Pub. 2 2021-2022 Issue 1

20 REFLEXION | 2021-22 | AIA Utah Do you remember any of your struggles? Of course, when you have three partners, you have some disagreements, we are human, but we were pretty compatible. The way you are running the office now is much better than just three partners. And I had some problems with some clients. So often with the school districts, they will name an educator to be the Director of Construction. They don’t know anything about buildings. One of the school districts had an educator that was impossible to work with. He wanted contractors to do things that weren’t in the contract. You have issues like that that you have to deal with because you are dealing with human beings. Give a little, take a little. What is your advice for young architects? Any advice I would give to any architect is to make integrity important in your life and treat everybody with that in mind. Especially today when there seems to be a lack of it. For example, we use to do our major projects without contracts; (usually) somebody we had worked with before. One day our insurance provider said, ‘You can’t do that. You have got to have a contract.’ So, I go into to see one of our main clients on one of the new buildings we are doing, a multi- million-dollar building, and I bring out the contract, and the Eldon Talbot Video Interview  — continued from page 19 client says, “Did you prepare this contract?” And I said, “yes.” He just signed it. That means a lot to me. I have tried to make it part of my life, for my word to be my bond. (When) I am working for an owner, and I have a responsibility to that owner, but I also feel a responsibility to contractors not to have to do something that was not in the contract. When on our project, there was an error on our part that cost money to fix. I insisted on paying it if we were the cause. That factor alone allowed me to have good relationships with contractors; they knew that I wasn’t going to expect them to eat one of my mistakes. Last thoughts: I am grateful to have been an architect. And I have been grateful to have worked with the great people. b