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A Future Paved with Intentionality

Thirty years since WPA Architecture opened its doors, Principals Bruce Fallon and Dave Edwards are looking to bring intentionality into their values, clientele, and how they work.
By Taylor Larsen

Nearly 90 minutes into a conversation with Dave Edwards and Bruce Fallon, the two remembered a story about the values of WPA Architecture from years before.

Fallon was in talks with the principals at the firm to define values for the rest of the company. Longtime ownership, with decades of experience founding and building up their own firm, weren’t against the idea, but the idea of formalizing it all seemed inconsequential. 

Fallon had been a Principal with the firm for ten years and finally asked longtime Principal Alan Poulson (who retired in December 2023), ‘What motivates you?’ to which [Poulson] answered, ‘Providing for my family.’ 

The thought has stuck with Fallon and Edwards ever since.

“It drove [Poulson] in everything he did,” Fallon said. “He was excellent in everything he did so he could provide for his family.”

Now that the two lead WPA as Principals, they have looked to embrace excellence through intentionality—in purpose, relationships, and work ethic—that will lead the firm to new heights.

Origins


Originally founded by Kent Walker and Alan Poulson, WPA Architecture began in Provo in 1994. Edwards and Fallon joined the firm within six months of each other, in 2004 and 2005, respectively. WPA’s work at that time included buildings up in Deer Valley, for the Utah National Guard, K-12 remodels, healthcare, and other commercial projects in Utah County. 


Edwards came aboard as an architectural drafter shortly after finishing his Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Michigan in 2004. A few years into his work and he began studies at the University of Utah for his Master of Architecture, graduating in 2009. 


Edwards appreciated the flexibility, but even more the trust that was placed with him on his first ever project: designing a cultural and visitor center for the Choctaw Tribe in Mississippi, where the new architect’s scope was creating the main entrance.


“The creative juices were going,” Dave said with a chuckle, recalling his big chance to put everything he learned from school into action. “I thought they were giving me a lot of trust.”


Fallon, a San Diego native, came out to Utah and began his educational journey in 1994 shortly after getting married. He started at Salt Lake Community College before moving to the University of Utah to earn a Bachelor of Science in Architecture in 1998. He returned back to San Diego for additional schooling, graduating from NewSchool of Architecture & Design with his Master of Architecture in 2000.


After graduating, Fallon started with Coombs Architecture & Planning, a firm that doubled in size when he joined. Fallon was quickly thrust into the spotlight when the owner was in a terrible car accident. Nearly a quarter century later, Fallon still remembers the nerve-wracking nature of representing the firm in project meetings.


“[Coombs] threw me into opportunities I probably shouldn’t have been doing, but I appreciated it,” he said. Even as an unlicensed architect, Fallon understood that there was no time to doubt yourself. “[Coombs] threw a lot of trust my way.”


But the opportunity to leave San Diego for affordability of the Wasatch Front popped up, and Fallon took it, moving his family to the Beehive State and joining WPA shortly after Easter weekend 2005.


Taken to Heart


The two speak of many lessons learned over their two decades at WPA, one of the first regarding the highest level of customer service. 


On a site walk in Park City’s Deer Valley, the WPA team walked with former Deer Valley President Bob Wheaton. When they turned around to see Wheaton wasn’t walking with the group anymore, they turned back to find the resort’s head honcho talking to a lost skier, giving them the lay of the land and directions on how to find the way back to their party. 


That customer service from the highest level of a company was something for which Edwards and Fallon always strived.


“We wanted that to permeate our culture,” Fallon said. 


Another lesson came from Ron Jones, a partner that joined the firm in 2000 and retired in 2021. Jones left his mark through his meticulous detail and background as a project manager in the local college facilities department before joining WPA in the architecture world. Seeing how Jones interacted with clients and how he handled project meetings always inspired Edwards, who described the two as “attached at the hip,” with Edwards embracing the role as the second set of eyes and ears.


“I learned so much from him,” Dave said of the veteran architect. “I was so new that I was just absorbing everything.”


With Kent Walker, Edwards remembered a conversation in those early days where he showed the principal a building sketch in its early design phase. One look was all Walker needed to tease the young architect:


“How are you going to hold up these beams? Sky hooks?”


The gentle jab revealed a key to architecture by finding the right marriage of practical and innovative—something that the original Principals and partners did with aplomb.


“You might have these crazy ideas and philosophies, but you have a real client who is paying your bills,” Edwards said, “And you have to manage it all.”


“There is a spectrum of skill sets to make this work—from nuts and bolts to the visionary,” said Fallon. “And we’re trying to maintain that balance.”

