DesignBuildUTAH Twenty Years of Compassionate Sustainability Member Spotlight: Tang Yang, AIA The Method to Their Madness? PUB 4 2023-2024 ISSUE 4
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Reflexion is a publication of the Utah Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. www.aia.org/utah AIA Utah 280 S. 400 W., Suite 150 Salt Lake City, Utah 84101 President Chamonix Larsen, AIA, LEED AP, CxA+BE President-Elect Whitney Ward, AIA Secretary Natalie Shutts-Bank, AIA Treasurer Libby Haslam, AIA Editor Frances Pruyn, CPSM Staff Executive Director Angie Harris Roberts Programs & Office Manager Joe Mangum ©2024 AIA Utah | The newsLINK Group, LLC. All rights reserved. Reflexion is published quarterly by The newsLINK Group, LLC for AIA Utah and is the official publication for this association. The information contained in this publication is intended to provide general information for review, consideration and education. The contents do not constitute legal advice and should not be relied on as such. If you need legal advice or assistance, it is strongly recommended that you contact an attorney as to your circumstances. The statements and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the AIA Utah, its board of directors, or the publisher. Likewise, the appearance of advertisements within this publication does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation of any product or service advertised. Reflexion is a collective work, and as such, some articles are submitted by authors who are independent of the AIA Utah. While AIA Utah encourages a first-print policy, in cases where this is not possible, every effort has been made to comply with any known reprint guidelines or restrictions. Content may not be reproduced or reprinted without prior written permission. For further information, please contact the publisher at 855.747.4003. 6 Executive Director’s Message Mentoring With Wasatch Connect 7 AIA Leadership Summit — Washington, D.C. 8 DesignBuildUTAH — Twenty Years of Compassionate Sustainability 12 Germs for DesignBuildBLUFF 13 1,500 Architectural Books and Over 23,000 Slides What Your Children Certainly Do Not Want! Donating and Contributing Professional Materials 14 Legends Ken Naylor, FAIA 18 Running on the Beach … With Legislators 20 AIA Utah Firm Leadership Summit — Salt Lake City 22 Legends William Miller, FAIA 26 Member Spotlight Tang Yang, AIA 27 2024 AIA Utah Golf Tournament 28 The Method to Their Madness? CONTENTS 4 REFLEXION
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Mentoring With Wasatch Connect EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE BY ANGIE HARRIS ROBERTS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AIA UTAH After just one year in this role, I better appreciate how important it is for AIA Utah members to engage with each other. More specifically, there is a strong desire to provide mentorship opportunities for professionals at any point in their career. This February, AIA Utah applied for and received a generous grant from the College of Fellows to implement Wasatch Connect. Our goal with Wasatch Connect is to create a viable mentorship program that has immediate and long-term impact and strengthens the pipeline of architects from childhood through fellowship. The obvious starting point is to better support our partner organizations and eliminate duplication of efforts. Funding from the College of Fellows grant allows AIA Utah to support the following groups during 2024: NOMA Utah • Project Pipeline — a summer course that introduces architecture to underrepresented middle schoolers. • Path to Fellowship — mentoring events where fellows from underrepresented backgrounds share their experiences with recent graduates navigating their first years in the profession. AIAS at the University of Utah School of Architecture • Mentorship initiative so that every student member of AIAS will have a personal mentor that is a practicing architect. This will kick off for the fall semester. WIA SLC • Partner with WIA SLC to offer a targeted mentoring event for young women interested in a potential architecture career. Utah Center for Architecture • Educating Elementary Children Through Architecture (EECTA) is a curriculum for third graders. AIA Utah and UCFA will revitalize this program and attempt to have the curriculum approved by fall so that we can implement it in local elementary schools starting September 2024. In addition to the listed partnerships, AIA Utah will launch the following initiatives. Keep an eye out in Punchlist and on social media for dates and times! • Lunch with Legends — informal panel discussions over lunch with local Fellows and legends from the profession. All are invited. • Fireside with Fellows — intimate, casual gatherings for emerging professionals and local Fellows to learn more from each other and provide mentorship. Hosted by AIA Utah YAF. • Path To Fellowship with Jeanne Jackson — workshop intended to educate and encourage interested architects about the Fellowship application process. If you would like to serve as a mentor, please contact me at ahroberts@aiautah.org. 6 REFLEXION
AIA Leadership Summit Washington, D.C. Each year, AIA hosts leaders from each component at the AIA Leadership Summit (formerly Grassroots). This conference is an opportunity for the AIA to share the board of directors’ vision, mission and goals with components. It is also a chance for groups from across the country and beyond to share success, discuss challenges and learn how AIA can continue advocating for and advancing the architectural profession. In my first year attending this event, I found it to be one of the most influential and engaging conferences I have attended. Along with our Utah delegation, which included our President, Chamonix Larson, our Secretary, Natalie Schutt-Banks, our Executive Director, Angie Harris Roberts, and me, we were able to advocate with our legislators, identify opportunities to improve our component and bring more value to our members. My key takeaways from this event include: The day on the Hill reminded me of AIA’s value in supporting our profession. We met with Will Mascaro (Legislative Assistant) and Emme James (Legislative Correspondent) from Mike Lee’s office, Alex Yost (Legislative Assistant) from Mitt Romney’s Office, Rebekah Rodriguez (Legislative Assistant) from Blake Moore’s Office and with Rep. Celeste Maloy. We shared three key messages and discussed the value of architecture and architects within our communities. • Promoting bipartisan legislation by encouraging our leaders to support the Democracy in Design Act (HR 964/S 366), which would ensure local community input in the design of federal buildings. • Thanking the House of Representatives for passing HR 7024 and urging our senators to extend the tax relief provisions set to expire in 2025 — allowing tax deductions of R&D expenses in the year incurred. • Discussing the value of architecture and the effort and knowledge needed to design contemporary buildings. We specifically noted that the Department of Defense has increased AE fees to 10% and urged our legislators to support a rule limiting the current 6% fee to only apply to a cost-plus-a-fixed-fee contract. The work AIA and USGBC advocacy teams are doing to support carbon impact reduction benefits us all. I attended an incredibly informative panel discussion on the opportunities for architects and our clients to take advantage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funding to support carbon impact investments. Specifically, there are federal funds available in the form of tax incentives for private investment and grants for public investment to fund the following: • On-site renewables, energy storage, microgrids, EV charging, etc. • Efficiency upgrades to new and existing commercial buildings, homes, multifamily and public buildings. • Climate mitigation, environmental justice, coastal resilience, etc. • Federal green building upgrades and green technology. • Affordable housing upgrades and implementation of contemporary building energy codes. • The creation and use of Environmental Product Declarations and the procurement of low-carbon materials. To learn more, scan the QR code. https://www.usgbc.org/ resources/inflation-reductionact-buildings-provisions AIA has created a thoughtful and supportive framework for design that we should consider for each project. The AIA has been working to define clear, achievable goals to improve communities and use design to impact positive change. The framework includes the following 10 guideposts: 1. Good design elevates function and enhances communities. 2. Good design positively impacts occupants and the broader community. 3. Good design mutually benefits humans and the ecosystem. 4. Good design conserves and improves water quality. 5. Good design adds value for owners, occupants and the community. 6. Good design reduces energy use and improves building performance. 7. Good design supports the health and well-being of all people. 8. Good design results in durable, safe and healthy projects. 9. Good design is resilient and adaptable. 10. Good design evolves to reflect current knowledge. To learn more, scan the QR code. https://www.aia.org/designexcellence/aia-frameworkdesign-excellence While these takeaways are just a tiny portion of the inspiring discussions, they reflect the diverse topics at the summit and the range of priorities for AIA. They also are a great reminder of the value of the work we do each day and the impact we have on our communities. Each of our Utah delegation members found inspiration in our discussions and ways to improve the value of AIA membership for our members, and are excited to continue to improve AIA Utah. BY WHITNEY WARD, AIA 7
DesignBuildUTAH – Twenty Years of Compassionate Sustainability BY FRAN PRUYN, CPSM DesignBuildUTAH@Bluff is celebrating 20 years of educating architecture students, providing innovative design and, along the way, creating an impressive body of work that is occupied by people of the Navajo Nation. The program has had a profound impact on designers, builders and users. The product, which largely is housing that is sustainable, low-maintenance and totally off-grid, is an important contribution to a tribal community in need of affordable housing. The student experience is priceless. It teaches design creativity within limitations, collaboration between very different cultures, and the hard skills necessary to take ideas off the page and put them into the ground. How It Started DesignBuildUTAH@Bluff is the brainchild of Hank Louis, a journalist turned writer/architect, who was driving through Utah when his car broke down. He stayed to ski and didn’t leave. Louis studied at the University of Utah’s School of Architecture to help him build his own home in Costa Rica. In the 90s, Louis happened upon the work of Samuel Mockbee in trade magazines. He was impressed by “Everyone, rich or poor, deserves a shelter for the soul.” – Samuel Mockbee 8 REFLEXION
Mockbee’s Rural Studio program, which provided practical training for architecture students in underserved areas of the southern United States where their work could address the problems of poverty and substandard housing. Inspired by Mockbee’s philosophy and excited by the possibilities, Louis studied with Mockbee at Auburn University to help determine how he might create a similar program in Utah. Louis had friends who taught at the University of Utah and, in 2000, he collaborated with them to start a graduate class that created small design-build projects in Summit County and Park City, like a bandstand and a pavilion. This “pilot” course was effective, and in 2004 the program moved to the next level. Louis had bought land near Bluff, Utah, and once there, he saw a need for housing on the nearby Navajo reservation. Louis partnered the University with the Navajo Nation to create an immersive experiential learning program that not only gives architecture students the hands-on experience of designing and building structures, but that could help address the reservation’s housing shortage. Every year they could add another, very different, home to the reservation. Louis recognized that since the tribe already owned the land, building would be less expensive. With less municipal influence and therefore less red tape, there could be an opportunity to experiment architecturally and employ progressive and environmentally responsible design strategies. The inevitable byproduct of this endeavor is that it also teaches students to collaborate with clients to address their needs and how to build empathetic design-build teams. 9
