many diverse faces from across campus
and across town my name is Jason Young
I'm the director of the School of
Architecture here at UT it's my honor to
introduce the lecture tonight so here at
the College of Architecture and design
we're fortunate enough to have a really
robust lecture series where we bring in
creative practitioners nationally an
internationally renowned architects and
artists and other performers who allow
us to you know basically share in the
diverse forms of practice that we see
today in the field so we're lucky to do
that through a few key sponsorships like
the Robert B Church Memorial Fund among
others that allow us to have such a
robust lecture series so tonight's
lecture will be for sure a treat and
will be given in tandem by Josh Shelton
and David Dowell two of the three
principals at the Kansas city-based firm
of El Dorado so the firm El Dorado was
established in 1996 and is a pretty
interesting hybrid practice they do
everything from architecture urban
design curatorial work engagement with
education engagement communities and
fabrication and I think in many ways
their firm marks a kind of demand that's
out there now for that form of creative
practice that runs the gamut from
educational engagement all the way out
to infrastructure with a strong kind of
human dimension that occupies the middle
ground so their roots are decidedly
Midwestern and Kansas City though I
think of them as a southern practice
part of the distributed south and if you
know
so but they work in a national and rumor
has it international context bringing
their kind of alchemical approach to
opportunities do design at all different
scales and all different locations
thus this great title the middle of
everywhere so the firm is really well
awarded and appreciated nationally
numerous awards from the local regional
and national level but probably the one
that sums it up the best in a short
introduction like the one I'm gonna make
as they're currently ranked 14th among
American firms in the category of design
by architect magazine which is the
publication of the American Institute of
Architects so obviously you know we're
proud of that because Josh Shelton is
the 1995 alum of our school and is
engaged in our school on the
architecture advocacy board and has been
active here certainly over the time that
I've been here last five years annually
if not multiple times each year so we're
proud of the work that they do in by
extension and so Awards like that you
know helped bring value to to our
mission here so congratulations for such
a great honor but we're also claiming
credit for that at some levels that
David Dowell was partner was educated at
the washington university in st. louis
and also at the university of california
berkeley and he joined the practice near
the beginning in 1998 Josh came later in
2002 and to be sure they're kind of a
dynamic duo as we're about to find out
they need about three and a half hours
to do the lecture so I'm going to keep
my comments short but I wanted to just
say one thing on a more personal note
having the opportunity having had the
opportunity to participate with the two
of them and a larger team on the lone
Oaks farm project which is a UT
agriculture and extension project in
in in West Tennessee and Eldorado along
with Nelson Byrd waltz and Matt Whitaker
from Chattanooga you know were awarded
the commission to a master plan and we
were lucky enough to be integrated
vertically with that here at the UT
School of Architecture so we had
students in a studio taught by Professor
Bob French who's been involved with the
low notes project from the beginning and
is here tonight perhaps perhaps not
he retired recently and no one's seen
him since but we were fortunate enough
to be a structural part of that into
model really a new form of public work
where students at the university level
are engaged with professionals both on
the client team side and the design team
side and also ultimately integrated with
K through 12 education which is one of
the commitments of the low notes farm
project so what I witnessed there is
just an amazing kind of human
sensibility a kind of boldness and
bravery because when the when the
project started there were some
statements about well we would love to
see the students work the design team
shared this with us but we don't want
the client team to see the student work
which was interesting but ultimately you
know through the work of David and other
Eldorado assets on the job like that
that barrier broke down almost
immediately and so it was a really
amazing experience for that group of
students and something that we look
forward to continuing if at all possible
so it's really that kind of human
dimension and I think design you know
inspires us to be better humans better
communities and to get involved around
important issues and to push one another
to be thoughtful and to be bold and
daring with work and that that's
certainly something that I see in the
work of El Dorado so please join me in
welcoming David and Josh
turn that everybody see my orange socks
yeah okay so Jason thanks I yeah I've
been working with Jason on this advocacy
and advisory board on with Dean Poole
for last four or five years it's been a
it's been an incredible opportunity to
reconnect with the with the University
of Tennessee and I've watched the school
elevate it's now nationally ranked in
the you know in the top tier of schools
I couldn't be more proud I know I wanted
to take a minute just to dedicate the
lecture tonight
to Professor Bob French he he taught me
he's taught probably many of you in the
auditorium the exhibition across the
atrium for lone Oaks farm is also
dedicated to to Professor French you
know I can't really I can't really say
enough about what what he's meant to you
know so many of us but but but also to
me personally David got a chance to work
with him on on Lennox farm so anyway
let's give a round of applause to
30-plus years of dedication Bob French I
said let's let's give him a standing
ovation because they everyone please
join me in a standing ovation for Bob
French
it's it's totally worth it now this is
being recorded so what we'll do we'll
begin that will be was for Eldorado we
but no you know we're big fans of and
I'm just gonna dive dive right into the
lecture if that's okay
I don't know I don't know if we want to
do another standing ovation probably not
I think Bob French is uh is a hard act
to follow but you know I wanted to start
with this slide because you know you
know first of all I could ramble on
about the slide alone for probably the
entire length of the lecture and I'm not
going to do that but I can safely say
that you know in my time alive this era
and this presidency represents the most
politically and culturally divided and
polarized landscape that I've ever
experienced in America and you know that
affects me personally and it affects us
personally certainly affects the way we
think about practice the the cardinal
rule for running a small practice was to
leave politics out of it you don't know
who your clients are gonna be affiliated
with and I think those days are over
I mean I think I think we are at a point
where we have to engage a conversation
so I David was having David came in last
night was having dinner with with my my
parents who are here in the audience
tonight and extended family and friends
and actually the mayor who is an old
friend is here Madeline would you say
that this is the Tennessee trash
softball team like this is I so so we we
played on a softball team years ago
together and Madeleine stills part of
that but we were having having dinner
with family last night and I was telling
a story of a prayer that hung on the
dining room wall of my very southern
in Columbia Tennessee and it's the it's
the serenity prayer and I couldn't think
of a better follow-up slide to the last
