Citizen Architect:
Bruce Tyler, AIA

by Heather Livingston
Contributing Editor

Summary: Bruce Tyler, AIA, is a recently elected city councilman in Richmond, Va. and a full-time practicing architect. A native to the Tidewater region, Tyler co-founded his firm with two partners in 1981 and in 1984 merged it with Baskervill, a regional architecture, engineering, interior design, and facilities management firm. He is currently a principal, after serving as the firm’s president for 17 years.

Profession: Architect and Richmond City Council member

Education: I have a BArch from Virginia Tech and a master’s in product design from North Carolina State.

Hobbies: I used to like to do photography work—that was probably my biggest hobby. Council takes about 20 hours a week on top of my normal 40ish-hour work schedule, so there’s a hard balance. I have basically given up all pleasure reading, because I’m reading reports and studies and reviewing documents and information to keep informed on all the subjects that come in front of council.

Favorite Book: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap … and Others Don’t. That book deals with taking an organization and making it as strong as possible and that’s kind of what happened with my partners at Baskervill.

Firm background: I have been self-employed and practicing with two other guys since 1981, so it’s been 26 years. We started a small firm that merged in 1984 into an existing firm called Baskervill. When we came to Baskervill it was a wonderful firm, but it needed a jump start. Along with everybody at Baskervill, we spent a long time creating a very strong firm. Architecture is very near and dear to me, but at the same time business comes easy for me. A lot of architects have a hard time understanding business concepts. I never had that problem and was able to work with a group of individuals to help us focus the organization and create a better company so that we could better serve our clients. And that’s what we did. We took a company from roughly 25 people in 1984 to about 125 today.

Reason for running for city council: Well it’s probably very simple. As an architect and someone who’s been in Richmond for a long period of time, I had a good understanding of Richmond and where I believe it needed to go. I created a campaign around that and the people of the district that I’m representing believe in that. The last thing I ever thought I would do was be in political office, but sometimes things just fall into place. This was one of those times where I looked at who was running and felt like Richmond could do better, so I started talking with folks and made the decision to do it.

Also, I’m at a point in my career where I have the time. We’ve raised a family. Our kids are in college, so I don’t have the burdens that come with raising small children, but it really came down to the fact that Richmond needs to have a vision for the future and that’s what I laid out.

On being both a practicing architect and councilman: We have clients in the City of Richmond and I have to make sure that people do not feel like I’m using my influence as a councilman to get projects. That’s one thing that I have to be very concerned about.

The other thing is that by being an architect, I come to council with a lot of understanding about land use, planning, and zoning issues, and council spends a lot of time working on those matters. For example, we had a commission of architectural review for historic districts case that was appealed to city council, so for an hour and a half last night we debated the importance of historic districts and [how to handle it] when a person doesn’t follow the established historic guidelines. Obviously, I spend a lot of time lending expertise to folks with regards to the issues. There are a lot of things that come before council that directly affect the built environment. As an architect, I bring a set of skills that other folks don’t have. We have a lot of infrastructure issues that we have to address, and I am going to be able to sit there and talk from experience and not from a learning position. I think my fellow councilmen appreciate that.

Greatest challenges: The challenge for me is one minute we’re dealing with a very small issue and the next minute we’re dealing with a very large operating budget issue. On one end, it’s a certificate of appropriateness for an historic district. At the other end, it’s a $600 million+ operating budget. So there’s a real range in issues.

Also, the City of Richmond is getting ready to embark on the largest amount of construction ever in its history, so we’re talking about delivery methods and construction costs—all the things that I deal with on a daily basis. There are multiple projects: schools, jails, libraries. Parks and Recreation has a number of projects that need to be done. We have a large storm and sanitary sewer that has to be constructed, so we have a lot of construction in front of us. You just name it, we’ve got to reinvest in those buildings. For many years, Richmond government invested in its social structure and not its physical structure. Today, we have to invest in our physical structure and make up for those deficiencies we’ve created over time.

Are architects involved enough in politics: No, they’re not. I say that because it’s not in our make-up to be political. For the most part, we’re designers. We care very much about the built environment and it’s hard to get excited about law and things that don’t directly relate to the built environment. It’s different when you sit down and do a sketch. You sketch and draw for hours and hours, but it’s hard to get passionate about reading a document on infrastructure.

Most architects are not political animals. They don’t want to be out in front of the public. I don’t enjoy the fact that I have to speak publicly, but that comes with the territory. For the most part, we’re happy in the back room drawing and creating, so it’s hard to get architects off the dime. I think that the grassroots approach and the citizen architect is a great concept and I’m glad the AIA has stepped up to the plate with regard to that. I’m glad to be a part of that opportunity to be a citizen architect.

To future architects: I came on the scene after architects had relinquished a lot of their power to contractors and to others. I think as a profession today, we have given up so much and have really, for lack of better words, shot ourselves in the foot, and other folks are stepping in to take over those roles. We shied ourselves away from construction and now we have construction managers involved in projects. We have project managers with management skills but no experience who are now heavily involved in the [building] process. I think as a profession, we’re going to have to reestablish ourselves. We don’t touch as much of the built environment as we once did. For people coming on board, they’re going to have to be creative and figure out a way to reestablish the architect as a professional who handles everything from beginning to end.