2021 Directory

42 WYOMING ARCHITECTURE .21 | aia-wyoming.org environment. It also involves studying the social and economic forces that shape how cities, towns and neighborhoods develop. In architecture, urban anthropology has been important to me because I want to incorporate the elements that will make a place special to the people who will be using it. To do that, I need to understand the clients’ specific cultures. Whether designing a home, an office, a public facility or doing a master plan, an understanding of urban anthropology can make a building more responsive to people. That’s why I went into urban anthropology before architecture school. Urban anthropology did influence my professional work. For example, we did an office building in Sheridan where we were to give every office an excellent view of the Big Horns. That meant we had long hallways, and to ensure the people along them were not isolated, we created three offshoot hallways with meeting points and mini coffee bars at the intersections where people could sit and talk. The meeting points were an essential part of how people interacted in their office environment. We made it easy to pass someone in the hallway, say hi, grab a coffee and sit down. Informally discussing ideas and projects improved their work, but those interactions wouldn’t have happened without the meeting points. That’s urban anthropology at building scale. The variety Stanford offered me was incredible. I studied a small hilltop village in Tuscany. I took classes in art history and principles of design that were pure aesthetics not related to buildings. Later I spent a summer researching the creation of Brasilia, the unfortunate new capital of Brazil. In Oregon, I could concentrate on pure architecture and related fields for 3½ years. That allowed me to hone my skills as a designer. My professors taught me to balance art and logic. Buildings are complex, and you don’t want to have one that accomplishes just one thing. It needs to accomplish many things. You want to surprise your client with what it can accomplish and make a rich environment for whatever people do there. Tell us about Malone Belton Abel, which was founded in 1961 by Adrian Malone. Did you join the company in 1984, when you began managing it, or did you arrive earlier? Why the focus on environmentally sensitive design? Adrian Malone was a really fine architect and an amazing gentleman. After spending most of his career in San Francisco, he left in the 1950s because San Francisco was already “too crowded.” He spent a few years around Jackson Hole, and then he came to Sheridan and Big Horn for good in 1961. I stopped by to interview for a job in 1976, and Adrian hired me as a young apprentice architect. The firm exuded class because of him. The company’s atmosphere wasn’t pushy at all; it had an understated elegance that came from who he was as a person and as an architect. I could feel it even though, at first, I could not quite put my finger on it. I went around to the other offices in town before I was hired, but there was no comparison. The atmosphere was an important part of the firm and was a big part of what I learned from Adrian. He eventually asked me whether I wanted to become a partner and run the place, and I told him I would be happy to, and I bought him out a few years later when he decided to sell. In a small town, you have to develop what you can with a small group of really good people and do everything you can to make them happy, which means pretty much leaving them alone to do their work. We had 10 to 15 people, and it was just a very comfortable and stable place where the core people stayed for 20 to 25 years. Architecture schools don’t teach office management or the business side of things, but managing our firm was simple: respect the people you work with; recognize that they know what they’re doing; support them in their work. Environmentally sensitive architecture wasn’t a big thrust when I was starting out, but it has always made sense to me. In 1979 Adrian and some doctors got together to build a small office building for their businesses, and I suggested putting solar panels on the roof to take advantage of the south orientation. Nobody objected. These air- circulation-based panels functioned really well for about 30 years before the fans stopped working. We’re still in that building and replaced the panels with a photovoltaic system in 2019. Malone Belton Abel offers services in architecture, master planning, structural engineering and interior design. It seems to focus on public buildings, with 40% of your projects identified as educational and only 6% as residential. Did you specialize within the company? What is your favorite kind of project? In addition to management, which wasn’t that intense, I was involved in the design of all our projects. We had a very collaborative office, so I shared that responsibility with other architects in the firm. Our designs were the product of many good minds. My favorite design type has been for the arts, whether visual or performing: museums, visitor centers, theaters, and art production places. I knew a lot about what museums needed long before designing my first one because I’ve paid attention while visiting scores of museums in far-flung places. Of what career accomplishment are you most proud? There are several. The first is the aggregate of more than fifty projects I did at the University of Wyoming in the three decades from 1989 to 2019. Some were small, complex renovations to historic buildings, others were major new facilities such as the Berry Biodiversity Conservation Center. One, the Visual Arts Facility, was honored with a COTE award in 2016. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 41