one then perhaps this one so it's you
know it's the serenity to accept the
things you cannot change and the courage
to change the things that we can and the
wisdom to know the difference you know
this is this is of course like that the
12-step program
prayer is will and I think probably it's
appropriate that that it is so because
think you know we're probably as a
nation in a 12-step process right now of
trying to get better but you know I've I
think when I get super stressed and when
I when I feel overwhelmed these words
often come to my mind and I kind of hope
that you know all of us no matter where
we're we're from and and what
affiliation we have are are sort of
trying just going to sort through this
polarized time and in a way that that
that has the right amount of restraint
but also I think this lecture really
focuses on on the courage to change the
things that we can so while while the
serenity and the wisdom are are
certainly important we wanted to we
wanted to ask everyone to join us
tonight and in changing the things that
that we can and having the courage to do
so
you know we hear about humanitarian
crises all over all over the world and
you know somehow in America it feels it
feels that's a you know it's a refugee
situations and and the extreme
situations happen in other parts of the
world that it's not true anymore they
happen they happen here heading you know
how do we how does a contorted design
community respond to this there's a
Swiss conceptual artist named Christoph
Michele who proposed that the border
wall mock-ups become monument up a big
series of installations that constitute
in a an American monument of today's day
and age and I think that's a sort of
interesting proposal and kind of
thought-provoking it's a bit of a one
and and so you know got me thinking
about about monuments and and their kind
of time and place with where we are now
anywhere from the what I would call it a
monument to contemporary art by Donald
Judd and the in the desert of Marfa Jeb
would roll over in his grave right now
if he knew I was referring to this as a
monument but justice Stonehenge and and
while these are sort of these
transcendent kind of human moments I
wanted it I wanted to talk about a
series of other projects that that
perhaps help us help us kind of a draw
draw some connections to a path forward
and a broader set of conversations that
are useful this is an installation that
that took place at the border of Mexico
by an artist collective called post
commodity and it's very simply a series
of healing balloons that for four hours
one afternoon drew a line it's called
repellant fence and drew a line across
the border from America to the - to
Mexico down on a shoestring budget the
the artists collective actually made
made the balloons drove them out to to
their sites it was a temporary work so
it's not a it's not a permanent
installation far from a monument but but
significant about this work was the act
of negotiation that made it possible so
this was there were two kind of federal
governments involved in this
conversation there was there's um a
whole whole set of security concerns
there were ranchers there were local
municipalities on both sides of the
border there were indigenous tribes
whose focus is very strong in post
commodity representing that demographic
and it was an act of negotiation that
took months and months and months just
to allow these four hours to occur and
you know it kind of occurred to me that
the the act of negotiation is just as
much the work as the work itself perhaps
even more so if you think about the the
four hours that these balloons flew you
know you can think about the many months
that that led up to this moment as as
critical and emblematic of the work of
art I'm gonna stay in in the in the
world of balloons for a second this is a
a Lebanese architect named Hashem Sarkis
who's currently that the Dean at MIT
David not got to know Hashem before he
was such a big-shot he was still a
big-shot but um he told us about this
project significant to this project is
the fact that in the center of Beirut
during a boom between wars there there
were a lot of residential high-rises
being built and the elite were were
ballooned up to see what view their you
know 34th level apartment would have and
the the the city itself became
accustomed to the balloons and many
people asked why you know why can't I go
up in the balloon and so hashem proposed
to level the playing field by creating a
balloon launching park in the center of
the city and it became a free public
service where anyone in the city could
go up and experience Beirut from from a
pie and it was it was an invention and a
new kind of typology in public space
that that leveled the playing field and
made that kind of access to the city
available to everyone
Tomas or Asano is is working in the
field of balloons right now with
advanced scientific research to imagine
flight systems that don't require fossil
fuels so he's a he's an artist that has
combined scientific research and kind of
visionary thinking towards
revolutionising transportation so the
Sun lifts the the vessels and the winds
guide the vessels it's very simple but
these installations are quite quite
beautiful and they've been travelling
around the world we recently brought on
a curator as a partner and one of the
project that that he's been involved
with and now we're involved with is is
so we're asking the question about who
has who has access to resources so
in this case a wealthy family acquired
the archives of famous Mexican architect
Luis barragán and artist Jill Magadh
acquired berrigan's remains and made
them into a an exquisite diamond ring
and is now gone public with a proposal
to trade the ring for the archive so
that the the public of Mexico can have
access to this important cultural
resource so again the question here is
is the work of art the the ring or is it
the proposal itself and so you know I
think I think you some of you all may
have read about this in the New Yorker
it's it's been a it's been a incredible
art art proposal that has captured the
imagination of many so I think I think
for us you know the you know one of the
one of the big questions we've been
asking is you know how can an
architecture practice that you know
typically makes permanent pieces of work
participate in that same sensibility
where it's the the act of negotiation
and relationship building bridge
building starting conversations and and
thinking about making work in a in in
kind of a common ground of creating a
common ground within a polarized
landscape how do we how do we do that as
as practitioners how do we adjust our
practice to where we are as a culture
and so you know we've started these
sketches of of kind of spreading kind of
the generalities out a bit and finding a
different kind of terrain to work within
that's not just architecture but also
education art fabrication curatorial
practice is writing planning and so the
act of making a building begins to sort
of dissolve and re-emerge in all of
these other kinds of ways of thinking
about our current practice and so then
there were a series of substitute words
so do we value the the farmers Buckshot
as much as the astronauts moonshot is
ain't just as important as hell yes is
that everywhere is it anywhere
are we the city of gold or a gas guzzler
and I wanted to tell you all that we
were nominated for the keeper
cooper-hewitt National Design Award this
year and we as part of this sort of
submit all of our work we made this
video and I wanted this going to share
this with you all to kind of kick off
the work we were gonna share tonight we
don't start with a manifesto
so Eldorado was founded in 1986 in
Kansas City Missouri we're in the middle
of the country the border wars begin
here and our city is still divided those
realities fuel our work today we started
as a kind of a three-headed beast and we
