Luminate: Navigating the Unknown Through Creative Leadership
From navigating everyday team operations to carrying maximum impact in the boardroom, visionary leaders have used their experiences to create success. Listen to Luminate: Navigating the Unknown Through Creative Leadership as the Schmidt Associates’ team speaks with executives and leadership experts to uncover their achievements, watershed moments, and the turning points that have shaped their careers. Along the way, you’ll hear about their influences, discover what it takes to build strength and stability at the top, and learn lessons anyone in business can appreciate.
Luminate: Navigating the Unknown Through Creative Leadership
17: Shaping Landmarks and Lives: The Architectural Journey of Steve Alspaugh
A seasoned architect known for his creative leadership and dedication to his craft, Steve Alspaugh, FAIA, LEED AP, B+C shares his journey from a childhood fascination with The Brady Bunch to his current role as a Design Architect|Associate. Listen to his experience working on the Franklin Township Middle School project, where he used state code as a creative tool, and learn how a devastating tornado in his hometown led him to become the Indiana State Disaster Coordinator through the American Institute of Architects Indiana chapter. Prepare to be enlightened as Steve discusses how mentorship has influenced his career and the importance of building strong relationships.
Don't miss the chance to learn from Steve who has shaped landmarks and careers. Hear about his adventures navigating design challenges, the inspirations that feed his creativity, and the legacy he hopes to leave behind. This is a conversation that not only delves into the fascinating world of architecture but also offers valuable life lessons on finding your passion and building a lasting impact. Tune in for an episode filled with stories of creativity, resilience, mentorship, and passion, all while having fun along the way.
Welcome to Luminate.
Sarah Hempstead:Navigating the Unknown Through Creative Leadership. I'm Sarah Hempstead, CEO and Principal- in- Charge of Schmidt Associates, and today I'm joined by design architect and associate at the firm, Steve Alspaugh, who's built his career with Schmidt Associates With an outstanding resume of service to Indianapolis and to the national architectural design community. Steve has impacted society at all levels through his work to elevate the reach of architecture in our daily lives, through awards programs with the AIA Honors and Awards Task Force, and working to increase resiliency to natural disasters, serving as the AIA Indiana State Disaster Coordinator. His achievements are built on the foundation of his passion for design excellence and to programs promoting it to build community and providing leadership to many organizations where he has shaped a level of impact, while successfully serving K-12, higher education and community owners, Delivering almost 100 projects over his 40 years with the firm. Steve's work to transform the Midwest's built environment is a positive reflection of architecture's past, present and future. In this episode we'll dive into Steve's work over time, his most memorable experiences and we'll explore his thoughts on creative leadership. Thanks for joining us.
Steve Alspaugh:Thank you for having me.
Sarah Hempstead:So, Steve, we've talked about this. You knew from an early age that you wanted to design imaginative, innovative spaces. I'm curious about what piqued that interest. Do you have a family member, a friend, a teacher?
Steve Alspaugh:Well, the time it started was around sixth grade and I don't know if you remember, but the Brady Bunch was a big TV show and Mike Brady was an architect, right?
Sarah Hempstead:He was. We never saw him design anything, but he was an architect.
Steve Alspaugh:I had a couple of friends in elementary school, Tim Burns and Randy Crutchfield and I'm still in touch with Randy today. We started drawing houses on those Manila graph paper things and had quite a collection, turns out. I threw those away when I was in college. I was like why did I do that?
Sarah Hempstead:I don't know.
Steve Alspaugh:But anyway, that was one of my early starts. But, like many of us, our parents are huge influences in the way we look at the world. Initially and, Mike, I was no exception to that my dad was a plumber, HVAC guy and I learned very early on his work ethic and the way he looked at the world. I learned servant leadership from him without realizing it and before I even knew it was a thing. My mom as well. She had a strong work ethic and the way she treated people. She was, and still is, very strong in her faith, even to this day.