Twenty years into this experiment, the program has received national recognition and students have completed 23 design-build housing projects, many of which have won design awards. Alumni speak to how the program is life altering. Diane Kayembe said, “[DesignBuildUTAH@Bluff] was a oncein-a-lifetime experience that improved the trajectory of my personal and professional life. I have been able to translate and apply the lessons and skills learned while in the program. I am grateful and proud that I took the jump and participated in this amazing opportunity.” At a recent Bluff celebration, alums wrote on a wall that, “I built unforgettable memories, learning lifelong skills with an amazing cohort.” (signed Design Build Bitches, a class of five female students). Others said, “The program breaks down the division between design and labor,” and highlighted “learning about construction and detailing in a whole new way” and “making spaces out of spaces and enhancing the human experiences of them.” So How Does It Actually Work? Annually, Hiroko Yamamoto and Atsushi Yamamoto, the co-directors of DesignBuildUTAH, work with local tribal chapters to select from applicants the family who will be the beneficiary of a single-family home that is appropriate for the site, the users and the tribal nation, and which can be passed from one generation to the next. Design During the summer, the graduate students study the architectural vernacular of the southern Utah tribal area. They then design the (approx.) 1,500 sq. ft. house, from pre-schematics through construction and project management documents. The beneficiary clients are an integral part of the process, and are encouraged to be part of design activities as much as possible. They meet and talk about clients’ preferences and requirements. Students get to know the client, their needs, their dreams and their aesthetics. Each home has a distinct design concept, tailored to the family, the site, and the culture of the reservation. Green-build techniques are encouraged. Designers consider a myriad of potential environmentally friendly technologies including passive solar, rainwater catchment, permaculture, earthen plaster, rammed earth, straw bale construction, cellulose insulation, and Iycnene foam. Materiality is a critical component of any project design, and Bluff projects must be particularly attuned to the remote desert environment, both aesthetically and practically. As a result, designs have integrated materials reclaimed from the surrounding landscape like natural clay and riverbed reed. Serving “Architecture has to be greater than just architecture. It has to address social values, as well as technical and aesthetic values. On top of that, the one true gift that an architect has is his or her imagination. We take something ordinary and elevate it to something extraordinary.” – Samuel Mockbee 10 REFLEXION
the pragmatic nature of the program, the designers also must incorporate contributions of donated and recycled materials like lumber, windows, doors, and appliances. Build The documents are completed by the end of the college’s summer session, and in August the grad students move 5 ½ hours from Salt Lake to live on the Bluff Campus. They occupy the Historic Farmhouse: the class lives together, eats together and builds together. They drive to the site early in the morning and often work 10 to 12 hours a day. The site is very remote and everything has to be imported and all waste is exported. Learning from on-site instructors and contractors, they study and apply real-life construction skills that can range from staging materials to installing finishes. Meanwhile, the students also take other classes, such as Southwest Culture and a Research and Theory course by remote learning. By the end of the four-month semester, the project is delivered and the students return to the Salt Lake Campus. Typically, they are very bonded and have built a community, as one student said, “physically, metaphorically and personally.” DesignBuildUtah@SLC Not all students have the flexibility to go to Bluff. Recognizing this, the University of Utah has added DesignBuildUtah@SLC to its curriculum. It is now in its eighth year. Located on the Salt Lake City campus, this course focuses on materials and experimentation and works on a different scale than a house. It is an intensive experience that begins with a summer session then moves into a rigorous fall design semester. Collaborating with the local architects, students work on community-engaged projects. Mentored by the faculty and other professionals, they study high performance methods of design and fabrication. Recent projects have included affordable housing prototypes, a tiny house on wheels for The Other Side Village, a master-planned neighborhood that provides housing for people who have experienced chronic homelessness. This year, DesignBuildUtah@SLC is exploring possibilities of working with the Utah Transit Authority. Both educational programs are made possible by the Herculean efforts of the University, the partner communities, alumni, and particularly the many people and organizations who make contributions. The DesignBuildUtah website says that the programs are “committed to teaching the practices of creative critical thinking, community engagement, design excellence, ecological resilience, citizenship, leadership/collaboration, exploration and social equity.” By any measurement, DesignBuildUTAH has brought Mockbee’s philosophy and Louis’ vision to life in a program that serves the students and communities alike with experiences and projects that will last for generations. 11
Germs for DesignBuildBLUFF BY HANK J. LOUIS Architectural trade magazines all seemed to have found and featured Auburn’s Rural Studio at the same time, in the mid 1990s. My mind was littered all over the concrete floor, the expanding hand signal opened slowly up near my temple: my and other architects’ minds were shattered by the images of the Hay Bale and the Butterfly houses, a chapel made of tires, the community center fronted by automobile windshields. Really? Undergraduate architecture students? Designing and building all of these gems in what they call the Black Belt down around Newbern, Alabama, a rock skip from the border with Mississippi. In addition to being blown, my mind was equally inspired, pondering the possibilities. Our firm, a couple of fellow former students and me, had placed second — the worst possible position, in a very real sense, emotionally and financially, first loser — for three or four impressively sized commissions in the past year. Deflated, we disbanded and lit out for positions in other, bigger organizations offering architecture. Except I never showed up to mine. Instead, I invited Sam “Sambo” Mockbee, the Rural Studio’s founder, to come speak at a symposium I’d recently birthed with the School (we were younger than a college in those days) at the University of Utah, named for my grandmother Henrietta Johnson Louis, intended to awaken architecture students to the value of writing. And then, when selected for a prize, they spoke those written words in response to a guest, an artist tangential to our passion, someone like James Turrell, who we did entice, or Peter Greenaway, who might have been a stretch. Accurately by design, Sambo created all kinds of excitement. The dean, Bill Miller, and I had been talking. He noted the fair to say tsunami of interest. Shortly afterward, the Utah Humanities Council, which I chaired at the time, sat in a small conference room at Liza’s Cow Canyon Trading Post, an annual retreat we made to the underserved corners of our state. The place wasn’t set up to be a space for conferences. As such, it was makeshift and layered with that dust that pervades the high desert around the Four Corners. It hazed; you could not easily discern faces across the tables set up in a U. The floor scraped with sand drug in by boots and settled in the veins of wide and worn wooden planks. You can’t avoid the stuff in Bluff; grit pervades, and it’s etched in the character of the hard people who populate the place, to the tune of 250-300, depending on the season, or probably more accurately, the year. Almost all of them are “creatives.” I looked farther, at the red sandstone beauty, the formations that lend the town its name, and it dawned. I was looking across the San Juan River, to the Navajo Reservation, a third-world existence not unlike Sambo’s Black Belt, not incidental to the learning, six hours from campus: students wouldn’t run home to nurse a cold. I’d arrived at architecture fresh from having hand-hewn my own home in the Costa Rican jungle. We felled trees, Alaskan-milled them with chainsaws, hauled from the nearby riverbed and shovel-sifted gravel to size, and sand, found water in a falls about a kilometer up the canopy and piped it. It took three months to build the formwork and three harrowing and sweaty days to mix and wheelbarrow concrete. In total, it took a little longer than two years. It taught me a lot. An architect is behooved to actually, physically, shoulder together a living, breathing building. Talk about mind/body, think/make. Do, and understand. A couple was selling their house in order to buy the agricultural rights, the final piece to save the farm central to Bluff. The stars were all seeming to align. I purchased said house built by a regionally famous rancher, Al Scorup, from quarrying sandstone cliffs in 1905. The rest, several years wrangling with General Counsels and Risk Management — three years proving mettle in and around Salt Lake City, bandstands, riverwalks, our own straw bale house for a family of Tibetan refuges — comprises the history: DesignBuildBLUFF, the program — the gift, the confidence — that keeps on. Twenty years. Bravo. Here’s to another 20 and more! Germs 12 REFLEXION
1,500 Architectural Books and Over 23,000 Slides What Your Children Certainly Do Not Want! Donating and Contributing Professional Materials BY WILLIAM MILLER, FAIA, ACSA DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR As retirement approaches, an important issue can emerge: What to do with one’s professional materials? What should happen to my project files, documents, drawings and models, professional library, slides, etc.? Forming a strategy for potentially donating or contributing these materials should certainly be a consideration. Especially since family members may well not know how to dispose of such materials. During my 40-year career as a university faculty member and academic administrator, I accumulated a library of some 1,500 architectural books and over 23,000 slides. The volumes are divided into two categories: 850 books on architecture in general (design, history, theory, technology, etc.), while 650 works focused on Nordic architecture and art. The second is a result of my primary scholarly and research agenda; Alvar Aalto and Nordic Modern Architecture. The slides were generated during numerous foreign and domestic travels to augmented lectures and presentations in my teaching. Upon retiring, I concentrated on caregiving for my late wife, Beverly, who had Alzheimer’s. Once she passed, I focused upon the 30-year accumulation of “stuff” in the house. Several years before the pandemic, I decided it was time to sort and clean out the “stuff.” This included culling and discarding everything from boxes of family photographs, financial files, to all manner of flotsum and jetsum. Then one day I was sitting in my study and looked around and said, “What about the books and slides?” Ominously, at the same time there appeared a news feed with a link to “The ten things your children don’t want!” The first item was books! As an academic, I was aware that university libraries often accept donations of books, slides, and other materials. But I had two collections: a general one and a highly specific one. In 2019, for my general architectural library, I contacted Gregory Thompson, the then Associate Dean for Special Collections at the Marriott Library at the University of Utah. He was delighted to receive 850 general architectural books and some 14,000 slides. I gladly dropped 28 boxes of books and three slide holding cases off at the Marriott. They developed a list of the materials donated, prepared the papers concerning the gift, and suggested that I contact a local IRS approved appraiser to claim the