were parking every exhibition space part
fabrication shop part design studio the
way we've grown and scaled up we still
chase those ideas we just chased them in
a more robust way we learned a lot about
urban design and urban planning by
allowing our shop to soar spill out into
the alley and onto the street many of
our early collaborate
 
planning practice now we're going to
care for the craft of our ideas whether
it's a public art project urban planning
a piece of furniture of 20-story
building we're gonna be engaged in the
craft of the building so many of the
early projects were unlikely contexts so
a warehouse a self storage facility they
a brewery and in each of those projects
we were able to not just elevate but to
really transform what one could expect
of those kinds of buildings we found
that when you can change the way that
people think not just about a building
but about a building's presence in the
city you can change the way that people
think about the city it's not
insignificant that we've always worked
in the center of the country there's a
frugality and a commitment to pragmatism
but it's also a place that's that's
cultivated and allowed risk among those
early lessons was how to trespass and
how to be a host in so much of the work
we are strangers
new ideas to those places which is a way
from showing up with joy and with
surprise and with empathy and generosity
in the best moments we're not working
for a place but we're working with them
even in our smallest projects we're
trying to ask large questions but in our
largest projects
we're trying to ask the most core human
intimate questions we're seeking to up
in the question of who has the right to
good design where does design excellence
begin where does it belong
you can our work create the common
ground that is lacking in a polarized
landscape Eldorado is chasing big ideas
in the middle of everywhere
so that the the title of the lecture of
course is at middle of everywhere and we
wanted to work with this idea of
bridging and crossing and trespassing
spanning as a way to invite invite new
sets of conversation that that that
might that might draw a jar loose of
some ruts we find ourselves in currently
I'm not going to go into this but it's
just to say that with within each idea
we're going to talk about a few projects
that we've either recently completed or
are currently working on so the first
the first chapter is crossing divides
and so much like post commodities
projects we you know caused us to that
way of thinking and that way of working
caused us to look at some of the own
kind of borders that exist in our own
city but but I wanted to I wanted to
emphasize that you know we we are not
we're not kind of arriving at these at
these kind of solution sets or even
problem identifications from from any
kind of pedestal and we want to kind of
share with you the way that the way that
we work creates organic opportunities
for us to sort of discover these these
ideas as we go so this is a this is a
just a diptych of our office which is
the upstairs six thousand square feet
and our fabrication shop which occupies
that the lower floor so you know
eldorado as mentioned the video we have
always been a fabrication practice and
it's very important because it it really
informs the the very DNA of our of our
design language so on the left is just a
it's just a robert frank photograph of
sort of suggesting the the in a
temporary nature of language that the
sort of shifting shifting language
shifting nature of language in the
landscape and certainly for us there's
an evolving set of details that informs
the the the furniture we make the
that we make sorry and and even some of
the components of architecture that we
touch so in this case it's a you know a
hand rail system that through many many
iterations in many years we've kind of
worked out and they're there there's a
whole process to this of shop drawings
the but the tools that we use the the
cold saw and the drill pressed the TIG
welder and the mig welder sort of mock
up processes refinement reiterative
thinking and and you know the the
attention to craft when to grind a weld
when to leave a will to exposed these
are all very core questions to us had a
kind of micro focused level but then you
know there are moments where this kind
of attention to craft shows up in our
architectural projects and and kind of
steals the show and it's it's a magic
moment where you know that you're
actually making the piece that people
people touch within a within a building
that you've you've designed so it's a
kind of closed-loop way of thinking
there are times that that the shop
itself transforms into something more
absurd and and one of those times every
year is there's a there's a Mardi Gras
parade and from any rears we had
participated this in this as a way to
kind of let our shop out of the of the
fabrication space and into the into the
streets so the project I'm sharing with
you now is was called badass and it was
something about baking I was a bacon
distribution device and a Salzer spinner
this is Steve Salter we were trying to
spin him but we decided that um that was
not possible but there were some
spinning lights there were 75 pounds of
great sea bait bacon that was
distributed to the crowd I'm Steve
Salzer his grandmother hooked us up with
that non OSHA compliant fabrication
techniques and alle and you know our
this this one particularly was our
welding table became became the float so
you'll you'll see that we wrapped it in
saran wrap that was the year we tried to
give out Krispy Kreme donuts and a
thundersnow
donuts froze
not successful but you know I think I
think the important the important thing
was that that during these moments we
started to discover that the practice of
urban is on urban planning by sharing
the streets with our neighbors the
artists that hosted this this particular
festival this Mardi Gras Festival very
intentionally took the parade east to
the 18th and vine district where Charlie
Parker launched his career we across
fifth Avenue which was one of our city
borders that is an embarrassment to
Kansas City and it's it's sort of a
source of shame
it's our racial dividing line so many
many cities that experienced and
interstates plowing through them and the
50s also experienced pretty
sophisticated real-estate ventures that
moved people of color to one part of the
city to make room for development and
and financial growth in another part so
Troost is our our dividing line our
border and artist David Ford in this
case took us very intentionally across
that border during this price so in
collective celebration we also were made
aware of an experience together the
social and justices of our own City so
here we are with our welding table on
our way to the east side of Kansas City
where the mutual musicians foundation is
that plays plays jazz and has been for
many years late into the night so while
this was kind of going on I was teaching
an urban urban design studio at the
University of Kansas and decided to
tackle Troost as a as a big kind of
ambitious project and David actually
taught that project with me and we we
started to dig in a little bit more and
discovered how drastic actually some of
the some of the data was the the
non-caucasian
population being gray just just what
what an intense divide the person's per
acre or jobs per acre being far less
east of Troost than than West more than
anything we asked our students to walk
throughs
which was considered for many years a
very dangerous part of the city we all
went out and walked walked the Avenue
and started started talking to people
started having conversations with with
people along along Troost
there was a very human human dimension
to to some of the conversations that
that I think you know a lot of these
kids were from suburbs of white suburbs
of Kansas City and and Omaha and st.
