In the summer of 1986, I was between my 2nd and 3rd year of graduate school at the University of Utah Graduate School of Architecture, working towards a Master of Architecture Degree.  I wanted to obtain employment in an architect's offce. 

I found myself in the vicious cycle of not being able to get a job, because I had no experience, and not having experience, because I could not get a job.  I sent out 5 letters with my humble one page resume to the top 5 architecture firms in Salt Lake City, Utah.  One of those letters landed on the desk of Ken Louder, AIA, then the Vice President of FFKR Architects. 

 

I had at the bottom of my resume a bullet point titled "Personal" for which I listed my birthdate, my birthplace, Burley, Idaho, and my personal interests.  Ken happened to be from Twin Falls, Idaho, 30 miles to the west of Burley.  Ken said "OK- I am going to give this Idaho kid a break" and he hired me with the following stipulations:  1. Hourly rate of $7.50.  2.  No benefits,  and 3.  The job would only last for 3 weeks.  FFKR had recently received the commission to design the Eccles/Howard Hughes Medical Institute Genetics Research Center at the University of Utah.  One of their first tasks was to build a full-scale mockup of a 600 square foot research lab, inside a rented warehouse.  The experience on my resume included one year working at Kinateder & Associates, a model making and architectural illustration company in Orem, Utah.  I had spent all of my time at Kinateder making architectural models.  So, I started working on the Eccles/HHMI full scale lab mockup, and proceeded to build the walls and lab casework, and fume hood, and window desk stations all out of 2x4 wood studs and 1/8" thick white foamcore. 

 

About a month later the Eccles/HHMI investigators stopped by the mockup to "kick the tires" and provide constructive criticism of the design.  We ended up with a list of modifications for which Ken said to me "OK- I need you to spend another 3 weeks and make these modifications to the mock up."  I got to work, and made all of the changes.  After the second mockup review, Ken said to me "I would like you to start working in the office on this project.  You are going to be the "Lab Guy""- to which I replied "OK!".  For the next year I worked on that project full time.  I was sitting in the Eccles/HHMI studio next to 5 other licensed architects-  Frank Ferguson, FAIA, the Principal in Charge.  Ken Louder, AIA, Co-Principal in Charge, and Project Director;  Mark Wilson, AIA, Project Manager and Project Architect;  Jim Lewis, AIA, Project Architect, and Mathias Mueller, AIA, Project Architect.  At the first project meeting with the UofU HHMI investigators and Bob McGhee, AIA, HHMI Corporate Architect from Houston, Ken said to me "I would like you to write the meeting minutes." 

I had never done that before in my life!  I said "Sure, I can do that."  And for the next year, in addition to working on the lab design, I prepared all of the Meeting Notes for the project.  Talk about a mentoring program!  It was an amazing experience.   RFD was the lab design consultant for the project, providing specifications and lab design review of my lab drawings.  I got to know Malcolm Barksdale, AIA, founder and President of RFD through that project.

 

I delayed my last year of MArch program at the UofU, so that I could stay working full time on the Eccles/HHMI project.  That single decision to delay my education in favor of obtaining real life work experience was the single most important decision I have made in my architectural career.  The experience I obtained set the foundation for everything I have done since then.  I was surprised by the reaction of the faculty at the UofU School of Architecture.  They thought it was a terrible idea to delay my education in favor of obtaining work experience.  They said "you'll never come back".  But I knew I would go back, and I did, and graduated in 1988 with my Master of Architecture degree, a design thesis titled "The Lab Environment as an Experimental Shell in which Creativity is Fostered through Human Interaction and Flexibility- A Biomedical Research Center at the University of California, Irvine", and one $25 million science building project on my resume that I had worked on from the beginning of schematic design through construction documents.  That experience and my degree made me the ideal candidate for RFD in San Diego, where I obtained my 2nd career job, working as a lab planner, and ultimately a Lab Architect after obtaining my Architecture license in Utah.  And the rest is history.