When I came back to Utah to finish my senior year, I took a heavy load. I loved the idea of starting from scratch and developing a program — going through design scenarios to arrive at what was the best solution for the budget and the program — for the environment and for the engineering required. I got married. My wife was accepted at Harvard to go into the education program. I didn’t get into Harvard, so I applied to the Boston Architecture Center. It was a good choice: it was right in town and all the courses were taught by architects practicing in the area. I learned a tremendous amount with its amazing mix of historical architecture and new buildings. I was there from ‘76 to ’78, our two sons were born during this time. I couldn’t get work in Boston, so I set off on an Amtrak pass for three weeks to look at all the different places we could live. The second stop, after Denver, was Salt Lake City. I got a job at Holland Pasker Reinhold, so we moved back to Utah. We referred to Holland Pasker Reinhold as a sweatshop: draftspeople all lined up in a big drafting room. Cecil Holland would walk around with his pipe in his mouth and gruffly tell us, “Get back to work.” He was great. Art Pasker was very good at marketing and very connected to the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‑day Saints; he knew a lot of people in town. I learned a lot there — a lot of detail work and production, how to produce a set of drawings and organize it, and work with consultants. At one point, I was lent out to Ron Molen. He had two big hotel/condo jobs in Park City. It was a wholly different experience, being involved more in design and the aesthetics and the feeling of a building. The office was made of very small spaces, all of us crammed together. There was a lot of camaraderie and sharing information and experience. The fellow who sat behind me, Bob Money, had just taken the exam and passed everything his first try. Up till then, I had been hesitant. I was selling pretty well at the Park City and Utah Arts Festivals and had some shows in galleries in Park City and Salt Lake. But Bob had passed all nine sections at once, and that interested me. I hadn’t really considered becoming an architect, but it was probably a good time. So, in ‘83 I studied hard for six or eight months and took the exams and was able to get them all done in one sitting. So, I became a licensed architect and went to my first AIA convention in San Francisco with my dad. One of the sessions was something about becoming a partner. All these young guys were saying that you basically planned your career around becoming a partner. That was news to me, but I took it to heart and set myself a goal that, in five years, I’d become a partner somewhere. That wasn’t going to happen at Ron Molen’s because he was a sole proprietor, did all the initial design, and held things pretty close to the vest. I started looking around town and interviewed with the up-and-coming firms. I couldn’t get into Valentiner’s. I realized later that the office manager had a reputation for controlling his appointments. So, I called Niels at home. He was very understanding. We met soon thereafter, and I was hired. I was really psyched to be part of that firm. I started in ‘85 and immediately was given a project to manage by myself. I had taken projects all the way through before, but this was me with the client: find out what needed to be done, get it done. I grew pretty quickly at Valentiner’s. FHP Medical Health Care was an insurancebased program, and they were expanding. I took that on, and we did a bunch of clinics around the area: Ogden, Provo, Salt Lake City. We did a big hospital and a specialty center in South Salt Lake for them, which later became Granite High School, that our firm remodeled into educational spaces. In 1989, Niels said, “I’m reorganizing the firm and I’d like you and Sean Onyon to join me as partners.” I was very, very thrilled and told him, “Absolutely, I’d be glad to bring everything I have to the growth of the firm.” Soon after, he asked, “What would you think about bringing Steve Crane on as another partner?” He brought a lot of education and marketing experience to the firm. So, in 1990, we became Valentiner Crane Brunjes Onyon (VCBO). How did your specialties develop? I took to healthcare early on. Over the years, I pursued that kind of work at the state, the university, with Intermountain Healthcare, and with other physician groups. Then, I remember sitting in on an AIA conference where hospital administrators were presenting their side of the healthcare story. The economy and politics were hurting health care, and they had no strategy for where or how to grow. At that point, healthcare design work was faltering, and big healthcare architecture firms around the country were working on other kinds of projects. A big practice area was correctional work. I got involved in corrections, mostly youth detention 9
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