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Best Practices


In the decades since, WPA has worked on many projects that have embraced design, constructability, but more importantly, the human nature of the industry. Major projects came as a result of the high priority in customer service and willingness to build and maintain positive relationships, as Fallon said, “since no project ever really ends.”


The United States Ski & Snowboard Association became a client after inquiring about who helped Deer Valley design their facilities. Taking care and prioritizing current clients, the Principals said, led to the opportunity to design the association’s Center of Excellence where many of the winter Olympic athletes train for their various events


The award-winning Millcreek Common was a project whose owner in Millcreek City had a great deal of trust in the WPA-led design team. The owner’s vision combined with design work from WPA and their partners, creating a solid concept that showcased details and materials that connected the current use with Millcreek history.


The firm’s work on Revere Health over the years earned such rave reviews that when the former facilities director became the VP of Facilities at UCCU, he requested WPA to design additional three new facilities and one remodel, including the Freedom Office Building in Provo where WPA conducts business today. 


The highest level of customer service, Edwards said, continues to be an integral part of the WPA philosophy. Relationships with clients start from a place of service and evolve, where the entire team builds up understanding with owners, contractors, and engineers to work toward a common goal.


But those relationships don’t come automatically. Each mentioned multiple times how those friendships take a listening ear and a spirit of discernment to make it to the finish line, taking a client’s vision for their project and translating it into reality in a way that perfectly met their needs and expressed their vision through the final product. 



Intentionality Rules the Day


Edwards and Fallon are envisioning a new future for the firm; a new iteration of WPA Architecture as they celebrate its 30th year.


The two took a retreat to nearby Heber City earlier this spring to take a step back from the day-to-day and take a step forward to intentionality in their work.


“It felt like we were two architects working in the same office,” Fallon said. “But we wanted to be partners.”


The two talked under the assumption that they would question everything they did. 


“The chance to take over a firm of 30 plus years, where we had both worked for almost two thirds of that time, meant that there were a lot of processes and approaches to architecture that we had been involved in,” Fallon said. Not only did they define what was working and what wasn’t, but also what WPA would start doing now and into the future. 


“The discussions allowed us to consider who we were as architects and professionals,” said Fallon. 


This future will likely look a lot like what WPA has looked like for the last 30 years, with more intentionality, defined roles and areas of accountability for the two Principals, where clients and staff could look for specific elements of the practice. 


That retreat combined with a recent workshop with the WPA team to decide core values.


On a Friday just a few months ago, the team gathered around to identify the best characteristics they saw in people they admired. Both Principals said that the firm has always had values, but felt that codified or intentional values would set them apart. This was the first of many meetings and conversations about the question at the heart of it all:


“What is WPA?”


Edwards explained, “It wasn’t ‘Who do we want to be?’ But who we are. We weren’t looking for aspirational [qualities]. “We didn’t want things that were a given, either.”


Things like “hard-working” and “works well with others” never made it onto the board. 


“You have to be both of these things if you are going to even start in this industry,” Fallon said. They started with a dozen characteristics, but one value helped WPA to embrace both practical and aspirational:


“Prioritizes client values as our own.”


Putting client values first and dedicating to intentional decision-making has led them to put down roots in their new, self-designed office in Provo—a conscious choice to be central in Utah Valley as the area grows.


As they have become more intentional, the WPA team is hungry for more, whether that comes from completing a perfect set of drawings or ditching the transactional nature of business to embrace relationships from a place of genuine respect—prioritizing client values as their own. 


One story demonstrated the philosophy in action. They invited a client to a golf tournament who told them: “I don’t golf.”


Edwards had to tell the gentleman, “It’s not about the golf. It’s because we want you there with us.”


Their commitment to relationships is a conscious choice, and embracing these ideals will serve them well as they prepare for the next thirty years designing great spaces.

Kimley-Horn SLC Office Marks 10 Years

By By Brad Fullmer • 04 Oct, 2024
It's been a decade since Kimley-Horn, one of the nation’s top engineering and design consultancy firms, launched an office in Salt Lake, and by all accounts, the Wasatch Front market has been a boon to the civil engineering firm, with local leaders feeling highly optimistic about its future success and growth in the Beehive State. The Salt Lake office was opened by Zach Johnson in 2014, who previously spent time in three other Kimley-Horn offices including Sacramento, Orange County, and Denver, with three total people comprising the initial staff. The firm's Denver office was providing consulting services for the Utah Department of Transportation and put together a market analysis regarding expanding into its neighbor to the west. "The market analysis we put together showed we should have had an office in Utah 10 years previously [2004], so we decided to plant a flag and open an office," said Johnson, who leads the office along with seasoned Salt Lake office practice leaders Chris Bick, Leslie Morton, and Nicole Williams. Like any new start-up endeavor, it was rough sledding initially, but strong regional support and the sheer tenacity of boots-on-the-ground marketing started paying off, with explosive growth happening along the way. "I would describe the first few years as lean," said Johnson. "We had to be creative, we had to be scrappy to capture work and rely on our partners across the country, folks who had clients in Utah and rely on those relationships. Those first two to three years were about relationship building and knocking on doors that didn't always open. It was a lot of fun."

