- Professor Emeritus
My name is Dale and I am an architect.
I was once also a teacher, but not any more.
I was once young and foolish, but now I am just foolish
(an often underrated quality, by the way).
While I was a teacher, I helped my friends make a school.
It was of its time and it was a good one.
I still watch carefully as schools describe who they are
and what they want to be.
From their work I am asked to make judgments
as to how well they have succeeded.
I have learned what makes some schools better than others.
Now, I just practice my profession.
My profession is the thoughtful making of spaces.
As a maker, I dream of the world as it should be,
but I am prepared to act now, with the tools that I have,
in the world as it is.
This requires me to accept that my work may often be less than my dreams.
I appreciate seemingly simple solutions to complex problems
and know how hard it is to make them look easy.
I also know the important difference between complex and complicated.
I have learned that good design needs a team,
and that a team is not a committee.
* * * *
I still wonder at the beauty of nature.
I love seeing the world again for the first time
through the eyes of my grand daughter.
I consider humanity basically good, and value wisdom over knowledge.
I enjoy the company of friends, and study the automobile as a cultural artifact.
Someday I hope to build a harpsichord.
Selected Work
Registereed Architect - Alberta
Retired Architect - British Columbia
College of Fellows - RAIC