tax deduction I was entitled to. I did, and it was well worth it! (The appraiser is Jerry Erkelens at www.intermountainappraisal.com). My Nordic art and architecture collection required a more circumspect process. The question became “Where could I place them so they would be appreciated and researchers would have access to them?” After exploring the possibilities, I contacted the National Nordic Museum in Seattle. They expressed interest and wanted to know the full contents of the collection. Just at that time the pandemic hit and everything closed down. During this time, I developed a catalogue of the material, and in early 2021 when things began opening up, I sent them the catalogue. They were delighted to be offered the collection and willingly transported it from Salt Lake to Seattle. I waved goodbye when the 23 boxes of materials left the house. They also prepared the gifting papers and I returned to my IRS approved appraiser for tax purposes. Again, well, well worth it! Needless to say, my sons were ecstatic to have these libraries dealt with and placed in very suitable and appropriate locations. And I continue to enjoy looking at empty bookshelves (sort of). For us in the Utah architectural community, we are fortunate as there is the Specials Collections at the Marriott Library at the University of Utah which has accepted donations of books, office archives, etc. If you are wondering what to do with your professional materials, consider contacting them. And we have an excellent IRS approved appraiser to assist you with tax filings. Moreover, your family members will be delighted! 13
LEGENDS Ken Naylor, FAIA INTERVIEWED BY FRAN PRUYN, CPSM Ken Naylor took the helm of Silver Naylor Architects after Roy Silver retired in the mid‑80s. The firm, which was founded as Roy Richards Silver Architects in 1952, was a small but established practice. As its president, Ken helped grow the firm to the powerhouse that is now recognized for its projects in the federal, educational, and religious sectors. Ken talked to Fran Pruyn about his career, its evolution and his thoughts about architectural education. When did you decide to become an architect? Not until the year before I started graduate school. As a teenager, I thought about architecture as a possibility, but I met an architect who was very discouraged about the financial rewards of architecture and how disappointed he was in his early career as an architect. So, he changed careers, and I let that influence me. When I was an undergraduate at the university, I was reasonably good at math. I enjoyed geology immensely. And so, with the combination of geology and quite a bit of math, I was offered a scholarship by the Geophysics Department, and I held that scholarship for a number of years. It paid for a good portion of my undergraduate education. But I found the prospects for what I would be doing after I graduated in geophysics not tremendously appealing. From the time I was young, I loved the creative process. At relatively the last minute, I went back to architecture and thought that sounded a lot more appealing than being in a lab somewhere in Louisiana or on an offshore drilling rig or in the field in Wyoming. I changed in my last year to urban geography and applied to graduate school, and immediately went into Tom Kass’s basic design class the summer before I started my program. Graduate school was very demanding. I had married, and our economic condition was such that I had to work all the time. When I finished graduate school in architecture, my nickname was The Ghost because I was never there. I was either working or I was working at home, trying to spend time with my wife. What happened next? I worked for Gordon Gigi, a wonderful mentor, for three years in school. After I graduated, I expected that I would work with Gordon. His practice was quite limited; it was just the two of us and the secretary. I got to do pretty much everything. Out of the blue, one day, I got a call from Woodbury Corporation: “We’re looking for an architect to be our full-time staff architect. Would you interview?” I did. Then, I got a call from Roy Silver. Woodbury had given me his name as a reference because he’d worked for them. I returned Roy’s call, and he convinced me I didn’t want to be in the development world, but I needed to come to work for him. About a year out of school, I started working for Roy Silver and Dale Allsop. It was a little bit larger firm; there were maybe eight of us, including the two partners. I was taking licensing exams and became licensed. It worked very well. Roy had a philosophy of business that I embraced: pay people what they need to survive, then at the end of the year, give them a bonus that’s beyond their expectations. That became a tenet of my practice throughout my career. In the early 80s, Roy bought out Dale Allsop, so it was just Roy and I operating the firm. In ‘85 or ‘86, Roy retired, and I just continued on. Most of my practice was public education. I was working for Ross Wentworth at Granite School District. I watched Ross as he operated his school district responsibilities. I was impressed both with his abilities to administer and his handle on design. In the early 90s, I 14 REFLEXION
went to Ross and said, “How about leaving the ranks of the securely employed and joining those of us who are rather insecurely employed?” For those who haven’t been in that environment, it’s a scary decision. But he decided to join me. I had told him that if things worked out well, we would be partners, and we were very shortly thereafter. How did you get into public education? When I started for Silver Alsop, they had one educational client. They worked for Nebo School District, and the superintendent was a very bright man named Joe Reedhead. Joe convinced us that people were designing schools in the wrong way — that we were designing for ourselves and not for the needs of the school district. So, we started to look at schools in a different way. Our portfolio expanded slowly and naturally as we performed work that was very successful. Clients started to come to us around the early 90s. I was designing a school in central Utah that had a very limited budget and needed to be done within nine months. We told him the only