24 REFLEXION | 2021-22 | AIA Utah Interviews with Local Legends Burke Cartwright, AIA BY FRAN PRUYN When did you decide to become an architect? I was 14 years old in Northern California. I had a paper route [and] I made enough money to buy a ’56 Chevy, but it needed work. So, I got this job with a speed shop, to work on this car. But my mother stopped me as I went out the door and said, “Burke, I always thought of you as being an architect.” Well, this was new to me. “So, I got you a job with a friend of mine, an architect, and I want you to go try that.” I wasn't sure that's what I want to do but I figured I could always work part-time at the speed shop. So, I go to work for this architect, and I had to do whatever needed to be done. I ran a lot of blueprints, but what I found was they were a creative bunch of people, and they were very accepting of me. It was so damn much fun that I thought, “There is something to this.” After I got to high school, I started to move around. I worked for three or four architects in the area. I was looking at the blueprints and I saw: this is a plan, this is a section, this is an elevation. And I thought, “I think I could do that.” And so, I asked, “Is it okay if I draw some of these?” I was kind of good at that, and, and I found a certain joy in it. I've only had two jobs. I delivered a paper and I worked for architects. I was accepted to Berkeley, but the school was so packed that you had to take all these other classes before you could get into the architectural program. I didn't have time for that. And they said, “They've got a pretty good school at the University of Utah.” So, I came out here. What is your undergraduate degree in? In journalism. Let me tell you how difficult that was. I don't know how to spell. So here I am, in journalism, and I can't spell, but when I got to the graduate program, I was in my element, and I enjoyed it very much. In fact, I almost didn't want to leave, but I needed to get out there, get a job and stuff. In the summers and even during the early years, I worked for some of the firms here in town. I worked for MHTN, and Brixen and Christopher for a while, and for Frank Ferguson with Ray Kingston. And the summer of my last year before I graduated, I went to San Francisco and worked for Wurster, Bernardi and Emmons. It's kind of a prestigious firm. I lived in Sausalito but needed to go to San Francisco to work. I would ride my bike down to the ferry at Sausalito, take the ferry to San Francisco and walk to their office. This was a very civilized way to go to work. They told me to be at work by 8:30. I got there the first day at 8:15. They had an all-open environment. When you walk in, everybody sees that you've shown up. And they were already there working. I thought I was on time. On the second day of work, I was late, and I thought, maybe I should walk through the back door because it was almost nine. And sure enough, I walk in with these boots on this wooden floor, and everybody turns around, and here's the new kid. “Who does he think he is?” It took us a while to sort that out. By the time the summer was over, we had come to an agreement that I would try the best I could to get to work on time and it never quite worked out, but they said, “We want you to come back when you finish school.” I said, “Yeah, maybe I'll come back.” So, I go back to school and graduated, but in 1972 there was no work in California. In Salt Lake, everything was booming. Edwards and Daniels had work at the time, and Ralph and Judd were very nice. They brought me in. I explained to them that I was only here for a year, and when things picked up, I was going back to California. As it turned out, I never made it back. I stayed. I enjoyed working here. I hadn't worked there for three weeks and I got a call from Frank Ferguson. They had just got the Symphony Hall project. Frank said, “Come on over, we want you to help on Symphony Hall.” I said, “It's a great project. I'll be there.” So, I have to go back to EDA and say, “Ralph, I'm sorry but this is an opportunity, and I'm not going to be here forever anyway, and this is a project that might be fun to work on.” He said, “Burke, you can't go chasing around every single great job. You can't go bouncing around. We're going to take good care of you. We want you here.” I had to go tell Frank, “Thank you but, I’m going to have to pass.”
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODQxMjUw