>>> meet the designers behind projects featured in this issue
Sandra Harrigan, Allied Member, ASID
Studio H
Phoenix interior designer Sandra Harrigan's curriculum vitae reads like the textbook example of how to move ahead in the design field: An interior design degree from Northern Arizona University, followed by some 20 years of commercial interiors before launching her own residential design firm in 1998. It's only when she casually mentions a two-year stint in Tucson does her career biography take off-literally. "I got married and followed my husband down to Tucson, where the only interiors job I could get was working for Gates Learjet Corporation," she explains. She worked on custom Learjet interiors for big corporations, sheikhs from Saudi Arabia, South American businessmen, singers and celebrities. "We probably did jets for people whom we didn't want to know much about," Harrigan recalls with a laugh. "We also had to decline requests for strange, hidden storage spots in the planes." One of her favorite jets? A sleek, "pristine," all-white interior for the late talk-show host Johnny Carson. Harrigan's ability to work within the confines of a tight floorplan served her well in a residential renovation project shown in this issue, for which she also received a First Place Award from the Arizona North Chapter ASID's 2007 design competition, also spotlighted in this issue.
Ronald E. Reed, FAIA, IIDA
Westlake Reed Leskosky
For years, Ron Reed had what might be called a dual career. While working full time as an architect, he also was a serious artist, creating paintings and three-dimensional works that he showed in galleries or took on as commissions. "Architecture and art are mutually influential," explains the Kent State University alumnus. "I explored things in both forms. But at the end of the day, I decided I was a better architect than artist, so it's been about 10 years since I picked up a paintbrush." The decision to admire, not create, fine art came about the time Reed became a principal and owner of Westlake Reed Leskosky, which he joined as a junior designer in 1981, when the Cleveland-based firm was called Dalton, Van Dijk, Johnson. These days, he splits his time between the firm's Cleveland and Phoenix offices, relishing the difference between the cities' climates, geography and culture. One of his most recent projects, the Peoria Center for the Performing Arts in metro Phoenix, is featured in this issue.
Bryan Schmidt, AIA
Semple Brown Design
Bryan Schmidt grew up in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, where, he says, true architectural moments were few and far between. But from the fourth grade on, he knew he wanted to be an architect—even if he didn't quite understand what that entailed. "I thought being an architect would be kind of like Mike Brady on The Brady Bunch," Schmidt recalls. "My first project at the University of Nebraska's school of architecture was to organize a series of black, white and gray triangles into 'an organic concept.' I said, 'Huh?'" Nonetheless, he persevered, graduating with a master's degree in 1992, then moving to Denver to work for a large corporate architectural firm. "I was exposed to the architectural process, but I still needed to find the divine aspect—the core, the passion." He found it upon joining Denver's Semple Brown Design in 1996, where he's focused on performing-arts projects, including the Ellie Caulkins Opera House and, near and dear to his heart, the renovation and restoration of the old Midwest Theater in his hometown of Scottsbluff. "I take a huge amount of pride in helping to bring that old movie palace back to life," he says. "My parents and my wife's parents still live in that town." Another one of his near-and-dear projects, the Kent Denver School Student Center for the Arts, is featured in this issue.
Phoenix interior designer Sandra Harrigan's curriculum vitae reads like the textbook example of how to move ahead in the design field: An interior design degree from Northern Arizona University, followed by some 20 years of commercial interiors before launching her own residential design firm in 1998. It's only when she casually mentions a two-year stint in Tucson does her career biography take off-literally. "I got married and followed my husband down to Tucson, where the only interiors job I could get was working for Gates Learjet Corporation," she explains. She worked on custom Learjet interiors for big corporations, sheikhs from Saudi Arabia, South American businessmen, singers and celebrities. "We probably did jets for people whom we didn't want to know much about," Harrigan recalls with a laugh. "We also had to decline requests for strange, hidden storage spots in the planes." One of her favorite jets? A sleek, "pristine," all-white interior for the late talk-show host Johnny Carson. Harrigan's ability to work within the confines of a tight floorplan served her well in a residential renovation project shown in this issue, for which she also received a First Place Award from the Arizona North Chapter ASID's 2007 design competition, also spotlighted in this issue.
For years, Ron Reed had what might be called a dual career. While working full time as an architect, he also was a serious artist, creating paintings and three-dimensional works that he showed in galleries or took on as commissions. "Architecture and art are mutually influential," explains the Kent State University alumnus. "I explored things in both forms. But at the end of the day, I decided I was a better architect than artist, so it's been about 10 years since I picked up a paintbrush." The decision to admire, not create, fine art came about the time Reed became a principal and owner of Westlake Reed Leskosky, which he joined as a junior designer in 1981, when the Cleveland-based firm was called Dalton, Van Dijk, Johnson. These days, he splits his time between the firm's Cleveland and Phoenix offices, relishing the difference between the cities' climates, geography and culture. One of his most recent projects, the Peoria Center for the Performing Arts in metro Phoenix, is featured in this issue.
Bryan Schmidt grew up in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, where, he says, true architectural moments were few and far between. But from the fourth grade on, he knew he wanted to be an architect—even if he didn't quite understand what that entailed. "I thought being an architect would be kind of like Mike Brady on The Brady Bunch," Schmidt recalls. "My first project at the University of Nebraska's school of architecture was to organize a series of black, white and gray triangles into 'an organic concept.' I said, 'Huh?'" Nonetheless, he persevered, graduating with a master's degree in 1992, then moving to Denver to work for a large corporate architectural firm. "I was exposed to the architectural process, but I still needed to find the divine aspect—the core, the passion." He found it upon joining Denver's Semple Brown Design in 1996, where he's focused on performing-arts projects, including the Ellie Caulkins Opera House and, near and dear to his heart, the renovation and restoration of the old Midwest Theater in his hometown of Scottsbluff. "I take a huge amount of pride in helping to bring that old movie palace back to life," he says. "My parents and my wife's parents still live in that town." Another one of his near-and-dear projects, the Kent Denver School Student Center for the Arts, is featured in this issue.