way we could do that was by doing something a bit unusual. We suggested tilt-up concrete, but I had never detailed tilt-up concrete before. So, I called Mike Upwall, who was an expert in tilt-up and doing a lot of service stations, garages, and warehouses. When I asked him to help us learn how to do this, he commented, “I’ve never had an architect ask me for advice or even value what I had to say. So, I’m going to come in and spend time with you for free.” He came in a number of times and sketched out things and taught us how to detail tilt-up concrete. Then, when Washington School District needed to do a new school and they wanted it to be very economical, they called Mike Upwall as a consultant during their selection process. They didn’t select me or my firm. When Mike joined that group, he said, “Are you nuts? You’ve got somebody out there who has the technique and the understanding. Why don’t you hire him?” They went through the process, selected somebody else, and then came to me and said, “What would be your ideas? Come down and talk to us.” We went down and talked about some of the things we’d been doing, and it resonated with them. One Saturday, I’m cutting my lawn and I get a phone call from Superintendent Stephen Peterson, Washington School District. He said, “Can you be down here Monday morning with a contract? We’d like to get something going immediately.” As I remember, we had 60 days to get this school designed, detailed, and underway. That was the beginning of a very successful venture promoting public education. We did a number of wonderful schools in the Washington School District that were both pleasing and much more economical than anything they had done before. We started bringing people down and showing them our work, which eventually expanded to about 80% of the school districts in the state of Utah, plus others in Wyoming and Idaho. Tell me about some of your favorite projects. The number one project is the Federal Courthouse, our collaboration with Thomas Phifer and Partners from New York City. We had done projects in the historic Frank Moss Federal Courthouse. That allowed us to get into a lot of detail about historical woodworking, moldings, and wonderful stuff. After that, we considered the competition for the new Frank Moss Courthouse. We had approached a firm we’d worked with that we knew through our association with GSA, but they had already accepted another partner. Then I got a call from a fellow named Thomas Phifer. It was a pleasant conversation, but then I said, “Well, thanks, but we’ve kind of decided maybe not to pursue it.” Then, I talked with Chris Lund, whom we had added to the firm. Chris looked at me and said, “Thomas Phifer!” and he ripped open the Architectural Record. There in Architects in the News was this picture of Thomas Phifer, a very talented architect who had been the lead designer in Richard Meier’s office in New York. I didn’t know how to call him back, but he called a couple of days later and said, “I don’t think we’ve finished that conversation.” I always expected that someone with the notoriety and the talent of a Thomas Phifer would be difficult to work with. It was absolutely the opposite. Thomas was pleasant, friendly, and loved being in our office. We learned how collaborative the design process needs to be. I think people tend to think that the architect of a building is one singular person, and in my experience, it hardly ever is. Thomas came to our office and talked about some of the beautiful projects he had done around the world and helped us to understand how to reach further in our designs. It’s really fun to elevate yourself above the horizon just long enough to see what’s really out there and what architects at an international level are doing, what they’re thinking and how they’re doing it. Disappointments? When I retired in late 2011, there were two very disturbing issues. First was being willing to say anything in an interview, even though you know you cannot deliver. During the interview process, it is common for a client to say, “I have a limited budget. It’s very important for me to have an architect that can design within that budget.” One of the things we tried very hard not to do was to mislead a client and to tell them, “No problem, 15
we can do that.” Instead of, “You need to be prepared for more money than that, or you have to reduce the scale of the project.” Some architects were willing to just simply say, “Yes, we can do that,” and then apologize later. It happened time and time again. The second issue is agreeing to a fee that you know won’t work for your firm, so then you start going about a change order process. That was something we were unwilling to do. If we negotiated a fee, it was the fee unless the owner added considerable scope, which rarely happens. What changed in the architectural industry during the period you practiced? The changes were unbelievable. I started drafting with pens on Mylar: hand drafting and working tediously over details, learning how to letter and taking pride in the way that you could letter. Then the Wang came out. We went to a seminar Niels Valentiner did where we looked at the Wang and thought, “Wow, that is interesting, but we just can’t see it applying right now to what we’re doing.” Probably a year later, IBM came out with their first PC AT, and we purchased a computer and a plotter we affectionately called the boat anchor. The plotter was a four-pin plotter you needed to watch and you needed to fill. We’d draft all day, and then someone would have to stay all night and watch this plotter work because if the pen ran out of ink in the middle of a plot, it was garbage. You could never recalibrate to the exact point that the pen ran out of ink. We migrated through several iterations and finally arrived at AutoCAD. From then on, we always had AutoCAD in the office, and a little bit at a time, we moved people from hand drafting to computer drafting. It was a very difficult learning curve for those of us that had learned hand drafting and some people just simply didn’t take easily to the computer. Looking back on that, it may have been better to have accepted that technology earlier, and there were a lot of pains in accepting it when we did. I think some did