|
 |
Richard is president of Archimage and founding principal of the firm’s predecessor, Buday Wells Architects.
He is also the guy who hired Jerald (so eager to work for Richard that he arrived for his interview 30
minutes early).
Immediately upon graduating Kent State University in 1977, he and his then bride of two days
(now a bride of 30 years) loaded up a U-Haul and left Ohio heading south. Professional life
began at Houston’s Skidmore Owings and Merrill. Five years later, he and his friend Dwayne
Wells started Buday Wells. And the rest is history.
A somewhat rocky history, that is. Founding year 1983 for the two-man firm kicked off inauspiciously.
Houston’s previously booming economy imploded. Just as Buday Wells hung up their shingle,
architectural firms all over the city closed up shop. Hundreds of design professionals were
laid off. The Houston chapter of the American Institute of Architects went from second largest
in the country to fourth – within 12 months. Some believe that two guys in a small Montrose office
with nothing to do except watch their savings dwindle is the mother of invention. They are right.
To survive, Richard, Dwayne and Jerald turned their growing interest in the just-introduced
IBM PC (16k of RAM!) into Houston’s first all digital design studio. And the rest is still history.
|
|
|
|
