The highly anticipated grand opening of the Big Well Museum in Greensburg, Kansas is slated for Memorial weekend - Saturday, May 26.

The 5,956 square foot museum and memorial features a sweeping narrative that guides guests from the beginning of Greensburg and the opening of the Big Well, through the 2007 EF5 tornado that decimated the town and on to the triumphant rebuilding that captivated America, as Greensburg became the country’s first all-sustainable city.

The $3 million facility is a landmark project by LawKingdon Architecture. Roger Brown, director of design and senior vice president at LK, sought a design that expresses both the legacy of Greensburg and the mighty forces of nature that surround the town. His answer? The Fibonacci spiral—an iconic shape at the heart of both the 2007 EF5 tornado and the building that now memorializes Greensburg’s survival and recovery.  Even the iron spiral staircase along which visitors descend into the World’s Largest Hand-Dug Well evokes this extraordinary shape.  The engineering marvel now topped with a beautiful building and museum is over 120 years old, orginally constructed in 1888.

We’re proud of our involvement in the renaissance of Greensburg, and we offer our congratulations to the City of Greensburg on another outstanding project.

Hyatt House (formerly Hotel Sierra) - King of Prussia, Pennsylvania -  Nestled next to one of America’s premiere shopping malls, the recently re-christened Hyatt House at King of Prussia is a hallmark of LawKingdon’s contemporary yet welcoming design style.  The split level site offers options for business and pleasure, with both meeting space and a swimming pool on a lower level that opens to a charming patio. Visitors to Hyatt House are welcomed by the bold exterior design features of dark brick walls highlighted with EIFS facades, and the interior spaces lend Hyatt House the feel of a chic boutique hotel and offer guests high-end amenities such as an oversized fireplace and luxurious seating areas.

Valley Fair Mall, West Valley City, Utah - LawKingdon undertook the challenge of designing and redeveloping the existing Salt Lake City area retail hub, envisioning a true town center with pedestrian-friendly layout, expansive plaza park, and an additional 191,000 square feet of retail space. The Lifestyle features LK introduced are seamlessly integrated into the main mall structure, giving visitors an unparalleled shopping experience.

Via Christi Village, Hays, Kansas –  The Via Christi Village in Hays combines skilled nursing care, assisted living and the comforts of home in this 82,000 SF village. The facility features a chapel, therapy spaces, and a “household” design. Specially conceived by LawKingdon to foster community and connections between residents and caregivers, the households have a limited number of residents grouped around living and dining rooms with amenities that include fireplaces and screened-in porches. This arrangement allows the staff to give world-class service without compromising patient comfort and care.  Adjoining this facility is the existing assisted living. The Hays, Kansas facility was dedicated and blessed on April 19; residents moved in on May 1.

Manor Care of Salmon Creek, Washington – HCR ManorCare operates over 400 facilities across the country, which made developing a fresh and functional facility prototype a unique challenge for LawKingdon. Manor Care of Salmon Creek, located in the picturesque outskirts of Vancouver, Washington, is a 120-bed, 59,000 SF rehabilitation center that serves as the flagship for all new HCR ManorCare buildings.

Newton Expo Center – The Interior Design Department at LawKingdon Architecture was brought into this project after the building was already under construction. The existing scheme failed to express the City of Newton’s character that LKA’s design would soon bring to life in a vibrant and compelling way. We redesigned the finishes and the interior architecture to create a unique lobby and pre-function area. The high ceilings give increased drama, while articulation gives visual relief at each of the meeting room entrances. Larger than life photographs harken back to bygone eras of the city, enhancing the experience of the space. This design makes an elegant and expressive statement for the City of Newton.

River Corridor Improvement Project Phase 1c (Drury Plaza), Wichita, Kansas – Working with both the City of Wichita and Drury Southwest, LawKingdon designed the recently completed improvements along the east bank of the Arkansas River between Second and Douglas Streets in downtown Wichita.  The historic Broadview Hotel was renovated to move the main hotel entrance to the river side of the building, offering the waterfront as a one-of-a-kind amenity to visitors.  Terraced walking paths, planting, a fountain, a fire bowl and a small performance space were integrated along the bank, blurring the line between private and public property and expanding the usable area.  These design features create an interactive experience, connecting the community with Wichita’s vibrant waterfront.

