38 WYOMING ARCHITECTURE .22 | aia-wyoming.org Where are you from originally? I grew up in Lingle, Wyoming. It’s located in the southeastern part of the state and was named after my great uncle, Hyram Lingle, a civil engineer who worked on the first irrigation project before Wyoming became a state in 1890 and before the turn of the 20th century. He worked on two canals that branched off the North Platte river and wend their way into Nebraska. Please tell us about your education. My high school graduating class had 32 people. That was the largest class they had until the school consolidated. I spent a year at the local community college. It didn’t have the pre-engineering classes I needed, so I went to the University of Wyoming during my sophomore year because it was the only fouryear institution in Wyoming. At that point, I hadn’t thought much about what kind of engineering to study. I thought I might be interested in aeronautical engineering, but I wanted to take as many building-related classes as possible by the time I got to the University of Wyoming. They only offered architectural engineering, so I changed to that and graduated in 1971. Jim Rose, AIA, retired in 2018. He spent most of his career as an architect and teaching architectural engineering. Jim also worked as a historic preservation consultant. AIA Wyoming recently interviewed Jim about his career and life. The following fall, I went to graduate school at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. I graduated from UVA in 1973 with a master’s degree and was an intern architect in Fort Collins, where I live now. Please tell us about your family (past and present). My mother was never employed outside the home after having a family. During World War II, she worked in the manufacturing industry in Detroit, Michigan, doing armaments. My father was a blacksmith. He was in the Navy during World War II and formed a company with his brother in the farm equipment business. That’s the job and company he had until he retired. My younger brother still has my father’s business. My younger sister is a retired elementary teacher. My wife, Michele, is a retired teacher, and we have three children. Our oldest daughter is a clinical social worker and counselor at the elementary school level who also does online private counseling. She and her husband have two sons. My middle child is a physician and pediatrician; he and his wife have two daughters. Our third child is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research ship commander. When and why did you decide to become an architect? When I started my university education, I liked physics and those kinds of things, and I was intrigued by the general idea of engineering. Some campus building projects were going on while I was an undergrad, and I was interested in how buildings came together during construction. Architectural engineering was an option program that was a subset of civil engineering. That was as close as I could come to studying architecture. I was invited to join the Peace Corps after graduation, go to Micronesia and help with building development, but I didn’t want to leave my wife at home. I realized I was interested in architecture and didn’t want to practice as an engineer. I applied to graduate school instead and was accepted at UVA. You’ve had your license since 1976 and have been a member of AIA Wyoming for almost 50 years. Why is it important to be a member of AIA Wyoming? My first job out of grad school was in Fort Collins, but after a fairly short tenure there, I took a job and completed my internship in Lander, Wyoming. I joined AIA Wyoming as an intern in Lander. Being a member of AIA Wyoming is very important initially when you are in practice. It gives you a chance to sustain contact with colleagues and stay informed, and there are educational opportunities, too, so you can hone your professional skills. You can maintain contact and fluency with what’s happening in the profession. As part of the national organization, you could also participate vicariously on the national level and develop a national profile. Those were the original motives for being involved. I am still a member because I have friends and colleagues in the association, and I enjoy continuing my education. Most of my colleagues are retiring or have retired, but I am always intrigued to see what other architects are doing and how the profession is changing. Please tell us about your years in private practice before you began working in academia. I was licensed in 1976. I established a sole proprietorship with one draftsman, and my wife helped me with books and billing. As a sole proprietor, I started with remodels and residential work. After a year, I had more work than I could manage, so I took a partner, and we formed a practice. That evolved into more commercial and institutional projects, such as schools, a major jail and other commercial work. We had a significant amount of work, A Conversation with Jim Rose, AIA Emeritus A Giant of the Industry
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