Louis and this was just such a different
world really really for all of us some
of the architectural drawings became
very very different in nature some of
the case studies and site analysis
became kind of narratives and we started
we started understanding this is Rodney
not who became a kind of a spiritual
guide for us but also as a Neighborhood
Association leader that led us around a
lot of these neighborhoods and and kind
of spoken narrative was such an
important aspect of Rodney's work so the
work itself the student work became
began to reflect that and he he was a
kayuu basketball player yeah and and you
know the work um it reminds me a little
bit of Marlene and and Ted's studio that
we visited earlier this afternoon but it
was a 30 foot long model of Troost
Avenue and we imagined all sorts of
different urban infill projects ranging
from a local radio station to bank
branches we teamed with the the Art
Institute of Kansas City to think of
this as a cross-disciplinary multimedia
presentation where there was video there
was a one of the students and from the
artists that Art Institute created a
truce newspaper there is an organization
of a truce festival the graphics around
a truce festival that existed and so the
the work the student work really began
to spread out and express itself in many
many different ways that were perhaps at
times unconventional as far as
architectural standards go while this
was going on David was also working on
truce bridge over brush Creek which is
in the southern part of the city but the
racial divide was just as intense there
as
the northern portions of truce that we
were working on the studio this is Tris
bridge I'll talk more about truce bridge
as a project but I wanted to say that
the work we were doing with the students
was was seamless with the work we were
doing as a practice at the time we were
meeting people and creating
conversations and and trying to stitute
and uncover what was essential about
that about this project and what we
ultimately landed on was uh was kind of
a poetic response that suggested a lack
of border lack of barrier just through
the simple simple use of glass as a
material but our shop got involved of
course we built mock-ups there is a
whole story about a particular kind of
bolt that this was a made in USA project
and and the bolt was not available
we had to mill our own own bolts for the
attachment of the cantilever glass slabs
for the bridge so it was a deep dive for
for our fabrication shop as well as kind
of these these ideas about community
outreach and and an urban design it's an
infrastructure project that at its core
it's a bridge and and this was a
actually an art installation that we was
in collaboration with a artist that
thinks a lot about about light and
photography and Derek border so I'll
just go through these quietly here
in the next project is a it's a project
called the accelerator at-at Highlander
another another quick family story I
grew up at the Highlander Center out
outside of outside of Knoxville you know
all the way through my childhood and it
was a center that focused a lot on on
racial equality and really sort of
equality across the board my parents
were very active many of their friends
and and my friends that are here tonight
were very active in at the Highlander
Center so when we sort of inherited this
this project the name of the
neighborhood that we were working on
used to be Highlander and uh I Rose my
hand immediately and said that this
should be called Highlander so this is a
this is a kind of next-generation
community center as part of a 30 acre
purpose-built community for mixed income
opportunities in North Omaha which
anyone from Omaha or knows Omaha North
Omaha is is across their segregation
lines so this is a very large percentage
African American community I wanted to
tell you all a little bit of about a
secure secure circuitous route to get to
Omaha we we went we took a kind of
sidetrack through Chicago and then
really landed in Omaha this was another
student project that led to kind of a
robust project in this case we were
running a University of Kansas studio in
collaboration with Theaster gates studio
in Chicago and maybe some of you all
know his work but it was sort of a
revolutionary way of thinking and
problem-solving for for an artist
working in his own community so the
Astor's studios in the south side of
Chicago and he was he was buying for
almost nothing kind of abandoned
buildings in his neighborhood and
converting them to community resources
but in the process of conversion he was
gutting the buildings and making art
from the salvaged materials so these are
shoeshines that that Shushan stands that
he he was making from gutted buildings
yester is one of the most influential
famous artists in the world right now
and as he would self described his work
as subverting the art world and the art
system and so as he began to mock the
system more and more for paying high you
know extremely high prices for his work
that was coming from abandoned buildings
in South Side of Chicago his work became
more valuable and the more he mocked the
art world the more valuable his work
became so it was a complete subversion
of of the system that he was working
within to create these incredible pieces
of art so this is a renovated house that
all the boards are from inside other
houses or other other structures this is
a this is a incredible collection of
architectural journals that he made into
a community resource so it's a it's a
community library and so for
architecture students this was a this
was a real treat to get to visit this
this collection so interestingly you
asked the Astor what the work of art is
in any of this is that the shoeshine
stand or is that the visit the house is
that the collection of books or is it
the renovation process his answer is
absolutely all of it for him there's no
distinction between the the kind of
uplifting of the South Side in Chicago
with with the with the work of art the
same time he was involved in a in a new
initiative in Omaha doing the same thing
with the Carver Bank which is the first
African American Bank in in North Omaha
one of the first African American banks
really in the country and he he was in a
collaboration with Bemis Center for
Contemporary Arts to convert the
abandoned Carver building into a
community resource that hosted artist
residency program a snack shop run by
Big Mama who was kind of a legend in
North Omaha but for running a soul food
restaurant that was that was kind of
past its prime in terms of facilities
and and
kind of outreach in connection to the
greater Omaha neighborhood so this is
our students eating in in big Mama's
restaurant and this is Big Momma who
passed away recently and her daughter
Gladys at the construction of the
accelerator where they have a have a
home now this is the students to do with
our work surrounding Harbor Bank during
that time we made a lot of connections
in in Omaha and I think people were very
excited about the excitement of our
students work and it started a larger
conversation about a project that was
underway to convert this the site which
you see in pink here to this
purpose-built community that I mentioned
earlier called Highlander so the site is
is you know certainly close to downtown
but it's it's just an it's disinvested
it's not seen new development for years
and not surprisingly North Omaha is is
you know primarily african-american we
started to get a little bit deeper into
our research and demographics and kind
of discovery about what what informs
what informs beyond you know redlining
is it also is it also contaminated sites
is it a focus of subsidized housing what
is it that what is it it creates and
perpetuates segregation and in cities is
that is it is it the continuation of
highways and interstates that plow right
through these neighborhoods and you can
kind of see this is staggering that the
kind of organic and you know kind of
density that that was at a neighborhood
scale and and when the neighborhood goes
through just sort of the way that it
clears out clears out the neighborhood
divides the neighborhood and so this is
our site here and so we're adding in
these 30 acres were kind of
reestablishing kind of a neighborhood
pattern of density so we were able to
work collaboratively with the with a
great firm from Chicago called Landon
bump Baker and a firm in Omaha called
Ally pointer macchiato and we
collaboratively developed a master plan
for
sort of a whole variety of housing
options and and levels of income
ownership and rental elderly you know
homes for single moms the kind of really
spanning all different types of
diversity to make a complete community
and the the accelerator was sort of the
hub and them and the kind of heart
beating pulse of this of this new
community it was one of those projects I
don't know who who is the most kind of
far out professor you all have right now
that comes up with the program and you
sort of roll your eyes and think this
doesn't this really doesn't exist in
real life who is that here right now
okay yeah yeah so the the accelerator we
were working with this incredible group
called 75 north and a really
sophisticated tax credit developer from
Chicago named Prince Shore and we really
