- Age: 81
- Hometown: Seattle
- Family: Wife, Katie; daughter, Madeleine; son, Hayden; three grandsons and a sister, Cheryl
- Education: Bachelor’s in architecture from Washington State University; Master’s in architecture from the University of Illinois
- Current reading: “Just Kids” by Patti Smith; “Shopkeeping” by Peter Miller; “Cosi Fan Tutti” by Michael Dibdin
- Motto: “Be rather than do” (“I’m working on it”)
A day in the life
We asked Dave to break down a typical workday:
- 5:30 a.m.: Wake up, stretch and light exercise
- 9:00 a.m.: Morning meditation
- 10:00 a.m.: Walk along the waterfront to Miller Hull
- 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.: Meetings with various team members for project design input, review emails
- 4:30 p.m.: Afternoon meditation
- 7:00 p.m.: Dinner with wife, dishes
- 8:30 p.m.: Chat, relax and read
How is the firm’s architecture inspired by the Pacific Northwest landscape?
I grew up on the shores of Puget Sound and had this connection to a dynamic, changing natural world. Bob grew up in Moses Lake, so he was very connected to the landscape of Eastern Washington. We had this love of nature and realized, maybe from the Peace Corps as well, that you don’t just look at nature to appreciate it; you have to engage with it. We tried to create buildings that were dynamic and responded to the seasons — that could open up in the summer and early fall — and connected to more than just the immediate site that the building sits on.
What projects generated the most stories to tell your friends and family?
I’ll start with the Marquand Retreat in eastern Washington, which is this very simple little concrete block house for Ed Marquand, a publisher of art books. He asked us to design a house on 200 acres for $50,000 — this was around 1990 — that would be off the grid.
The other is the Pike Place MarketFront. … I went to somewhere between 60 and 80 meetings. … Some of the stakeholders were worried that their views of Elliott Bay would be blocked. But we really felt that the building needed more stalls and more presence on Western Avenue.
How did you convince people?
We set up cameras and showed them pictures of exactly what the view would be from various points. We convinced the stakeholders that this project would in effect enhance the view because it framed it. So that was a struggle to get through, but we did it.
Was the Overlook Walk project similarly involved?
I worked on the Waterfront Park for 10 years or more. The Overlook Walk is probably the most collaborative project that I’ve been involved in. Just remarkable people from diverse backgrounds: artists, landscape architects, architects, engineers. We had to build over a train tunnel that could not be blocked. I’ve heard people say there’s God, there’s IRS and there’s Burlington Northern.
But you did it.
There aren’t very many places in Seattle where you can enjoy the view and be sheltered, even in the market, so that little cafe and that porch are a great contribution to the city. … I’ve seen Seattle go through all of its incarnations, but it’s an international city now. It’s a confident city, and I think Waterfront Park has played a big role in that.
The Bullitt Center was commissioned by the Bullitt Foundation as a model for sustainable office buildings. Has the commercial real estate industry made progress on sustainability since it was built in 2013?
We’re making progress, but it’s slow. … So many clients and architects have toured and studied the building and modeled projects around the country on the Bullitt Center. We did a project at Georgia Tech called the Kendeda Building. It’s the first Living Building (same standard as the Bullitt Center) in the Southeast.
I saw on your website that you were called the brains of the operation, and that your late business partner Bob was called the heart. Can you tell me what that means?
Bob was the most intuitive person. He just had these instincts of how to connect with people and how to create architecture. He would go to a site and he’d have an idea for the project in the first hour, and he would come back and draw. He was an amazing artist — he could draw like no one else. He was someone who connected with people, projected his empathy to people, clients and, of course, staff here at the office. I’m a better architect because of Bob, and I’m a better human being, too. Bob’s passion for sustainability and systems in architecture — he was kind of a mad scientist — was foundational for the firm. I think that legacy is strong today, but we need to build on that and experiment and advance ideas. And the current partners and principals have had strategic discussions around this very topic.
What advice do you have for working with a friend?
Well, they say don’t go into business with your best friend, right? We were each other’s best critics in terms of advancing our designs. We would be very critical, and sometimes I would go away thinking, man, I’ve got to start over. But we never had bad feelings or were disrespectful. That friendship was more important than the project or the idea or whatever we were discussing at the time. The business of architecture is fragile. A lot of firms break up, especially design firms. But I think our friendship and the respect that we had for each other carried the day.
