9 got older and it became a bit harder for him to do everything, I took on more responsibility. And we always kept trying to make buildings more and more about the people who inhabited them. The practice of architecture evolved from the time you started practicing through your retirement. Tell us what you saw happening with the clientele, the city. When I first started in the early seventies, lots of people were still doing a kind of brutalism, internationalism type of work. That didn’t appeal a lot to me; it didn’t appeal a lot to Jim Christopher. I have been told by other architects that our buildings are not recognizable as Brixen and Christopher buildings. I take that as a huge compliment because they are not for us. The buildings we design are for the people who inhabit them. We worked on that constantly, be it homes or office buildings, or churches or whatever. It was a reflection of the people who used it and lived in it. How has technology influenced the profession and design? Technology has dramatically impacted the profession. I became an architect because I love to draw, and drawing on a computer is not very interesting. I kind of learned how, but I never did it. And I think that is a big change, and I think it has something to do with the buildings seeming to lack personality. It is very hard to draw something special on a computer; it wants to draw what it knows. It wants to lead you. I like the idea of taking a pencil, starting with a line and not knowing where it is going to end, and then you say, “Yeah, there.” Well, that is very difficult with a computer. I think the use of the computer, which is now pervasive, has really affected architecture. There was something about putting your hands on the paper and drawing the lines, and thinking about the people walking through the spaces. I think that is being lost. The things like being ADA accessible and making it energy efficient used to come just as part of your design, as you did it. You thought about it — I will put the windows here, the door will be here, the roof will be like this, and I’ll have overhangs here and there. You did it without even thinking about it. You didn’t have a separate set of drawings that were the energy efficiency drawings. What do you think makes a good building? Its ability to last and still be good looking for a long time, not be trendy. I think it is buildings that look to be stable and look to belong there and that they are going to be there a long time. I would say that one of the absolute best buildings in the state of Utah is the Capitol. It is a beautifully designed building, it is well constructed, and it just looks like it belongs there forever. It is a wonderful building. Other buildings you really admire? I like the Walker Bank Building. There are some old buildings at the University of Utah and even some new ones that I am very fond of. I love the buildings on the Circle. I have always liked the medical residence towers at the University of Utah. I have always thought that those are a nice expression of modern architecture. There is the Beehive House, and there are the beautiful residences along South Temple, any one of which are absolutely terrific. When you look back on your career, what things are you most proud of? I am really proud that a great number of people who worked at our office went out and started their own offices and became successful architects. I made a list of all the architects that had become either partners or owners in major firms, and there were just tons of them that had been through our office. That’s kind of a nice feeling. I am really very proud of the Sutton Geology and Geophysics Building at the University of Utah. I am proud of the little addition we made to the Emery Building on the Circle. It needed an elevator and some bathrooms and things like that added to it. And we didn’t want to stick just anything on this beautiful old building. We designed a freestanding building that was concrete, pulled it away from the old building and connected them with a walkway that was done on both sides in reflective glass; it appears that the old building just keeps on going right through there. We did a lot of renovations that I felt good about because we brought back what was good about the buildings initially. The St. Mark’s Building — it’s hard to know that that building was even worked on, and that makes me very happy. The synagogue — Kol Ami, but I am very proud of that building. We did a little building at Westminster College — Nunemaker Place — a very small building, it is very dramatic. It is right on the south side of campus, right by the stream. It was designed to be a building for students to just go and hang out, or to have small conferences or religious services; a number of people have been married there. It has dramatic acoustics. You have to be very careful if you play music there. Single instruments are wonderful there. If a band tries to play — continued on page 10
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