On Saturday, April 21^st, many LawKingdon employees participated in a volunteer day for Habitat for Humanity.  LawKingdon employees gave a morning, an afternoon or an entire day of a beautiful weekend to come together and make a difference in the community. The volunteers strapped on their work boots and tool belts to do roofing, siding and caulking on a new home for an area family.  Click here to visit Habitat for Humanity’s website and learn more about the organization. 

Trey Wiley.
The Man.  The Myth.  The Legend.

What is your position at LK?
Associate VP of Electrical Engineering

Where do you come to us from?
GPW & Associates, in Lawrence, KS.  I was born and raised in Lawrence, and lived there most of my life.  I went to KU.

I’m sorry.  How do you like Wichita?
It’s different.  It’s bigger than most places I’ve lived before.  I like it.  My wife and kids are having a harder time adjusting to a new town.

What was your first job?
I started at Henderson Engineering in KC in 1993, when they were very small.  Now they do a lot of the MEP work with our Walmart group.

Tell us about your family.
My wife Alycia and I have been married for 17 years.  I have two sons; Gideon, 13, and Isaiah, 11.

Where does the name ‘Trey’ come from?
I’m the third, Richard the III.  For most people named Trey, Trey is a nickname.

If you could go back in time and give yourself any piece of advice, at any age, what do you think it would be?
You know, I actually don’t think I would.  Not that my life has been perfect, but I really like where I’m at right now.  I am one of those people that believes if you said something, it would change everything!  It would change the choices you made.  And while they haven’t always been good, they’ve put me where I’m at.  And I really like where I’m at.  So, I think I’d let myself go through the difficult times that I had as a child–they helped form who I am.  I wouldn’t change that.  I’d let that kid just go through that stuff.

Any hobbies?
I love to cook.  My wife and I cook for a ministry called Grace Adventure at a Salvation Army camp 12 times a year.  They have a camp in Independence, Missouri.  And I enjoy spending time with my sons.

Do you have a favorite vacation spot?
The camp that we cook at is our vacation.  We go there twelve weekends a year with the boys.  It’s a forty acre campground, and it’s beautiful.  We love going there–it’s our second home.  We spend a lot of time there, and they have a cabin set up for us so we can all four be together in one space.

How do you like LK?
I really like it.  Is there a wrong answer?  It sucks!  No, (laughing) what are you supposed to say?  It’s a bigger company than I’m used to being in.  I’ve worked in a number of places, and always have worked in smaller firms.  So there’s a kind of cultural difference.  This is the only place I’ve worked at that had architects and engineers, so that’s a huge cultural difference.  I’m an architectural engineer by degree, so I’m used to working with architects, and I’ve always enjoyed working with architects, but I never have worked in the office with them.  There are things about it I really like.  My passion is lighting design–that’s what I love to do.  And here I get pulled into those conversations a lot more often because the architects can use me for free.  Before, architects and interior designers tended to do their own thing  They don’t want to pay an engineer for their opinion, and I have lots of opinions about lighting design, so that’s fun for me–getting pulled into those conversations simply because I’m here and I’m available.  I like it, it’s just different than what I’m used to, so there’s some learning how to work in an architectural environment.

Tell us a little bit more about Lighting Design, your approach, or what you see that’s done wrong a lot.
What I tend to like to do is integrate lighting with architecture.  To me that’s when it’s best.  I’m not big on bold statements in lighting; I like them to be subtle.  But I really think its fun to be creative and innovative.  I did a project where the architect wanted me to light a stairwell, and it was a project that had some money, so we could do some interesting things. His initial thought was to pick out a cool “statement” fixture, but I ended up figuring out a way to do strip lighting on these lazy-Susan like hardware pieces in the corners, so it blasted the corner with light, and then bled out, created a cool effect in the stairwell.  It was an inexpensive solution, and did a neat thing.  I like doing those kinds of things, where you come up with unique or interesting ways to do something that’s not expensive, because I know most clients will VE that in a heartbeat.  So, rather than picking a fancy, exciting fixture, I like to come up with interesting ways to use normal light fixtures and do great lighting design.  But you tend to have to be involved with the architect to do that because you have to integrate that, typically, to get it to work really well.

