June 11, 2024

Method Studio is a relatively young design firm (founded in 2007) that has experienced meteoritic growth, swallowing large segments of the Utah architectural market in the higher education, performing arts, workplace, sports and recreation, housing, religious, and healthcare sectors. From its small beginnings, the firm now boasts 100+ employees in four offices in Salt Lake City, St. George, Rexburg, Idaho, and Raleigh, North Carolina. That is quite impressive for a home-grown, nearly 18-year-old firm that has flown largely under the radar.

AIA Utah is hosting its annual golf tournament on June 17th at Jeremy Ranch Golf & Country Club — Utah’s only Arnold Palmer signature course. Your participation allows us to provide scholarships for Utah’s future architects.

Time is valuable; why AIA? I’ve been involved with the AIA in multiple capacities over the years. In fact, I was part of the committee that published the first issue of the Reflexion newsletter in 2013. As architects, we have a hand in shaping the built environment through every project we work on and that’s

William Miller is a Professor Emeritus/Former Dean of Architecture and an Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Distinguished Professor. He talked to Fran Pruyn about his career, his time teaching, and his thoughts about architectural evolution in education.

AIA Utah is a member-driven organization. As such, we must engage with our members to better understand the needs, challenges, and opportunities for AIA Utah to support both architects and our profession.

I vaguely recall, from my youth, the Oscar-winning movie “Chariots of Fire,” loaded with what I’m sure was an amazing cast and compelling storyline, a veritable struggle between “good” and “evil” and the inevitable triumph of right over wrong. I have to admit, the only part I remember was the ending — where everyone is running on the beach and that song starts to play. I’m sure you know it … dun, dun-dun-dun, dunnnnn. It’s been stuck in my head for days now.

Ken Naylor took the helm of Silver Naylor Architects after Roy Silver retired in the mid‑80s. The firm, which was founded as Roy Richards Silver Architects in 1952, was a small but established practice. As its president, Ken helped grow the firm to the powerhouse that is now recognized for its projects in the federal, educational, and religious sectors. Ken talked to Fran Pruyn about his career, its evolution and his thoughts about architectural education.

As retirement approaches, an important issue can emerge: What to do with one’s professional materials? What should happen to my project files, documents, drawings and models, professional library, slides, etc.? Forming a strategy for potentially donating or contributing these materials should certainly be a consideration. Especially since family members may well not know how to dispose of such materials.

Architectural trade magazines all seemed to have found and featured Auburn’s Rural Studio at the same time, in the mid 1990s. My mind was littered all over the concrete floor, the expanding hand signal opened slowly up near my temple: my and other architects’ minds were shattered by the images of the Hay Bale and the Butterfly houses, a chapel made of tires, the community center fronted by automobile windshields. Really? Undergraduate architecture students? Designing and building all of these gems in what they call the Black Belt down around Newbern, Alabama, a rock skip from the border with Mississippi.