A Future Paved with Intentionality

By Taylor Larsen • 03 Oct, 2024
Nearly 90 minutes into a conversation with Dave Edwards and Bruce Fallon, the two remembered a story about the values of WPA Architecture from years before. Fallon was in talks with the principals at the firm to define values for the rest of the company. Longtime ownership, with decades of experience founding and building up their own firm, weren’t against the idea, but the idea of formalizing it all seemed inconsequential. Fallon had been a Principal with the firm for ten years and finally asked longtime Principal Alan Poulson (who retired in December 2023), ‘What motivates you?’ to which [Poulson] answered, ‘Providing for my family.’ The thought has stuck with Fallon and Edwards ever since. “It drove [Poulson] in everything he did,” Fallon said. “He was excellent in everything he did so he could provide for his family.” Now that the two lead WPA as Principals, they have looked to embrace excellence through intentionality—in purpose, relationships, and work ethic—that will lead the firm to new heights.

Marmalade Plaza Bearing Fruit

By Taylor Larsen • 01 Sep, 2024
Tucked just beyond the hustle and bustle of 300 West in Salt Lake City is something sweet: Marmalade Plaza—the collaborative work between third-generation Utah family business Cal Wadsworth Construction and landscape architects and designers at Salt Lake-based LOCI. Amidst the lovely built features and vegetation installed around the half-acre site, what catches the eye is the giant bronze apricot statue on the project's westernmost edge. Statue artist Day Christensen, with his last name so fitting for the Beehive State, delved into the Marmalade District’s rich past as the inspiration for his work on “Apricot,” saying the area’s steep streets were named after quince, apricot, and almond fruits as residents used those fruits to make and sell marmalade. The sculpture, he said, serves as a constant reminder of the neighborhood's origins and the ingenuity of its pioneers. That ingenuity in design and execution was a theme as the project team delivered a public space befitting Salt Lake’s historic Marmalade District. The plaza design took off in 2014 with LOCI Principal and founder Michael Budge and his newly minted firm working on their first project. Instead of funding delays that pushed construction back, Marmalade Plaza would need to wait for future development to finish before starting. The landscape architect said the half-acre parcel was always set up as a public space between existing developments at that time (Marmalade Library; Capitol Villa Apartments) and future projects (Harvest Apartments; Grove at Marmalade townhomes). Public involvement quickly settled on a design priority that remains top of mind for many Utah residents—water. “From day one, we wanted a water feature,” said Budge. The plaza would honor the body of water that existed on site previously, one the Army Corps of Engineers had to ensure wasn’t a wetland. The LOCI team designed an abstract wetland in its place, complete with water boxes for the future rushes to be installed. Winning the construction bid was Cal Wadsworth Construction’s entry point to test their collective chops. “We thought that all of the concrete work was exciting,” Jordan Wadsworth said. As Director of Operations for Cal Wadsworth Construction, the design that called for board-formed precast cubes, cast-in-place bridges and steps, plus sandblasted artistic flair would push him and his team to innovative heights. Turning the site from a post-development mud pit into an urban oasis was challenging on such a tight site. One small entrance on the southern edge for concrete trucks and construction teams required high-level sequencing to get the right people on-site at the right time. Connection and coordination were always at the forefront, especially with how the project integrates with the nearby buildings. That LOCI was hired by Harvest Apartments, adjacent to the to the north and west, to design their landscaping and more was a huge win, ultimately helped to site the complex’s three apartment buildings and combine features where landscaping seen in project dovetails perfectly in the other, flowing together like the plaza’s 100-ft-long water feature. “It’s not an easy design and hats off to the contractors who built it,” said Budge. Not easy is an understatement, especially with the ipe (pronounced E-pay) Brazilian hardwood decking. Dense, heavy, durable, and challenging meant a few hundred drill bits were sacrificed at the altar of construction. But the team persevered, developing a system to make cuts so clean that the hardwood boards appear pre-engineered. “All of it was hand done,” Wadsworth said of the work with the decking. Precision and care were standout features of the Cal Wadsworth Construction team as they self-performed cast-in-place concrete benches with the gentlest curves, three concrete bridges, as well as concrete steps across the northern end of the water feature—all surrounded by two lines of paperbark maple trees. “It’s refined,” said Budge. “It’s less so someone’s backyard, but [more] an urban plaza you’d find in a major city.” The slight bend in the form of the benches, water feature, and around 1,600 SF of decking are not only a circulation effort moving people from southwest to north or vice versa, but a testament to the work from the Cal Wadsworth team to artfully construct such complicated forms. The design also called for precast concrete cubes ranging in height between 9” - 3’9” in height. Built by Brigham City-based Mountain West Precast, each of the cubes was picked and placed close to the final location before a forklift positioned each of them on their respective bolts before epoxying them in place. Wadsworth said it came together “like a Tetris puzzle.” The project team dug deep into their problem-solving bag after the fire marshal refused to allow the grass turf of LOCI’s original design. The landscape architects pivoted to replacing the turf with two 25-foot-plus sycamore trees to help cool and shade the plaza’s 5,000 SF of concrete hardscape.

