While serving on the board of the Ogden Nature Center, I helped to develop a new vision for its wildlife sanctuary as well as a new visitors center, which modeled as many sustainability strategies as we could muster in the pre-LEED era. What influenced your decision to move to EDA? In 2000, I was given the opportunity to join EDA, a firm I had long admired. This would be quite a change for me: to join a long-established firm with its modernist legacy versus continuing to build on what we achieved in Ogden. I believed EDA would give me more opportunities to explore my own long-held interest in modern architecture, urban design and critical regionalism. I am still here 26 years later. At the time, EDA was moving into a type of studio system. There were three studios: the recreation studio, an interior design studio and an “everything else” studio. I was part of the “everything else” studio. This allowed me to work on a variety of projects — a perfect fit for me. I like the challenge of learning about various building program types and the strategies and technologies they require. I didn’t think I would enjoy working at a firm as much as I enjoyed working at Sanders Herman, but I did. Working at EDA has been a very interesting, fun and creative experience, and I’ve worked with very talented people and made many good friends there. Talk about your projects at EDA. The first significant project I worked on was John the Baptist Parish Church, which is part of the Skaggs Catholic Center in Draper. It was an invited design competition with four other Utah-based firms. EDA’s winning design was a highly modern evocation of both the liturgical forms and symbols of the Catholic tradition. It won several design awards and was featured in two books, including Michael J. Crosbie’s “Houses of God.” Other projects I worked on were the L.S. Peery Environmental Education Center, which was the second building I designed at the Ogden Nature Center; other hand, there are some practical skills that could have helped me better understand the technical design of buildings. Talk about your Sanders Herman projects. The first major commission I worked on as a project designer was the Second District Juvenile Court, which led to one of our larger projects, the Second District Court, a 12-courtroom building in downtown Ogden. One of the most significant projects for me was the restoration of the Egyptian Theater. I began working with the Egyptian Theater Foundation in 1984 when the building was first threatened with demolition. With this organization, I spent the next 10 years helping to create the conditions for its ultimate restoration into what would become the David Eccles Conference Center. Helpfully, in 1987, a team of architects, planners and urban designers under the auspices of the AIA’s Regional Urban Design Assistance Team program came to Ogden. They highlighted the restoration of the Egyptian Theatre as a critical potential improvement the city could make to help revitalize downtown. Later in the early ‘90s, a partnership between Weber County, Weber State University, the Egyptian Theater Foundation and Ogden City emerged. All four entities came together to restore the building and to expand it into what became the David Eccles Conference Center. Sanders Herman partnered with Fentress Bradburn of Denver, Conrad Schmidt, and Theatre Projects Consultants in New York to renovate the movie house for both film and live theatre. The project received the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Honor Award, one of the first given to a Utah project. Sanders Herman also did an extensive remodel of the 120,000-square-foot Browning Center, renovating everything except the two performance spaces. Around the same time, we also designed the Weber State University Lindquist Alumni House. University of Utah Crocker Science Center interior Weber County Library interior Midvale Senior Center 10 REFLEXION
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