Steve Alspaugh:A family friend, Ron Drake, was an architectural designer who did a remodel of our house and he became a close friend and he basically taught me how he did work, how he thought about it, showed me his architectural drawings and I went on to later do that. In high school I took architectural drafting classes all four years. But I wanted to come back to my dad for a second. He worked for my uncle for an HVAC and plumbing contracting business, a trade he first learned in the Navy in the Korean War.
Steve Alspaugh:He was born at the end of the Depression and he had a very strong work ethic that he, I would say, taught me organically, just in the things that we did together, but leadership in the church and in the community he seemed to just know everyone in town, as it is when you're from a small town, right. But when I was growing up, I mean, it wasn't uncommon to see him go out for a service call in the middle of a winter night because somebody's heat failed, and so I learned that he had friends and clients that he took care of whatever it took, so he just did what needed to be done. So my college summers were spent working union construction and I made very good money. But it also built a really foundational knowledge for me about construction and how buildings go together, how things get done basically.
Sarah Hempstead:So now your card, don't you Chair Ball State.
Steve Alspaugh:I am.
Sarah Hempstead:How did you?
Steve Alspaugh:end up at Ball State In what little research that I did at the time. You've got to remember this is like the mid-70s. I do remember my guidance counselor talking to me about that. In fact, his son was in a class just ahead of me at Ball State in architecture, so I became familiar that way. I really didn't look well beyond. We were a family that wasn't going to forward out of state tuition.
Sarah Hempstead:Well, it was early days for the Ball State architecture program it was it was. So you benefited from mentors who taught you the value of hard work and service. How does that manifest itself in how you look at your role as an architect in the community?
Steve Alspaugh:Well, I would say my mentors and the construction work that I did in the summers helped me craft my own work ethic and develop certainly a healthy respect for the contracting side of our industry. My construction experiences greatly shape my understandings how buildings go together, as I mentioned, and I think my creativity comes from a different place. I have an understanding of buildings and that construction informs how I can interject my creative influences into both the big picture design and construction details of a given project. My mentors have probably helped shape, without knowing it as much, the way I approach a problem. More than anything, I've seen how they've dealt with some issues that have come up and I just tried to. You lean into that stuff, right, you don't shirk from it and you just try to solve the problem.
Sarah Hempstead:So you've had the opportunity when trying to solve the problem working with I said at the top of the show 100 different clients, 100 different projects, more or less. There may even be more than that. We learn as we solve problems with those clients, we tell their stories, we learn how they transform their organizations. Can you tell me a story about one or two clients you've worked with while solving a problem that really changed the way you thought about creativity and leadership?
Steve Alspaugh:I think one of the early ones was I still remember to this day going to meet with state code officials to talk about an issue we were dealing with at Franklin Township, middle Tool, specifically the design of their cafeteria. I remember coming away from that meeting feeling like I had really done something good for that client. I don't even remember what it was that we solved, but there were some issues related to the design of the cafeteria in the kitchen and how they connected and all of that. We weren't sure we were going to get to where we were hoping to go, but we did. I just remember feeling really good that I just helped the client in a way that I didn't think about before I went into the meeting. I was just trying to get done what I thought needed to be done. I guess.
Steve Alspaugh:Another one that I would mention. I don't know if you remember Charles Mayer. He was director of space planning facilities at Indiana State. Charles, when I first met him he was serving as the person that was communicating, in many cases, the needs of the users to us. That was a little new to me.
Steve Alspaugh:I was used to working directly with the users. I was always like what can I get around you to them. He was very picky. He didn't seem to smile much and he aborted me with information from the users in the university and what they wanted. I wasn't sure he even liked me very much, but it turned out that he did. I realized that he was giving me what I needed to know, even though I wasn't getting it directly from the users. Once I understood he was working to make sure that his institution's needs were accurately communicated, things went much better. I realized Charles was my friend and he's trying to help us. We became much friends In fact. Charles is long retired. He lives in New York City. I've been in touch with him by email over the last couple of years. I'm hoping to see him when Linda and I go to New York to visit Ethan at the end of the month. It'd be a great thing if that could happen.
Sarah Hempstead:Going to New York to see a friend and get inspiration leads into my next question, which is as designers, we are charged with bringing inspiration to the table, creating those strong foundational partnerships and relationships, and being creative. How do you feed that for yourself? How do you get your inspiration that you can then turn around and bring to projects and clients?