got to invent the program with them and
when we were landing on it I was sitting
there thinking like this is unreal so it
was it's to kind of annex locations for
local universities and colleges the
Metropolitan Community College at
Creighton University there it was there
was small entrepreneurship business
incubators that 75 North put their
headquarters here this community
building nonprofit big mama locators her
soul food restaurant in a food hall
there was a there's a coffee roaster
there's an event space and then there
was this incredible Center for urban
aquaponics anchored by a non-profit and
african-american owned or run nonprofit
called whispering routes so it was it
was a dream program and you can imagine
the amount of pressure we felt just to
not not screw this up and so you know
for me it was an opportunity to to
insist even more that design excellence
at the highest level belong in a
neighborhood like this and a project
like this and I often described it as a
project that was both that could both
inspire and be inspired by its
unity
you can see that the greenhouse and the
aquaponics center connected directly to
the event space so we were having so
much fun with mashing these programmatic
elements up to work in symbiotic ways
for education and events and and
discovery
we used perforated metal on the south
and west elevations to sort of shield
the building and the glazing systems
from the hot Sun in the Midwest and in
the north the North elevation we really
opened up to the street it became kind
of a light industrial zone for small
entrepreneurs with small maker spaces
and then the coffee shop sort of
supports the the lower level
you know and as important as the
architecture 75 north there it was there
the entire time that the nonprofit we
were working with led by a fellow metal
meadows and and Sidney Franklin really
to the best collaborators I've ever
worked with they were there the whole
time kind of documenting to them you
know the money shots were not the
architecture they were there were these
moments of suddenly the building's open
and and our entire sort of community
green is full of full of people and
dancing and laughing and and just kind
of sharing sharing each other with each
other so I'm going to jump to the next
chapter
just passing disciplines and I'm going
to I'm going to talk a little bit about
you know where we find ourselves today
actually requires us working beyond our
own discipline more and more I mean you
kind of hear if you're in academia I'm
sure you hear this that you know to
tackle the thorniest problems we can no
longer do this alone as singular
disciplines we actually have to reach
across and and team with the with the
scientific research and came with with
it with a specialized engineer or teamed
with a you know an environmental an
environmental lawyer we have to we have
to start to think about our own practice
as a as kind of a network or an
ecosystem cooperating with others to
tackle some of these problems so I think
with with this kind of the subtitle to
this is is is kind of a attention to
Natural Resources and in particular
water so the first project is a public
art plan that we collaborated on with
with the our practice Santha sone which
in French means without fuss it's a
British architect I'm sorry a British
artist and a French architect who have
come together to create this this kind
of cross this and cross-disciplinary art
practice that's now based in Calgary
they were previously based in Scotland
they're based in Calgary because they
got awarded a dream commission to work
with the city of calgary to imagine its
water infrastructure at
emotionally visible to its citizens
Calvary has some of the cleanest water
in the world
it's upstream from most other major
North American cities it's it's only an
hour drive to the bow glacier and so
when awarded this project Charles and
Tristan that the art practice elected to
make their studio in a work station
amongst the engineers that create the
the uep department which is utilities
and environmental protection their focus
was on watershed one of their first
projects out of the gate was to work
with the city to think about flexible
access to water during events that would
happen throughout the city and they
chose to think about again in the theme
of making infrastructure visible just
tapping into fire hydrants as as water
source the water is ready to drink it's
right there
what an incredible what an incredible
thing that it that it sits there from
block to block to block and it's already
it's already ready to provide these
these sorts of events drinking water but
they they wanted to take it a step
further and make make sort of art and
sculpture and and really kind of create
this as an opportunity for social
engineering so they worked with with
with kind of the facilities and
maintenance department and empowered
empowered this this group to become
collaborators in making different
different drinking stations that were
could be hooked up to fire hydrants so
there's a family station there's the the
couple station there's the family with
dog and in HKH time these these water
these water fountain installations were
really kind of conversation starters and
and platforms for conversations and and
kind of meeting one another but they're
also showcasing the work and the craft
and you know the workmanship in the
craft of the maintenance department and
and the maintenance shop for associated
with the with the ubp department you
know the project they they did is they
brought in an artist to work
with the with the scientific research
that analyzes the bacteria and and
different kind of microbes in the water
itself to know what to treat what not to
treat they brought in a prominent artist
that then worked with a series of local
glass blowers to first of all identify
these incredible sort of small creatures
that that live in our water system and
then to enlarge them through
glassblowing to create these incredible
pieces but again you know these these
were you know in a gallery they traveled
there were an exhibition space and in
and in various various different formats
made their way to the city but again
it's sort of revealing the invisible and
this has become a theme working with
Charles and Tristan we've adopted this
theme quite often like how do you how do
you reveal the invisible how do you how
do you make people aware intuitively
that that that that that resources are
precious and how do people come to their
own conclusions about conservation
preservation Charles interest in
radically scaled up on one project and
instead of becoming the artist that did
an art work within a part proposed that
they designed the part so this was a
green space along the bow river they
elected instead to make it as sort of
sculptural watershed Park at that that
treats water the watershed toward the
route towards the river it treats it
before it goes into the river really
really beautiful so these are moments
that are huge learning curves for El
Dorado what happens when artists pushed
people out of the way push other
disciplines out of the way and say no
we've got this we've got we've got an
idea I've got an interesting idea
that's it's transformative so we they
asked us to come up and help them with
the next phase of the plan which was
really to take a lot of the ideas that
they had had undertaken in the in the
watershed arena and apply it to the
broader department which deals with with
climate change deals with with all all
utilities
deals with waste and recycling and so
art we were tasked with in coming up
with a plan to to expand those
sensibilities and without much warning
that they basically put us through the
same process that they've put themselves
through we spent a week of like 14 hours
a day visiting all the different workers
within the uep departments spending time
in research labs really understanding at
at a core level what what kind of pride
that that you be you EP department takes
and in in their precious resources in
Calgary and you know the result the
result is a plan that's in progress that
continues this idea of embedding artists
in the actual municipal engineering work
and that artworks won't be declared
until artists have spent time with with
engineers and and and and with with
researchers in the various departments
that the works themselves emerge from
the crossover of
art and research the second project was
is the rainbow the artist named Michael
James McKeon who started his work as a
backyard experiment in Lawrence Kansas
began photographing just you know just
just natural rainbows that would occur
to a small-scale backyard scale
different different levels of mist was
it was a friend of hesse who's our
partner as a curator Hesse asked if he'd
ever thought about scaling this idea up
and this is while Hesse was a was a
chief curator at the Bemis Center for
Contemporary Arts in Omaha and his his
response to Hesse was this sketch on
literally on the back of a napkin crazy
times anything is possible
hope all is well in Omaha so Michael
Michaels sketch implied uh not just
scaling up but but really a kind of a
urban scale installation a rainbow over
a building so so it's important to
Michael and to Hesse that
