14 REFLEXION | 2021-22 | AIA Utah the town, like a European cathedral looming over the small town below. It is a combination of styles: it has the buttresses, the mansard roofs on the towers, Second Empire, Gothic, Romanesque, a variety of styles that blended together into one eclectic hybrid. It’s a piece of architecture that works really well, and the architect used a local limestone: Oolite, which has platinized over time into this golden honey color that is quite beautiful. What things are you most proud of during your career? I was happy to have been able to help Wally build a firm from two people to whatever it is now. Literally, hundreds of people who have worked for the firm have designed projects all over the state, the country, even out of the country. I think we have done some really good architecture that will stand the test of time. I am happy about the firm, and I am happy about how my career went. I am grateful to my forty-some-year partner, Wally Cooper. Wally and I both started without any understanding of where we might end up. I wonder what would have happened to both of us if we had not met; what would our careers have been like? I think this was one of those partnerships where we each brought something different but something compatible. We saw things the same way; we got along really well, worked together wonderfully and had we not met and created that partnership, the history of Utah architecture would have been different. And projects? I have been fortunate to have designed many different kinds of buildings, as well as written hundreds of reports and studies. Twenty-Fifth Street in Ogden: I was in Ogden to work on another project when I noticed this street of commercial buildings from the 1890s to the early 20th century — derelict buildings, condemned buildings. There was a liquor depot. At one point, there had been 52 brothels; it was the “red-light district” for Utah. It was quite a place. I convinced Wally and my uncle to buy some buildings. We got one building for $4,500 and another for $12,000. I talked the City Council into creating a historic district and an LLC to fund a restoration of buildings. — continued from page 13 For me, and Wally too, it was never about the money. We practiced architecture because we had a passion for it; we loved what we were doing. That is what drove us forward, year after year, project after project, difficulty after difficulty. So, if you decide to do it, you should do it because you love it. When you think of a typical career — you start at age 20, and you go to 65, that is 45 years. You work 2,000 hours a year; that is 90,000 hours. If you are going to spend 90,000 hours or more doing your profession, you better love it. They moved the liquor depot and put in street plantings and site furniture; we did restorations. Now 25th Street is a great place to shop and dine. There are so many, hundreds of projects. There are a lot of historic district nominations we helped create, like Capitol Hill in the Avenues, the Utah State Capital Historic Structures Report, the Farmer’s Union in Layton, Utah State House and Senate Buildings, Ogden High Remodel, the Thomas Monson Center. There were lots of projects in Park City, even a ghost town we bought in Chesterfield, Idaho. What advice would you give to a young architect? A lot of young students start out in architecture but never become an architect. I think they discover that coming into the profession as an entry-level, unlicensed drafter and designer, the compensation is less than other white-collar professions. So, you have to have a real commitment. For me, and Wally too, it was never about the money. We practiced architecture because we had a passion for it; we loved what we were doing. That is what drove us forward, year after year, project after project, difficulty after difficulty. So, if you decide to do it, you should do it because you love it. When you think of a typical career — you start at age 20, and you go to 65, that is 45 years. You work 2,000 hours a year; that is 90,000 hours. If you are going to spend 90,000 hours or more doing your profession, you better love it. Once you make that commitment, I think the rewards are there, not just the financial rewards, but the other kinds of things — the soul-satisfying, spirit elevating feelings you get from designing good buildings, satisfying clients, being a community builder, all of those things that architects espouse and practice feed the things that are most important. b
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