The purpose of this blog is to express my view of architecture while sharing my running experience. I firmly believe there are very many parallels between architecture and running. As my experiences in each of these fields continues to evolve over the many years of doing both I am now able to see with hindsight certain forces at work that link these two topics that continually weave through my life. Take as an example this past week.
This past week was "Crim Week". The Crim is one of the top road races in the country, a 10 mile venture through the streets and neighborhoods of downtown Flint MI. My family moved from Royal Oak to the Flint area the same weekend the Beatles first appeared on Ed Sullivan, I was 12 and in 6th grade. Even at that young age I had an insatiable fascination about buildings and distance running. Who would have ever thought back in 1964 when I first set my eyes on downtown Flint and the bricks of Saginaw St. that my footprints would be felt on both the architecture of downtown Flint and the quite literally thousands of times racing the final quarter mile of a world renowned road race (over 26 times now) quite literally on the same bricks that comprise the pavement of Saginaw St.
Downtown Flint has changed enormously since 1964, becoming both smaller and larger. Gone are the many landmark buildings such as Smith Bridgeman's, The Palace Theater, along with many other storefronts. New are the many buildings that comprise the Flint U-M Campus, development along the Flint Rive, a good looking 9 story State of Michigan office building and some storefronts that have been re-born.
My first job in architecture was during the summer of 1975 at Sedwick-Sellers Architects on the outskirts of downtown Flint. The office is long gone but one of the projects I was involved with that summer was the new Classroom and Office Building for U-M Flint's new downtown campus. The first of many buildings on the downtown campus. The mechanical electrical engineers that also worked on that building was a young firm (at the time) of DiClemente Siegle. After completing by graduate courses in 1976, I worked for two other firm's in Flint, Nelson Reed McKinley, located in downtown in a historic house along Grand Traverse Ave, and THY, located a bit farther out from the true downtown area. While at THY, I worked on a housing project that was proposed just north of the downtown Flint area, a project known at the time as Doyle Housing Project.
I left the Flint area in 1978 and have lived and worked in the Detroit area ever since. One of the projects that I had significant input on as an architect in those early years was the new 9 story State Office Building, you guessed it, in downtown Flint! I detailed much of the building's construction details and took over the oversight of the final construction phase when the architect previously in charge relocated out of state.
For many years that was my total contribution to the Flint architectural scene, until early this past year. Remember the mechanical electrical firm who were the engineers for that first CROB or Classroom Office Building in Flint, DiClemente Siegle? They had since bought or merged with the internationally recognized architect Gunnar Birkerts Assoc. Gunnar Birkerts was the firm that designed the new library building for the U-M Flint downtown campus.
The link? while there is no longer any remaining personnel from the Birkerts side of what is now known as DiClementi Siegle Design, I have, as of February this year, become the person responsible to lead the architectural group within DSD.
So as I ran my 26th Crim race this year, I stood within several steps of the actual start line, looked over my right shoulder at the 9 story State Office Building, I thought that in less than 4 minutes I would run past the old Doyle Housing Project, circle around the Flint U-M campus, literally take a stroll down the remaining 8+ mile memory lane before I made my final turn along the race path to hit the bricks once again on the final down slope to finish my running of the 2012 Crim Road Race!
This is not the end of this year's story, be sure to check back soon for the pre and post race reports too!.
Thanks for taking the time to read.
Run Happy
Lee, aka "The Running Architect"
