it-yourselfer, but it wasn’t like building a house. Today, it’s a lot different. The U has some good hands-on classes where you can go do some construction. Also, we take junior staff to a job site and point out stuff to them. I think it’s a different world. It’s an investment. You take that young person to the job site, introduce them to your client and, pretty soon, they’re creating a relationship. It’s a plan to grow people, to help them advance. Everybody is not going to be a partner, but maybe everybody doesn’t want to be. Everybody should be able to fulfill their dreams. I’ve tried to mentor women, specifically, but I don’t stick to that. I’m happy to mentor any young people on my team. Actually, six of my partners started their professional life on my team. Talk to me about your long history of working in professional organizations. I was working my butt off designing schools and seeing them through construction. One day, I thought, “I love this, but I think there’s more.” Right then, AIA Utah was having elections, and I decided I was going to run for treasurer. I did. And I won. So, I was the treasurer of AIA Utah and started to meet people. They were looking for someone to serve on the Utah Licensing Board. I submitted my application, got picked and served two four-year terms. I was a chair for most of those years. So, in 2006, I got involved with the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB). Immediately, I became part of leadership. Over 15 years, I was involved in several committees and chaired a number of them. I led the Western Mountain Region for NCARB. I loved working with NCARB because we advanced our profession. For example, I was on the committee that eliminated volunteer work as part of the IDP (now AXP). I also spent four years with a group rewriting the national model licensing law, which is a model for all jurisdictions on how architectural licensing works. I was also involved with the AIA Committee on Architecture for Education. I started to go to their conferences, met all the people there and was asked to join the advisory committee. It is a path: You are added to the committee, and six years later, you’re the chair. I think we did a lot of good; I have lifelong friends all over the country from that experience. It takes an enormous amount of time to invest in professional organizations. How do you offset that with your billable hours? It is a lot of time. I have always worked a lot of hours, but I didn’t have children, so I had extra time to spend on the nights and weekends. I was also supported by my partners to do that kind of volunteer work. I always got my work done, but I got to do all of this other stuff that expanded my knowledge of the profession. I started doing presentations nationally, talking about what we’ve done with schools. One of my partners said, “Why do you give away all our secrets?” I said, “I wouldn’t do it if I thought that I could design every school in this country, but I can’t, and we’re not going to get all those jobs. And if we did, we probably couldn’t do them. But it doesn’t mean that all the kids don’t deserve to have a better learning environment. I want to share that knowledge so that children can learn more effectively.” You also learn how people run their businesses, which is really good for your office, and I’ve shared information. We’ve had a succession plan that Niels Valentiner put into effect before I became a partner. Most long-lived firms in the olden days were father to son to grandson or daughter or whatever. But the ones that were not like that tended not to survive their founders. Our firm has been in business for over 50 years now, and it’s due to our succession planning. When I meet colleagues, I always ask, “How many partners do you have?” I asked a friend in Maine. He said, “I don’t have partners.” I said, “Are you insane? What’s going to happen when you die or when you want to retire?” He said, “I don’t know. I mean, Davis School District Farmington High School Davis School District Farmington High School 15
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