Movin' on UP!

By Doug Fox • 01 Sep, 2024
There’s a new jewel in the crown of Silicon Slopes architecture: the visually stunning Traverse Heights Office Building. The six-story structure, housing 57,000 square feet of Class A professional office space and featuring a floor-to-ceiling curtain wall glass facade, sits like a queen on a bluff overlooking the I-15 corridor in Lehi and the expanse of Utah Valley. If you’re traveling through that section of north Utah County, you can’t miss it on the east side of I-15. “It is impossible to exit the freeway and not see this building standing large, perched over Silicon Slopes,” said Jared Francom, Project Director for Okland Construction. “It stands apart by location, approach and visibility.” The building, owned by Woodley Real Estate, came with a price tag of around $25 million. In addition to the ownership group, tenants include Bank of America, Fidelity Investments, Solidarity Capital, Paramount and family offices for both Curt Doman and Todd Pederson, among others. “We have had way more demand than space,” said Eric Woodley, owner/developer. “It certainly stands out and is a unique offering. The offset design really sets it apart from the rest [of the buildings in Silicon Slopes].” According to David Anderson, Design Principal for Babcock Design, the core concept of the building differed significantly from the typical five- and six-story workplace projects his firm has created along the Silicon Slopes stretch of I-15. “On the heels of several projects designed around 100,000-plus-square-feet tech-sector tenants that prioritized efficient floor plates and large-scale shared amenities, this project targeted smaller, high-end user groups with an interest in a refined, iconic space,” Anderson said. “As a result, efforts were made to sculpt a unique exterior form with shifting floor plates cantilevering high above the ground plane, which provided extensive usable outdoor space.” COVID Conundrums The journey from land acquisition in 2020 to certificate of occupancy in 2023 turned out to be no easy feat. Mentally, Wasatch Front residents may be a few years removed from the peak period of the COVID-19 pandemic but its architectural impact is still being felt and the Traverse Heights Office Building is a prime example. The project started during the mid- to latter stages of the pandemic in 2021 and was designed amid the challenging fallout of material shortages throughout the building industry. Year-long lead times and cost escalation on structural steel products at the time tilted the design decision toward a post-tensioned concrete structure, Anderson said. But that strategic switch spawned its own set of COVID-created conundrums. “By the time construction ensued, of course, there were concrete shortages throughout the state due to shutdowns of several cement production plants,” Anderson said. “Okland Construction worked miracles to acquire concrete during the shortage and significantly minimized delays in the construction schedule.” Choosing concrete both for the look and the difficulty of procuring steel, Woodley noted that the concrete shortage hit during the mat-footing pour — basically the most inopportune time possible. “It was a nightmare to work through, but we had a great construction team to help us navigate it,” he said. On a positive note, the decision to use post-tensioned concrete affected both the overall form — achieving some dramatic cantilevers in the office space – as well as the feel of the interiors, said Anderson. “Exposed architectural concrete sheer walls and solid concrete slabs created a crisp, smooth and dramatic interior space with exceptionally high ceilings,” he said.