Steve Alspaugh:For me, I certainly get it from travel, going and seeing new places. I've done a lot of trips with the AA Committee on Design. That's been a big part of at least the formation of new design ideas since probably, I started visiting with them in 2003,. Certainly, my colleagues. My inspiration comes from places that you expect and places you don't expect. Sometimes I see things in vignettes that I want to recreate in a building or something like that. It just comes from lots of different places. I try to let my brain do a lot of cross-training in that regard, whether it's artwork translated to a plant or an elevation and the way things compose themselves to try to recreate that sometimes.
Sarah Hempstead:What are you working on right now? What's a specific project or issue that you're working on right now that relies on creativity to get through?
Steve Alspaugh:I think about that question. It's really about a recent project it's finishing up. It's the Fall Creek Pavilion. It's really been that kind of project for me the opportunity to develop a legacy project for the Fairgrounds campus that's forward-thinking in its layout and systems, that the end users, from everything I understand, fell in love with in the very first fair that it serves. I really think its flexibility is going to serve it well in offering a diversity of users the ability to create new revenue streams and enhance existing ones going forward in the future.
Steve Alspaugh:One aspect that I'm really proud of with regard to that project is my role in help carrying the theme of swine art from the historic North Portal to the South Entry, the new South Public Entry. We created spaces for four large six-foot by six-foot limestone sculpture panels and then worked with the owner and a limestone artist that we found to develop new building art that the owner could not be more thrilled with. It's an example of finding the wow in every project and then delivering on it. That's one of the mantras you'll hear later and if you ask the right questions at the right time.
Sarah Hempstead:I'll see what I can do. I'll see what I can do.
Steve Alspaugh:But not only that. I think we captured the story of how that art was developed in a couple of videos that will live on past us and we shared those with the owner. And we share them as part of our marketing outreach to the broader design community, or broader client community, I should say.
Sarah Hempstead:I'm going to switch tracks for a minute and talk about mentoring. One of the things that you've spent a ton of time with over the course of your career has been mentoring others. So, whether that's clients, whether that's young architects, young designers of all kinds, talk a little bit about what mentoring means to you and how it's kind of changed your story. What's your takeaway from your mentoring experiences?
Steve Alspaugh:Well, mentoring for me. It has changed me. It's one of the things that I look forward to now that there was a time in each of our careers where we weren't relied upon to do that, but it's part of what gives me energy to do that. Our younger staff is every bit as eager as we were to make their mark right to design, but when you're starting off, there is so much you don't know, and when you're starting off, you don't know what you don't know.
Steve Alspaugh:I try to build off their eagerness to learn and to teach them how to do it right, to do things the right way, to how to approach a design problem or a detail, rather than doing it for them, if I can, because, again, right, it's just not a fish.
Steve Alspaugh:Another important thing that I try to teach is to develop your network of industry contacts, where that's vendors or contractors, because you're going to rely on them on how to put things together in the future for new projects, for pricing of things, for advice of how to do things in a way that will last. I try to help them tie into my network and learn the importance of building their own, and also try to teach them why community service is important, encourage them to find a community cause that they're passionate about and jump in. I think there's a hesitancy when you're new to a firm and young like that, to put yourself out there. For some people that's no problem. It's they're outgoing anyway. They're type A personalities. They have no problem getting there. They do, or maybe a little less sure of themselves, need that nudge and our community partners are looking for help all the time, even if those are just the glue people that help them do things as opposed to being on their boards and stuff.
Sarah Hempstead:And that goes to something that I have watched you do successfully for the 20 plus years that I've been at Schmidt is build that network of people and resources that you then bring to the table. Is that a quality of being a successful leader? Is the network?
Steve Alspaugh:I think it is. I mean, for me it's certainly been that because they are reliable for me. They've been in the industry maybe not as long as I have, but in most cases at least as long. But they've done it from a different perspective, in the sense that they put together what we design, whether they're the reps, but in most cases for me they're the contractors that we've done work with, that I've developed a friendship with and a trust that I can carry forward as I do things.