that the the water used be recycled from
the roof and that it actually this
became as much of an education and
advocacy for water recycling as anything
else so there were early experiments
with with with jet systems that were
harvesting water from the roof of the
Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts
facility so the during that during the
summer of the installation the entire
building kind of transformed into this
large-scale water recycling machine and
you can see the the big pipes coming
down from the roof filling these
cisterns and gallery the gallery spaces
had to negotiate and work around these
these large pipes kind of coming down
through the roof subs of artist
installations were actually sort of
curated and and and and installed around
these this kind of this recycling
infrastructure so it sort of infiltrated
all parts of the building and there was
you know a lot of a lot of research we
were talking today in a studio about how
you know a lot of people think art is
something magic over here it's actually
about you know this kind of this kind of
work is highly technical it's it's a
it's great for architecture to be
involved in in this and here's the
here's the installation and so it became
not just a building rainbow over the
building but depending on where you are
in the city it really spanned parts of
the city at times if the guys who sold
the cisterns looked at Hesse at one
point he said you know we need to hire
you you've somehow you've made like our
product you've made it sexy like water
recycling it's like everybody's talking
about it you know this is one of my
favorite images and this is one of my
favorite favorite characters and all of
our archives but I you know it's a sense
of wonder and it's sort of disarming and
sometimes I imagine when we're at our
most difficult points and and really
unable to relate to one another
there's there's the the idea that kind
of oldest spectacle in the world the
rainbow that that like how can you not
how can you not just sort of feel
intimately connected with whoever
standing next to you
this project has legs so it's now we're
now in conversation at Fort Mason in San
Francisco with with a much larger and
and permanent installation that was just
for one summer but this conversation
made its way to the to the governor who
acknowledges that that California has a
water crisis there's actually technology
to treat gray water and black water into
potable drinking water but public
perception is a huge problem with this
so he's embraced the rainbow as as sort
of a catalytic installation that can
help with the perception of of water
recycling um the idea that you would
drink black water that's been recycled
is somewhat gross but if you're drinking
a rainbow maybe that's a little bit a
little bit different so Fort Mason it's
an incredible place I don't know I don't
know if anyone's been to to Fort Mason
but the San Francisco Art Institute is
located in one of the peer buildings
there they're kind of the host for for
the installation initiative the idea is
to take all of Fort Mason off the grid
and use recycled water for every aspect
of its operations and we we also
discovered that the algorithm behind
designing and constructing rainbows
actually quite complex so it ranged
anywhere from really kind of breaking
down ideal conditions based on historic
weather patterns to know kinda where and
when and how to best place sort of jets
and-and-and rainbow optics down to you
know computational design to to best
predict where an optimized rainbow
installation would exist within a
certain site so this has been a highly
technical sort of scientific experiment
on the side of certain members of our
practice who are now certified kind of
rainbow designers so these are
renderings
we're in we're kind of in the final
stages of schematic design
and we're excited for this project to
move forward and be realized as as like
I said this is amazing catalyst for a
higher awareness for for water recycling
and in California
double double rainbow
and then one other project were working
on California's for the Las Virgenes
water water district again same same
issue but lost virgin is interested in
scaling up black water recycling the
initiative is called pure water and
before we jumped into the basically
hired us to help them think about and
design a pilot pilot project that it was
open to the public that people could
come and sort of educate themselves
about about water recycling and try try
the recycled water but become become
very comfortable with the technology
before trying it so I think I think Las
Virgenes approach was was far more
rooted in you know the the transparency
of technology behind the treatment of
water as a way to gain support and
confidence and so before we jumped into
the solution of the pilot project we
started looking at this is kind of macro
macro issue and we we started to sort of
help kind of broader a California
community understand itself a bit more
these diagrams kind of kind of speak
speak for themselves but the lost vergenes
municipal water districts here and
it's at the tail end of all of
California's watershed we kind of
pointed out to to the loss verjus
community that by the time the water
gets to Las Virgenes has been kind of
reused and recycled about eighteen times
already just kind of startling but then
like just the inefficiency that
California it faces is 58 almost 60%
loss to evaporation and its kind of
journey south through the state to get
to to some of these drier city climates
so you know the the water the water
infrastructure that California depends
on is it's not sustainable at all so
this was just kind of a nondescript you
know municipal building that that we've
kind of worked through some basic you
know renovation strategies to make it
open to the public and some signage and
but I think it was important about this
is I mean here's the water treatment
you know the introduced the introduction
of kind of a hipster water bar and and
some of the research that we are we had
done sort of you know became you know
graphics macro graphics on the wall to
sort of help explain not just the
technology but but the crisis itself you
know we've talked a lot about branding
you know incidentally a lost version is
for those of you don't know it's it's
Calabasas right so this is the highest
celebrity population per capita in the
United States we started realizing that
boy you know like Kim Kardashian lives
in in you know in this water district
and a Drake Drake lives in this water
district so we started we're trying to
think about how you know how that could
be helpful so we came up with the idea
that maybe it's a little bit of Kim a
little bit of Drake you know if you're
drinking the waste of celebrities maybe
that that kind of elevates its light
it's not drinking a rainbow but if you
can drink a little bit of camera a
little bit of Drake a little bit of
Drake maybe that's okay this this was
not as appreciated as some of her other
ideas and it didn't make it to the final
round but it was sort of my favorite my
favorite moment of the project so I'm
gonna I'm gonna welcome Dave it up and
he's hopping on to what long alright
because this is this is why we're
partners right here
how many Eldorado okay can you hear me
now okay so that we're shift gears
completely partly and talk a little bit
about working in rural environments
which is something that we've found
ourselves doing quite a bit the low nuts
exhibit which is downstairs we're not
going to talk about it not because we
don't love it but we've got lots of
other rural environments to talk about
so we're not quite done talking about
artists this is the work of Mel's
Ziegler who is the chair of the
sculpture department at Vanderbilt and a
longtime friend of Eldorado's and also
Hesse and this is the P this is a work
that he created called flag exchange and
it's a really simple idea Mel's Mel's
this kind of incredible character who
gets right into some complicated
situations turns them on their head and
creates these situations that really
confuse this kind of political sides of
an argument so you know is it related to
the conversations we're having
nationally right now about how to treat
the flag how to you know make America
great all those kinds of questions play
out in Mel's worth the essence of his
work Mel took a trip around he went to
all 50 states and went to public
buildings public libraries gas stations
I think he even went to some army
recruiting stations that were displaying
tattered American flags which is against
it's against the law for public
institutions to display tattered flags
and yet in every state he found an
example of that happening and you know
offered to exchange their tattered flags
for a new flag with the idea that he
could take the tattered flags without
without naming who they are but naming
the state and then putting the plagues
on display so any mell always documents
his work really well you know these are
no likes to get right to the spot where
it it makes it really difficult to you
know no matter how you see things
politically there's there's an
opportunity to be empathetic if you want
to be so and then you know the work is
this is at the San Francisco Art
Institute the work is on display the the