I did a project where I worked with an interior designer and she asked me what I wanted to do in the restrooms and I gave her what I think is a great restroom lighting design.  She proceeded to tell me that I’m out of touch with lighting design and I think what she picked was stupid (laughs).  But in the end she gets to pick the fixtures and I just get my opinion.  So I circuited up all her wall sconces in the bathroom.  I just think its ridiculous to put wall sconces in public restrooms.  They get broken, they’re hard to maintain.  There’s a lot better ways to light a restroom and do it beautifully but not make it easy to vandalize.  I like to think about not just the pretty things, but all the other aspects; how do you maintain it, how much it costs, is it a wacky lamp that the maintenance guy is never going to carry with him?  Those kinds of things come into me; that’s part of being a lighting designer and an engineer.  I have that practical side but I also like to do beautiful lighting.

Read any interesting books lately?
I tend to read kind of fantasy-fiction books.  I read a lot of what my oldest son reads.  He’s a voracious reader so I have to keep up with him.  We have read all the Percy Jackson and most of the Harry Potter.  I like reading what he’s reading so we can talk about the things that he encounters in the books.  I tend to do that more now than I do my own books that I want to read.

What are your favorite films?
We just watched The Help.  I haven’t read the book yet, though.  Good movie.  Definitely makes you think.  I love superhero movies a lot.  The X-men movies were great.  The Thor movie that just came out was really good.  I also like action-suspense movies.  I like a lot of different kinds of movies, actually.  I watched Red recently, with Bruce Willis & Helen Mirren.  It was a great movie.  Fun, adventure, excitement, all that kind of stuff, that’s why I tend to gravitate towards super hero movies.

So what do you want for your birthday?
This is going to sound so stupid (laughing). I want a Kitchen-Aid stand mixer (laughs).  My wife and I are probably the only two people in the world that kitchen gadgets are appropriate gifts for each other.  People say “don’t give those things,” but that’s what we want.  We love those things.  My kids love to cook, too, so we had one Christmas where all four of us exchanged a kitchen gadget, which was the theme: whatever wacky thing from the kitchen that you wanted.

Law/Kingdon Architecture helped to ensure that United Way of the Plains 2012 donations will be invested for maximum community impact through Owen McGuire, who volunteered on United Way’s 2011 Allocation Review Panels.

Each of the 189 Allocation Review Panel volunteers served during late August through mid-October on one of 10 panels that reviewed programs within the areas of education, income and health.  Collectively, the allocations volunteers reviewed 93 programs at 35 agencies.  Allocation Review Panel volunteers attended a training session, three or four agency program presentations or site visits and an afternoon wrap-up session.  These volunteers reviewed program design, client outcomes and detailed agency budget information.

The volunteers recommended and the United Way Board of Directors approved funding for 87 local programs with funding beginning January 1, 2012.

United Way seeks allocations volunteers from diverse professions and ethnic communities.  Contact United Way at 316-267-1321 or your company’s United Way campaign chairman for more information on how to volunteer.

LawKingdon’s quarterly staff meeting was held on December 16^th.  Employees enjoyed snacks and refreshments as reports were given on the status of work in each of the departments.  Following the reports, service awards were given to celebrate employee milestones with the firm. Congratulations to the following people!

Employee Service Awards

5 years:
Lynette Ahlstedt
David Ahlstedt
John Brown
Thomas Forristal
John Murrell
Kelley Ripley
Jeremy Weber
Mark Williams

10 years:
Scott Mattke
Becky Shaffer

15 years:
Jeff Koch
Larry Krier
Jeff Ripley

20 years:
Bill Loyd

25 years:
Steve Tucker