E n t e r - p r i s i n g | e n t e r - t a i n m e n t | a r c h i t e c t u r e

INTEREST IN ARCHITECTURE / FIRST BIG BREAK

Looking back, there has always been an interest in Architecture. From playing with model trains and setting up little town mock-ups and scenes, to going to the library in fourth grade and always checking out the same book on Architecture, it has always been a huge interest. There are memories of making models of multi-purpose stadiums, when that was a big thing in the 70’s. And there are memories that the work produced was always encouraged by the family.

But things weren’t easy as a teenager. There was a divorce, and there was life living with dad. And then at 16, dad died. That was pretty tough in lots of ways. It meant a new public high school and lots of adjustments. But there was a silver lining. There were new friends of course, and a sense that it was all on one’s own shoulders. But the best surprise was that there were drafting and architecture classes at the public high school. In just one year from those classes, there became a portfolio of work, as humble as it was.

At high school graduation time, mom networked a connection she had made with a co-worker into an interview at a large, well-known, established, design-build construction company in San Jose. The portfolio was just enough to get offered a position as an office boy. This was an office boy oozing over with interest in Architecture, in a company that did design-build. And that was the biggest break ever! The first day was running blueprints through the old ammonia blueprint machines until one’s nose bled. This young man was thrilled to be looking at such wonderful drawings as they passed through the machine. Clumsy, young, in-experienced, but willing to do whatever it took to be able to draw well enough to help work on the plans. And to supplement this interest, there was an opportunity to enroll in Architecture at the local junior college.

JUNIOR COLLEGE / CAL POLY POMONA / WORKING ONE’S WAY THROUGH SCHOOL

The Architecture program at the local junior college was a most compelling and fun challenge. And what made it even more perfect was that a lot of the classes were held in the late afternoon or evening. And so every work day, there would be lots of hours working for Carl N. Swenson Company, and then there would be a total rush to get to class in the afternoon on into the evening. Doing both, the skills started to develop, and the role in the office went from office boy to draftsperson, which certainly was the goal. Junior college was an opportunity to develop those skills even further, and in the old days after you turned in your projects, the instructors would line them up in front of the class in the order they liked best. It felt very promising to be putting work on the best end.

Transferring to a university was the next big step, and the counselors in junior college used to try to do their best to help. But even so, they were a lot of times discouraging, fearing that Architecture was such a difficult career to be in. Per their advice, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo was where the first applications went. But despite a great GPA, the applications were denied. This happened for several years until an alternate application was sent to Cal Poly Pomona. Lo and behold, the application was accepted, and it turned out to be another huge break and blessing that was to reveal itself over time.

The benefit to being at Pomona as opposed to San Luis Obispo was two-fold. First, at Pomona the emphasis was on design as opposed to a more practice-type approach. For a person who had already obtained lots of practical experience by working, the design emphasis was just what the doctor ordered.

The second benefit was the ability to work, while going to school, which made it possible to afford the education on one’s own. There is a tremendous sense of gratitude to Cal Poly Pomona for being accepted, transferring into third year, the affordable tuition, for the lifelong friendships and camaraderie, for the intramural sports and recreation, and the education and the credentials that come with that. But most of all, Cal Poly Pomona provided a crucially huge opportunity to a young man whose options were otherwise limited because of the situation with his family.

Opportunities through school included work as a designer/drafter for a small home builder. That job provided not only design experience on projects that were constructed but also job site experience with being on concrete pours and delivering materials to assist in whatever was going on. There were times when going to school there was concrete up to the knees, as opposed to the classmates who were dressed impeccably well.

The second job through school was in the design department of Knott’s Berry Farm during the time they were doing Camp Snoopy. Met Charles Schulz and that is the time that the interest in entertainment architecture started to ignite.

At graduation, mom provided the means for a bus trip through Europe with other college age students, which is still one of the best memories ever for the discovery of Architecture & the friendships I made.

JP. DARLING & ASSOCIATES / FROM GRADUATE TO RUNNING AN OFFICE

After graduation, a job in Newport Beach at JP. Darling & Associates presented itself. From the start, there was an opportunity to run projects and to take as much responsibility as one could handle. But this was work for a very tough and demanding boss with a bit of a temper. He had a certain way, and was pretty strict, in fact only classical music was played in the office. And yet, it was also a place that presented a lot of opportunity, directing and working on projects ranging from a high-rise to all sorts of technically complex industrial-type projects which were a great learning experience.