Sarah Hempstead:So that kind of rolls into what happens when something goes wrong. Right, with any complex project there's going to be complex things. As a leader, sometimes we have to make decisions we don't want to. Sometimes we have to say the hard thing. How do you share, particularly with a young new designer, how to work through those issues?
Steve Alspaugh:Well, I have some thoughts on that that I'll get to it started. One of the first times I had to deal with that was at Indiana State University. They had some flooding on campus and I had to go over when they were dealing. It was the student computing complex and I don't remember now I think it was natural flooding where it was actually the rivers coming up and all of that. They had some flooding in the building and we had an underfloor distribution system like a Tate access floor and that just complicated things further.
Steve Alspaugh:But for me at that time it was just showing up. I had to not go to Terre Haute that day, the way I always went, because things were the flooding was causing issues just in getting there. So I remember it took a little longer, but I felt that they felt I showed up, I came to listen, I helped solve the problems that they were dealing with and I think that's sometimes what you have to do, but you don't know how it's going to turn out when you're maybe going into that situation. But showing up, trying to understand what the issues are and how you can help impact the solutions, it's where it starts, and there's an old saying is that people don't care what you know until they know that you care, and I think sometimes it's just about caring. It really is Some other thoughts I have in terms of younger staff.
Steve Alspaugh:I would just say be curious, ask questions, ask lots of them, if that's what's necessary for you to understand things, but I think sometimes we get hung up on the how and why is just as important, if not more important in some cases. So, as I mentioned earlier, find the wow opportunities and deliver on them. Rain taught me that fully understanding old buildings is hard. It's one of the hardest things we have to do Now. Certainly, point clouds make that a bit easier, but take time to look at things that are hiding in plain sight and for clues to things that you can't see, that aren't quite so readily available. I think, reviewing a set of existing building drawings, you have to remember that your goal is to understand this building in three dimensions, even though everything you look at is in two, and that can be hard to do. But my construction experience very early on helped me understand that I'm always looking at a building in three dimensions because you're going to miss something if you don't. Thank you.
Sarah Hempstead:Communication is a lot of what we do Communicating in two-dimension. What is a three-dimensional thing? Communicating a solution to a complicated problem? You've seen methods of communication change a lot in the last almost 50 years of practice. What have you learned about communication? When does that come in handy?
Steve Alspaugh:So I try to remember Stephen Covey's quote when it comes to first understanding and then to be understood. Our process requires that we fully understand our client's needs to be able to deliver the proper response and it solves their issues and meets their goals. But to do that, we have to listen before we can advise correctly. So it's not in my nature to be quiet and listen easily sometimes, but I try to force myself to do that because my mind is almost jumping ahead to try to solve a problem, as they're saying it, and I have to not do that. But I've learned to try not to do that. I guess another mantra that I've learned is, like I said before, people don't care what you know until they know that you care. And it's spot on, because truly listening and understanding before responding is so important to providing the right response.
Sarah Hempstead:One of the things we mentioned at the very beginning is in your volunteer capacity. You've worked with a ton of committees, task force boards. Can you talk a little bit about the Indiana State Disaster Coordinator role? I think many people don't even know that that exists and it's so important to the future of the state.
Steve Alspaugh:So my role there was born a long time ago. It was born on April 3, 1974. On that date our hometown was hit by a supercell of three tornadoes. So that day changed our town forever and it changed me as well. Without even realizing it so much later in my life, as I watched the Army Corps of Engineers, the Red Cross, all of these different service organizations come to help our town, I guess it was just sort of set in my brain that someday it'll be your turn to do this.
Sarah Hempstead:You were just a young man.
Steve Alspaugh:I was a sophomore in high school, but I still remember the events of the day. This is April, so we have this devastating storm. The next day it snowed, and then the sun came out right after that. So it was like all these different weird weather events rolled into probably a 48 to 72 hour period that you just never expected to see together.