presidential debate from the last
election is being watched
under the tattered flags Federal Hall in
New York which was the first federal
building constructed at the National
Park the flags were on display here and
you know you're I saw this at the
opening and you're it's you're you
you're really confused by what you're
looking at because it's it's beautiful
the story is incredible but it's also
you know it raises significantly more
questions about what we ask of ourselves
and we ask of each other and sometimes
even demand of each other and what we're
really what we're really willing to
actually do and then and Mel just leaves
it right there and I'll just leave it
right there - this is Valen Kansas
population 1 it's in the Flint Hills
which is this kind of amazing ecosystem
the tall grass prairie which is the most
endangered ecosystem in North America
there's only 4% of it left
and ball and Kansas is the point health
is really a place of limestone
construction and the volume store is the
only brick building in in Louisville
Bunji County a client of ours it's a it
was a cattle loading station and also a
general store before the era of
automobiles it was built in the early
1900s and it really was it was the
center of this part of the Bunji County
and everybody had everybody has a story
about the general store it was built at
the time you know August sander who
well-known photographer who documented
these German German farmers who you know
night out on the town and they're kind
of ill-fitting suits the same era you
know it was really interesting to think
about the photography in Germany around
the time of World War two the same time
that autocrat sir who built the valen
store was building his store and a very
similar kind of documentation of the
social life of vom Kansas there's an
incredible collection of photographs of
the the whole life of the town from 1908
until about 1970 when autocrat surpassed
so typical standard kind of story of
small-town America of you know
degradation change in use change in
social behavior and change in value so
you know architects depend on crazy
people for clients and sometimes
sometimes not always not always
passionate I should say and Patti Reese
on the far right Patti would drive by
this building all the time and and the
family that owned it which was the
autocrat sirs kids they weren't
interested in the building it was in a
state of complete disrepair
it had been you know all the floors had
been eroded for 20-25 years they were to
gonna knock it down and sell for Brett
and sell the brick for scrap
she just could not stand the idea so
without any idea about program or what
to do she bought the building and then
hired hired us to help her program it
and and and think about what to do so
it's not it's it's it's complete now
it's this amazing cultural center or
social center involving Kansas really
simple architectural ideas all the
things you know I threw I kind of forgot
we're architects listening to Josh talk
about what we do and you know not only
did we design the the rehabilitation but
we also fabricated all this structural
steel so all of the skills of eldorado
were kind of a set in action with this
project so again we have two of our
architects are certified to do
structural steel welding and that's on
more than one occasion that served us
very well to get in and really take care
of the craft of structural steel you
know kind of analogous to the the
Highlander project that Josh talk about
the bond store has become a place where
the Cowboys and the Indians come
together the ranchers in the middle and
then these are Indian motorcycles on the
far on the far right
the FAA meets here you know they're
there all kinds of unexpected collisions
and different types of people who gather
too often around art but sometimes
around objects or sometimes just around
just conversation patty it's the curator
we're trying to get Hesse to sort of eat
his way
inches way into the into the program
which is which is working very slowly
but Patty actually managed to convene a
whole series of conversations around
climate change in you know in a part of
the country where you know those are
fighting words like people don't want to
talk about climate change they know it's
happening but just don't call it that
so it was really pretty amazing
that's the Valen store so we also we
bring our students we all you know the
we talked a little bit about the RFQ
language about you know be really great
if you could figure out a way to bring
students into the end of the fray
something we understood extremely well
and we did it we did it here in ballin
this is this is the count of ballin the
one resident lives in the house right
there but we you know though there was a
serious kid how not a serious kid house
but at Gordon van tine kid house in
Volland the same guy who invented the
algorithm to optimize rainbow design
found the the model of house when the
students couldn't find it he's kind of
an amazing this is being recorded Brock
still B plus B plus no but this so this
became the design-build
this became the design-build project for
last year's Kansas State design make
studio that we teach yeah so it's it's
the project is underway it's under
construction this will be it's an artist
residency program so starting in June
this house will be open for the first
artist to come and stay and work in
Volland this is another project that we
that we worked on with our camp wood in
the tall grass prairie it's an
environmental education station so a
group of 15 students basically with the
help of Mason's
steel workers and and carpenters
designed and built this project in two
semesters and a month this is the tall
grass prairie up above and what's
remaining down below and we happen to be
right on the edges of this incredible
ecosystem that's the site
you know so then in this case it was
really bringing students into an
environment this is you know Manhattan
Kansas is in the middle of this
ecosystem and most students I can just
say have no idea what's going on around
them which is kind of an amazing thing
and so not only did they learn about it
but they spent so much time in this
environment that by the end of the
project that were handful them that
could talk about you know the different
qualities of wind in a way that was just
just incredible so it's really knowledge
gained by being there and then really
quickly I'll move to this as quickly as
I can so we have time for Q&A spanning
economies is really about you know in
the video Josh asks the question what is
who is architecture for and there's
there's always been a piece of art of
our practice that has sort of gone into
the fire of the types of projects that
architects typically run away from often
because you can't make any money doing
it
this is a 3034 main as market-rate
mixed-use apart you know
apartment building in Kansas City
restart housing is that a last HUD 811
funded project in the state of Missouri
it's for young adults that are aging out
of foster care that happen into health
diagnosis the majority of us homeless
population comes from that from that
group of people and then the Walton
duplex is another student project where
students designed and built a duplex
that's an affordable a strictly
regulated affordable housing project
so 34 main 82 units this was an
experiment in modular housing
construction where the units were
fabricated in Nebraska trucked in
stacked up and basically put into use I
want to say 175 dollars a foot
135 dollars a foot the market rate
housing it's pretty good
no Sutton no subsidies no we talked a
little bit earlier today there's three
ways that you can build affordable
housing that we know of
number one is you subsidize it in some
fashion number two you don't care about
design you don't care about the quality
of construction and you just sort of
crap it out and there it is that's most
of what we see and number three you
build you build small and this was
actually an experiment with the fourth
way which is use radically different
methods of construction than we know we
use commonly I wouldn't say hundred and
thirty five hundred thirty bucks still
not quite affordable but here it is now
here it is under under construction a
very simple very simple floor plan but
the the regulator of the shape of the
thing is a is an efficient double-loaded
corridor parking parking structure on a
concrete slab you'll that determine the
width of the dwelling units sometimes
you have to do it we have an architect
and the officer says every project
starts with parking and trash removal
just really efficient units I mean we we
struggle with the interior quite a bit
we would like to have another go at it
and really take care of the interior but
you know really this you know there are
times where we just talk about the
project and it's just it's just a piece
of architecture we don't we don't have
to we don't have to talk about
another context and Main Street USA this
is armored Boulevard and Main Street in
Kansas City Missouri
restart it's a 16 unit apartment
building 125 dollars a square foot
regulated by HUD which meant prevailing
wages you know every there's a funny
story about the HUD inspector ran over
to somebody emptying the