a better job than we did jumping into that technology. But once you evolve into Revit, where you can model buildings in three dimensions and you can look at conflicts in structural, mechanical and electrical systems, and there are no dimensional errors, the advantages are enormous. The disadvantages are cost and the continual upgrade. The longest we could ever make it with a computer was two and a half to three years. I think the longest we ever made it with a plotter was about two years because they would be continually advancing, and then there is our computer network, our backup capabilities and some of the systems that we had to use. It became a major cost center for us. But we also found that we drafted more efficiently. We produced documents more efficiently. We did better work: we could visualize it better, and we could show clients much better. Do you have advice for young architects starting in this field? I would tell them that you’re headed into a difficult process. You have to be convinced that this is the direction you want to go because the most discouraging thing would be for you to get partway through the process and decide you don’t want to do it. There are many that do that. And, if you’re married, you’d better make sure that your companion is fully committed to this process as well because they’re going to sacrifice a great deal. You’re not going to have a lot of time when you start into graduate school. Are there any things you would have done differently? I don’t think so. I was blessed with wonderful people — very talented, dedicated, hardworking people. I am probably most proud of the people that we were able to employ, work with, and get to know during the years that I practiced. I wouldn’t change any of that. I would certainly change how we educate architects. I think our educational process focuses exclusively on design and does not appropriately prepare architects for the rigors of practice. There are many wonderful designers who cannot succeed at architecture because they have no business acumen. They don’t understand the nuances of running a business because we simply don’t focus on that. I learned fairly early that my talent was not necessarily in design. I soon migrated into the role of the primary marketer, and the one who was managing the business. I started to learn how to run a business by doing the books in my father’s service station at about 12 years old. I understood that if the business doesn’t succeed, then there is no business. I would commonly tell some of our talented designers, “You can’t spend indefinite time designing. You have to recognize that this is a business.” That’s difficult for some to understand. They’re prepared to design, and that’s all they want to do. I also would focus on changing architectural licensing laws. During my time on the NCARB Board, we fought very hard to try to make the process more acceptable, more meaningful, and not necessarily easier, but less timeconsuming to achieve. At NCARB, I developed a strong friendship with Andy Prescott of Einhorn, Jaffe and Prescott — one of the best mentors I’ve ever had. We fought hard to allow examinations while in school. My last thought is that it is a great, great way to spend your life. I would never have done it any other way. It is exactly what I think I was meant to do, and I wouldn’t change any of it. 16 REFLEXION
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Running on the Beach … With Legislators BY SHAWN BENJAMIN, AIA, LEED AP I vaguely recall, from my youth, the Oscar-winning movie “Chariots of Fire,” loaded with what I’m sure was an amazing cast and compelling storyline, a veritable struggle between “good” and “evil” and the inevitable triumph of right over wrong. I have to admit, the only part I remember was the ending — where everyone is running on the beach and that song starts to play. I’m sure you know it … dun, dun-dun-dun, dunnnnn. It’s been stuck in my head for days now. Not unlike the plot to that silver screen classic, our legislators converged on capital hill with an unfiltered school of thoughts running through their heads. To help tame that, the AIA Government Affairs Committee (GAC) also charges into each session, but with the directive, “To promote and enhance the health and safety of all Utahns in the built environment through relationship building and lobbying of government officials.” From the first day, legislation was pouring in from seemingly everywhere. Early on, we saw several social bills run through the halls of the House and Senate chambers passing quickly to be signed by the Governor within days of the opening of the session. SB089 (Social Media Modifications), HB0257 (Sex‑based Designations for Privacy, Anti-bullying and Women’s Opportunities) and HB0261 (Equal Opportunity Initiatives) were a few among the first waves to hit the shore and seemingly crash over the remaining efforts of the 45-day undertaking. Once the more charged bills of the session found their way to passage, the rest of the record 940 bills came to light. Some derived from legislators’ personal experiences, others from community clamor, some from agencies within the state and others from interests out of state. On every front they make their way through committees, draft revisions and substitutions to land at the final floor vote before being signed into law. There’s a certain stamina required, but fortunately, we have engaging and well-respected lobbyists. So, our efforts within the industry, combined with their efforts behind the scenes, continues to be an effective pairing. Leading up to the 2024 session, the GAC tracked some past legislation, community issues and technical subject matter related to the built environment. They looked for potential pitfalls as well as opportunities to improve our industry and as a result, our communities. Here are a few of the highlights from the session: By the Numbers • 940 pieces of legislation were introduced. • 591 bills passed with 555 signed by the governor; and 7 vetoes. Additional Bills of Interest House Bills • HB0011: Restricts lawn or turf by certain government entities. • HB0058: Broadens education/experience requirements, temporary license. 18 REFLEXION
