I met some good friends, like Neil Richardson, who were invaluable in helping me get through the process. Ted Smith, who was part of Richardson Partnership, taught structures at the U. When I took the ARE exam, the only thing I didn’t pass was structures. He teased me that he had taught me everything he knew, and yet I still didn’t make it. I said, “Well, you should have tried harder.” I finally made it and got my license. I was just ecstatic and continued at Richardson until 1989. What were you working on, and what did you learn at Richardson? I mostly worked on schools. Davis School District was one of our larger clients. At times, it was a little frustrating because the director of architectural and construction services at Davis School District liked to keep things very simple. We wanted to spread our wings and try some different things. Richardson even had a design competition for a school in Kaysville. We presented the winning design to that person at the district. He didn’t like it, so we went back to just the, as Steve Crane liked to say, “kid on a grid” double-loaded corridor school. I loved being at Richardson. I had the privilege of working with Bill Richardson and Neal Stowe, who became the DFCM director, and then, of course, Ted Smith, who was over all the computers. When I was at the University of Utah, we didn’t have computers, and unfortunately, I was always just a few years behind. I hate to say it, but I never learned how to draft on a computer. What did you learn at Richardson that you brought into your later career? They taught me how to use the architectural library, back when it wasn’t all on a computer. There was one fellow there that I would always ask, “How do I draw this or that?” Finally, he got tired of it and said, “There’s the library.” Over time, I think I became the king of the library, and I knew where everything was. They introduced me to meeting with clients on the site. Once, we were designing a library for the city, and I was late for a meeting because I stopped to answer questions on the site. I was really chewed out. I was late meeting the main person in the city, and he didn’t appreciate that. I learned that clients come first. Eventually, I became the client. Davis School District offered me a position as the director of architectural services. Six months later, I became the administrator of facilities management and planning, working for Assistant Superintendent Lynn Trenbeath. She pretty much gave me carte blanche to do what I felt needed to be done. In the mid-‘90s, we brought in Stephen Friedlander, FAIA, from Boston. I had seen him at an architectural conference and was very impressed with his school work. We invited two architectural firms, VCBO and Naylor Wentworth, and the engineers they proposed to join us. For three or four days, we rethought the concept of school design. Up to that point, it had been just what we called an H plan. It had very few windows because of the ‘70s energy crisis, and Vista Education Campus, Farmington Mueller Park Junior High School exterior (top) and interior (bottom) 10 REFLEXION
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