johnny-on-the-spot and said I need I
need to know that you're making a
prevailing wage for that task and so
they had to produce all the paperwork to
make sure that everybody was what is
being picked in concept no problem at
all that the oddity though of on the one
hand offering 125 dollars a foot and
then you know the oddity of that sort of
the irony of this this sort of conflict
of we're not gonna give you we're not
gonna allow very much but we're gonna
demand a lot we love those kinds of
challenges and actually when you put the
right when you put the right team of
people together contractor the developer
restart the service the the supportive
service agency when you put the right
team together it's it's magical if we
did this all the time this is all we did
you know we'd have trouble maybe staying
in business but for us it's an
integrated practice model we don't have
we we do this and we do that at the same
time really really simple you know we we
really cared for the interior building
more than we really cared about the
exterior honestly and we wanted you know
understanding the the client and what
their issues are the the ability to
create little micro communities within
the building the ability to allow
individuals to control the way that they
move through the building things that we
might think about is just sort of you
know not that important for them these
are the things that if they've given
those conditions they can begin to
we start to focus on other things so
each year there was a series of two
courtyards which basically meant you
have a community of four people and if
you look through the light well you have
a community of eight people and then the
next one was of weather repeat of that
but you know the allowing natural light
into the building was was really
important so that you get light from two
sides of the dwellings you know we had
there was a preconceived idea that
bright color for this audience would
would be a problem that it would it
would sort of set up a bunch of triggers
and we actually found out it was the
opposite quite the opposite saturated
bright colors were this demographic is
in the right used in the right way has a
real calming effect
so exposure to nature exposure to light
exposure to color these are all really
good things and on the inside these are
some of the some of the residents
there's we have we've developed our own
statistics about the project you know in
an 811 project the typical percentage of
people that have jobs is 20 percent in
this project it's 80 percent there's
also there's another statistic which is
the the frequency of service calls to
the police department in an 811 project
is like 2 / 2 per week or something on
average we've had 2 over the life of
this building and it's been in operation
for almost 3 years
so this architecture matter you know I
don't know but the statistics are what
they are facts are facts it's also you
know the building's very contextual
across the street to the left that's a
five storey storage facility so this was
a parking lot that was you know in
complete disrepair so in many ways the
811 project which many neighborhoods
didn't didn't want in their in their
neighborhood was the highest and best
use in this particular piece of land
Walther duplexes again I want to I want
to get to Q&A so I'm going to kind of
bust through this but students designed
and built this in a in a little bungalow
neighborhood in Kansas City the the
testament to the impact of this project
in the neighborhood the next-door
neighbor the immediate next door
neighbor was really not happy probably
because it had been an empty lot where
his dog was allowed to go and piss and
shit and everything but he'd you know he
would say on this part then the porch
just came on then we and then we finally
got to the point where we can add the
porches to the tin shed and then the
neighbor and then the the residents
moved and these are people that make 80%
of AMI and they're charged rent based on
30% of their of their income it's not it
doesn't work the normal way it's the
developer as a as a benefit for having
the students do the work said I'll only
take tenants at 80% AMI and I'll charge
30% of whatever they made so they're
like it takes me a little minute to get
my head around that kind of an
arrangement from a developer but anyway
so when that when the residents moved in
and the porch and the landscape started
to show up all of a sudden the neighbors
out having a beer with the neighbors and
he loves it so I take that as a you know
I take that as a sign again of we're
working in the right place one when when
if everything seems great and perfect
from the beginning I don't think we're
really taking on the right projects so
when the neighbors really not happy with
us we're we're in the port of where we
need to be
questions that people want to stick
around if you have to if you have to
take off during conduct
then
so the answer the question really has
much to do with our own evolution as a
the curatorial side of that had to do
with finding a curator that was working
in the public realm on brilliant
business so what we've done is created a
business model where in art and planning
have kind of merged and we're working
alongside other other planning practices
sometimes we are the integrated planning
and
imagining best practices and planning
going hand-in-hand with if you imagine
the rainbow and for Basin justice who
has public realm accusation it's kind of
a way of thinking about previously about
static
a lot of kind of that comes from
conversations with stakeholders
there's some there's some RFQ pursuit
but unless we know a program is the
right is the right disposition we've we
spent many many years wasting a bunch of
time just sort of pursuing RFPs and just
give us a chance and we'll show you so
we're sort of we're beginning to shy
away from that and then something like
lone Oaks pops up and it's this amazing
RFQ and we're like we're gonna go out
we're gonna go convince them and oh well
now we got to do the work and now we're
doing the work and what's next
let's have planning art and medical
research convert so
you know public realm that
put your put your cover your ears the
our our project team from low notes is
here so from UT facilities in the UTI
facility of course we're experts and
everything no I mean you know we we take
on we take on projects where we're not
experts
I mean we're experts in the way that we
practice and we're experts in certain
ways of thinking and there are certain
projects I apologies that we have kind
of you know it's there it's all there
the evidence is all there when we go
into new terrain which we do all the
time we just we know how to build teams
and we know how to pull in the right
expertise you know which is which is a
hard it's a hard thing to do like
building the right team that you know is
really gonna perform at that level that
we expect but also there get that
they're gonna be fun to work with you
know it takes a lot of time to get to
the point where you can build the right
so I'm not sure what the equestrian
project is that you're
we do now have a specialty in
agricultural architecture which we
didn't have you know before 19 or eight
of 2017
we call it the middle of everywhere
you don't talk to Ben for sure I mean
you know
budget or
something about Geographic
but you know we were in
rent rent is super super low yeah
and and we were willing to work within
and live within our
and
the city was the last thought before
I think through this to this day they're
still
and it's you know now after 20 years of
doing this just in the last so Josh
lives in Portland now I don't we maybe
didn't say that but yeah Josh Josh is
now one of those fancy lives on the west
coast character which we have to deal
with all the time but it's it's you know
the the foundation of it it was luck a
kid all of it was was lucky we we all
met at the right time we were in the
right location and we were interested in
the right things and stuck to it enough
that now you know now you know the vast
majority of our work is not is not in
Kansas City and it's actually it's it's
bittersweet I mean we are doing a couple
of significant projects a new a new
aquarium for the zoo in Kansas City
we've just you know gotten the
Commission to do the public television
station which is a big a big project in
Kansas City an important one so we still
have important work in Kansas City it
just if we can be more selective now
which is great but yeah I think it
instilled a sense of discipline and
focus but most of it was just luck this
everybody but Josh came from Kansas City
so we went kind of we ended up home for
whatever reason and we just wanted to we
wanted to make our home a better place
and somehow Josh kind of drifted by like
a dandelion seed we just grabbed him and
now he's now he's drifted on again
alright that's a seed right
oh the amount of it's a wonderful thing
about the accelerator
it really felt as though you know
there's a point at which your your
things were probably all true for the
accelerator but at some point 75 north
and have moved in
and they draw and they brought with them
the entire
so I think by the time that we were
finished we kind of forgotten that we were
just
thanks everybody
