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| Noel Whorton '91 presentation to the graduate chapter's July Luncheon |
Noel Whorton ’91 shared his path from his UW business major
to becoming a licensed architect through years of practice. Like many who have benefited from a fellow
Fiji, Noel was steered to an opportunity via Kelly Price ’91. Seventeen years later, Noel is a Principal
and leads the cost management group at the highly reputable firm of NBBJ.
Noel was introduced by his classmate and former luncheon
speaker, Mike Burns ’91 (First Choice Health Network). And other classmates attending were Greg
Bjarnason ’91 (Molly Brown Temp Agency), and Andy Sprague ’93 (JR Abbott
Construction).
NBBJ played a lead budgeting/cost management role in the
redesign/remodel of UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion.
In his presentation, Noel reviewed some of the architectural goals and
budget elements for this complex, renovation of an iconic building. Through careful budgeting, as well as
beneficial market timing, the project bid significantly under budget.
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| Noel Whorton '91 and 3 tower design for Amazon |
But the centerpiece of Noel’s presentation was NBBJ’s
3-building project designed for Amazon in the Denny Triangle. The back story to NBBJ being tasked with this
project was a story in itself. Amazon
approached NBBJ because of a relationship started with a project from 30 +/-
years ago. They asked if they would be
willing to do some preliminary design sketches for a project that had less than
a 1% likelihood of going anywhere. A
designer within Noel’s studio (within NBBJ) executed the initial sketches and
did much of the initial conceptual exploration.
From these modest expectations the project, codenamed
“Rufus”, gained attention and embracement as requests and needs began to fall
into place and a more formal project began to emerge. One of the early requests was for an
interior green space somewhat similar to the observatories of earlier
times. This opportunity to blaze a new
trail for design resulted in some very clever and unique design factors. As the ideas grew closer to becoming plans,
the project was growing to a three block project centered by the eye-catching
glass spheres.
The story was interesting, the backstory of the design was
interesting, and Noel’s sharing of the NBBJ path from sketches to being the
lead design for 3 mid-rises and more than 3 million square feet was even more
interesting. Thanks Noel for a great
luncheon presentation.