ASLA Pulls Up a Chair

By Taylor Larsen • 01 Sep, 2024
It’s hard to keep track of all the decisions made about the built environment happening in Utah. A new commercial design here, permitting there, and the beginning and end of so much master planning. It’s great for the A/E/C community, certainly, but for Bryce Ward and the other board members at the ASLA Utah Chapter, landscape architecture deserves a seat at the table where those decisions are made. Bringing in their unique point of view, ASLA Utah is aiming to break through the misunderstanding in their field to plan, design, and steward environments across Utah for residents and visitors to thrive. There’s the mission, and there’s the practice. Ward explained that landscape architects are expert generalists, meaning he and his fellow professionals are trained to think beyond the site boundaries. “Buildings are part of an elaborate natural and development fabric,” Ward, recently elected Trustee for the ASLA, said. “Landscape architects think through the impacts development has on the built and natural environments.” After all, their work is much more than shrubs, benches, and a walking path. The plan is in motion to build toward a cohesive whole, where every facet of the built environment is considered—with landscape architecture joining the party and improving projects across the state. For Lars Erickson, ASLA Utah President-Elect, the matter is one of dollars and cents in a straightforward equation: clients that value and pay for good design get greater value in their projects. “Even the simplest of landscape projects can create greater value for our environment with a little more effort,” Erickson said.

Big Plans on Campus

By B. Garn • 01 Sep, 2024
Students at Utah’s higher education campuses this fall likely found themselves navigating around construction fencing or finding once familiar pathways to class temporarily blocked as concrete trucks rumbled by and tower cranes cast shadows across campus. From the new buildings for the University of Utah’s School of Medicine that are reshaping the upper campus of the state’s flagship university to plans for a major campus expansion at Utah Tech University (UTU) in St. George, a surge of projects planned and funded several years ago are now taking shape on university campuses from Logan to St. George.

Precast Market Ready to Take Off in Utah

By Taylor Larsen • 01 Sep, 2024
It’s not rocket science. According to Kevin Martin, Geneva Pipe & Precast’s General Manager for the Orem office, precast concrete is a simple, albeit different, solution for a construction problem. “We’re still building a metal cage and building a mold and putting concrete around it,” he said. Simple, sure, but effective. With a huge concrete market to capture, expanding infrastructure with new and growing communities, and a broken labor market showing no signs of repair, the trajectory for precast is upward and onward as the new year approaches. No Rest for Precast Each of those interviewed spoke to how there is not just an insatiable demand for precast in Utah, but that they regularly field calls from out of state to supply jobs across the West. As a byproduct, one trend that may be gone forever is the winter slowdown, especially as development ticks up across the state. Said Martin, “We used to use the winter months to build up inventory, but the new way of doing things is putting pressure on us to keep production high year-round.” Demand for neighborhood infrastructure products is here to stay, especially for growing cities around the state. Developments are popping up across Utah County in Lehi, Saratoga Springs, and Eagle Mountain, as well as an exploding demand from the southward development in places like Payson, Santaquin, and even Benjamin, nestled snugly just south of Spanish Fork. Precast, those interviewed said, is ready to meet it with pipe, box culvert, manholes, and more. With expanding development combined with the growing capabilities of precast concrete, "slowdown" might not enter the precast vernacular again. Lee Wegner, Regional Sales Manager for Contech Engineered Solutions, noted the possibilities that opened up with the Latter-day Saint temples in the 2010s changed the game on precast concrete in Utah. High-level detail and molds brought awards and new possibilities, with rope-like features and scalloped corners doing the best impression of skilled masonry work. “Almost every piece was unique,” said Wegner of their work on the Payson Temple. While unique is not the word precasters want to hear in such a standardized process, the pride of seeing what their work accomplished in the final build helped to reimagine what was possible in precast shops. “We’re pushing the envelope a lot more and are much more adaptable to the needs of the market.”

Innovative Infrastructure

By Milt Harrison • 01 Aug, 2024
Crews from Whitaker construction installed a massive 63-inch diameter HDPE pipe for North Davis Sewer District that allows treated and cleaned wastewater to flow to the Great Salt Lake, putting water back into the ecosystem while combatting dropping water levels. (photos courtesy Whitaker Construction)

Brilliantly Executed Spaces and Thinking

By LADD MARSHALL • 01 Aug, 2024
The Intermountain Chapter of the International Interior Design Association (IIDA) held its annual BEST Awards competition on May 16 at The Natural History Museum of Utah, with the UVU Sorensen Student Center capturing the "BEST of the BEST" and "BEST Play" categories. BEST stands for Brilliantly Executed Spaces & Thinking, and the IIDA awards are among the most prestigious given to interior design professionals in both residential and commercial markets. An array of unique projects were submitted, projects that go beyond painting a pretty picture while truly encompassing great design in function, form, and style. IIDA Intermountain recognizes that successful interior design requires a collaboration of many disciplines including consultant teams, project managers, vendors, contractors, and more. These awards are a celebration of that collaboration and of dynamic overall design happening throughout the Intermountain region.

Next Gen

By Brad Fullmer • 01 Aug, 2024
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