You had to be truthful and correct, and a premium was placed on delivering projects at a certain budget. You had to KNOW that the work was correct, not just hope that it was. And unfinished, incomplete work was not allowed to go out the door even if that meant a client was upset for the short term, because it was their experience that it was better to have someone upset for a short bit as opposed to being upset forever.

For the first few years, there was a Managing Architect in the office who was between the boss and the staff. But one day, after a set of plans prepared under the direction of this manager went out prematurely, the manager, who had been warned previously about it, was terminated after work on a Friday.

And so at age 28, the boss came in on a Monday and announced that there was a new Managing Architect, and that if this one (meaning yours truly) messed up, he’d fire him too. Things quickly went from being friends with the staff to being their boss. It was a stressful time. There was hiring and firing decisions to make, writing proposals, hiring consultants, and all sorts of managing responsibilities in addition to the projects.

This was also a time when there were several large projects for which this not yet licensed Architect was providing services from the very start to finish. And it was by doing that that one gets the chops needed to get licensed. It was also a time, when for the first time, projects started coming in from one’s own effort at going out and getting them.

All the while JP. Darling was taking a break during the middle of the day to play cards (gin) with the developer friend who shared the same office. As difficult as this might seem, this was an ideal place for an upcoming Architect aspiring for his own practice one day to be, because the responsibility was an exact replica of what it would be for a practicing Architect, and it was all on one’s shoulders.

The license came, and raises followed. Things were going well, except for one very important thing. The work load decreased significantly as the economy dipped. And the office dropped from a staff of six to five, to four, to three, to two, and finally the time had come.

OUT ON ONE’S OWN / LBA / EBA AND EBTA ARCHITECTS

It wasn’t the best time to start a practice, but that didn’t matter. There was no sense in trying to find a job, because the experience accumulated was already enough. Starting over, means very small projects to start, but gradually things started to come in. What was of paramount importance though was also making sure that there was going to be a continuing relationship with clients established from before.

And in order to do that for one particular client, it was important to have a minority status, which is kind of difficult as a Caucasian man. So the solution for that was to partner with a former classmate from Cal Poly who was also out on his own. And sure enough the client followed along. The original deal was that the profit would be split, but the entire effort to do the work was borne pretty much solely without the help of the other partner. With overhead really low, there was a period of some nice success, as the economy came back bit by bit.

And as things progressed it seemed like a fit to bring in another colleague from Cal Poly. And with the three combined, an office started to take shape and grow. The result was called EBTA /Architects, a partnership, with three diversely different partners. The original minority partner, was interested in doing the construction drawings for a well-established custom home Architect, and was interested in nice projects, but not as much interested in doing the marketing to get them. The third partner was doing continuous cell phone tower work which was steady cash flow but not the type of work that anybody really wanted to do.

Setting up the practice and handling the affairs of the business was not that hard, but it took lots of effort. The partners took a lot of classes, and attended lots of business building networking events.

At marketing classes, they learned about unique selling propositions, and they searched and searched for characteristics to distinguish themselves from what was calculated as approximately 400 Architectural firms in the immediate vicinity. There was a realization that all that had happened was that there was now a new firm that would answer “yes we can” to any project we tried to chase, as opposed to other more mature firms who specialized and stood for something.

The most discouraging moment was at a Chamber of Commerce meeting where the members were invited to get up and describe their ideal client. Before standing it was hard to think of the right answer with another partner sitting in the next seat. And after a watered down, appeasing answer, there was a realization that the projects one aspired to weren’t nearly what the two other partners were pointed towards.

On top of that, the dynamic of a three way partnership is a hard one. Every effort was made to gain consensus, but there were times when that didn’t happen, and no matter if you are on the two against one side of the lone hold-out, disagreement doesn’t feel right. Doing research and reading on the topic, it became clear that model organizations that had achieved success weren’t partnerships but rather corporations, with a person at the head of the company, who sets the overall vision.