• HB0064: Construction Code revisions including revert ICC A117.1-09. • HB0188: No changes can be required after the permit is issued, except for life safety. • HB0275: HOA can’t require to keep lawn or turf — effort to encourage water-wise use. • HB0289: Allows for legal fees if prevailing with an ombudsman decision in your favor. • HB0343: Modifies list of design professional, for purposes of the Utah Procurement Code, to include landscape architects. • HB0518: Amendments to various building codes. • HB0534: Modifies and combines the architects’ and landscape architects’ licensing boards. • HB0562: Utah State Fair Park Restoration District Amendments. Senate Bills • SB0144: Public Art Funding Amendments. • SB0168: Modular Building Provisions. • SB0185: Allows for third party building inspections when cities can’t accommodate. • SB0188: Modified CEU requirements for contractors. • SB0208: Requires 12% to be ‘affordable’ housing, met in each phase of development. • SB0272: Sales tax for revitalization including professional sports venues. For more info on the bills that passed this last session, scan the QR code. https://le.utah.gov/asp/passedbills/ passedbills.asp?Session=2024GS&SortType=billno Congressional Bills As noted from previous articles, AIA has been advocating for you directly and is excited to see HR 7024 (Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024) making its way through the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Part of this bill addresses provisions of research and development deductions that switched to an amortized model under a prior sunset provision. Due to the intense impact on design firms across the nation, AIA members on both local and national levels have reached out to their representatives to encourage support of this and other similar bills. On Jan. 31, the House voted in favor of this new bill with significant bipartisanship and a 357-70 count. Thank you everyone for your collective efforts, but it still has to pass the Senate, so keep up the pressure and help your interests be represented across the country. As we step into the off-season, we’re finding that more and more participation is needed from our industry in the interim sessions to help us stay engaged in a process that seems to progressively be doing the majority of work before and after legislative sessions. Our goal is to be in a position to preemptively respond to coming legislation by working with House and Senate representatives earlier in the process. If you don’t see a bill that you’ve been tracking, let us know and join us for our GAC meetings the second Wednesday at 8:00 a.m. each month. We’re certainly open to more input from all our professionals as we prepare for the next session. We’ve got an amazing group of industry professionals, networks of related industry organizations and tremendous lobbyists, but we can definitely use your help in this effort. Whether it’s joining our meetings, making calls to your local representatives, or sharing your subject matter expertise, your voice matters most when it is heard. … And if you happen to see a group of legislators running around the Great Salt Lake beaches on a cloudy day, just let it happen. They probably just have that song stuck in their heads too … dun, dun-dun-dun, dunnnn-dun … dun, dundun-dun-dunnnnn. In addition, AIA Utah’s Board of Directors offered support for two letters encouraging Utah Legislators to consider additional focus for both the homeless population, as well as the often underrepresented LGBTQ+ groups in our communities and business interests. If you are interested in reading the advocacy letters sent by AIA Utah, please visit the Governmental Affairs page on our website at www.aiautah.org. 19
AIA Utah is a member-driven organization. As such, we must engage with our members to better understand the needs, challenges, and opportunities for AIA Utah to support both architects and our profession. When I ran for president-elect of AIA Utah, I set a goal to amplify our members’ voices, which begins with listening. AIA Utah hosted a firm Leadership Summit for the first time in March. We invited firm leaders to attend a day-long discussion to identify and prioritize needs for AIA Utah within our state and profession. We were delighted to have representatives from 16 large and small firms attend the event. Using feedback from our registrants, the priority topics for the event were focused on how AIA Utah can enhance the value of architects (and architecture) to our clients and our communities and how AIA Utah can better support architectural candidates and young architects within the profession. Discussion Part 1 The first series of questions focused on our perception of the value of hiring an architect and the services architects provide. A series of round-table discussions occurred around the following questions: 1. What is your perception of the value of architects? 2. What is the value your clients see in your services? 3. What would you like your clients to know about the architectural process? 4. What do you think our clients wish we knew to support a more effective design process? 5. How can AIA Utah support you by advocating for architects in Utah? From these robust and varied discussions, we learned that AIA Utah can support our architectural community by providing a toolkit for owners to help describe the design process, provide a dictionary of common architectural terms, and answer FAQs. We also heard that AIA Utah could better represent our members by supporting more outreach to owners and owner representatives on behalf of the profession. Discussions with institutional owners, contractors, and developers to share the value of architects and good architecture in our communities are key steps. Now, we must determine the best way to approach these discussions, engage with our owners and begin this connection. The next series of discussions focused on how we can support both architects and owners in supporting effective design while meeting project schedules and budgets and creating a more compelling value proposition for the role of architects and the impact of effective architecture. AIA Utah Firm Leadership Summit – Salt Lake City Salt Lake City BY WHITNEY WARD, AIA 20 REFLEXION
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