Steve Alspaugh:But the idea that you don't really have a choice you just got to pick up and get to work. So that turned out to be a big benefit for me. I mean, I guess, when life gives you lemons, right, because what happened is the rebuilding of the town gave me opportunities to find jobs in that rebuilding. I had my first union construction job. Putting sidewalks and roads, curb and gutter back together made great money, but I was in my, I think I just yeah. I mean, I had already started thinking about architecture as a profession, and so construction was a curious thing for me. I was interested in it. I did projects at home with my dad, I worked for my uncle at times, so building construction came very organically to me and I was comfortable on it. So the thing I didn't think about was what will that be and when will later be and when.
Steve Alspaugh:When I had the opportunity to do some training for emergency response, I took advantage of it and Jason Shelley came to me and said you know, I really need someone to be the coordinator at the state level because we'd had some trainings in the past and that I wasn't even a part of. I mean, a whole group of people had been trained and their trainings had expired and all that. So I got busy trying to organize who all these people were and get some semblance of organization to a roster, to where their training stood and to organizing new trainings that they could get updated in. And currently we have like 37 people who are on the roster officially at various levels of training. At least half of them are, about half of them are trained, and we're working on more training later this year through the AIA and then with the goal of having a mock exercise. I mean, reality is you're planning for something you hope never happens, but you know it will and as you you know, read articles in the paper and hear the news.
Steve Alspaugh:Those disastrous weather events are becoming more and more common, more and more frequent, unfortunately. But yeah, it's personal for me obviously to be there for someone else when you're in. You know they're basically they feel paralyzed for a while because, just at the level of destruction it is, it's hard to wrap your head around when you're looking at it and going, wow, I went to school there, but it's gone. It's gone, totally gone.
Sarah Hempstead:So that that is an amazing story of taking what was a horrible situation and turning it into a benefit to society through through your skills. As you think about bringing other people to that level of volunteerism you've got 37 already in that group. What's the way that we can encourage that sort of passion for community involvement for people who've never, never even thought about it before, maybe?
Steve Alspaugh:Well, I think everybody has causes, maybe not be the complete right term, but they have things that have shaped their life that they are passionate about and maybe they didn't know there was an organization that revolves around that. You know, maybe someone has a sibling that is a special needs child, whatever it is. Find something that you're passionate about and go, go lean into that with an organization that is trying to make a difference in that part of our society. I think if you, if you can find that you will, you will never get lost in it because you, you know your passion comes from deep within you. It's your, your brother, your sister, your parent, your uncle, whatever, for those kinds of things you know. For me it was personal because it happened to me and my community and I could clearly see the benefits that all of these people who didn't know us coming into our town to help put Humpty back together again. It's just a, it's a huge. It's a huge benefit that you you can't imagine until you're in that situation.
Sarah Hempstead:So you've been doing architecture for 40 plus years. At this point, 40. 40, straight 40. Just start 40. What's, as you start to look back, what's, what's the legacy? Or you hope you're leaving. What do you hope people will say?
Steve Alspaugh:I think I I'd hope that they would say that I worked hard to make a difference for our clients and for our, for our firm and the teams that I work on, to significantly impact the projects that we crafted together, that our staff learned good practices for me that they would continue to use to help guide them on their own career paths. And I guess I also hope people had fun working with me and learning from me.
Sarah Hempstead:What if you could? If you could advise young Steve Allspaugh 40 years ago about his career? What, what, what do you wish you knew?
Steve Alspaugh:Well, some of the things that I mentioned earlier about you know being curious, asking some questions, all this stuff, which which I probably did, probably ask too many questions in some cases. But I think you know you have to just be open to what comes your way and, and you know, you can ask for work on certain projects or however that works. But but you know, control the things that you can control these.
Steve Alspaugh:My involvement with AIA was very organic. His name was Dean Ilingworth and Wainch met too. But because Dean really encouraged my first, you know, involvement in those kinds of things and it just took, you know, putting yourself out there and leaning into it, wain I I brought him the idea of getting involved with the committee on design and he said I think that's a great idea and you know me well enough to know how that has sort of changed the world for me in terms of being exposed to design ideas and people that are leaders in our industry, not only national leaders but even international in some cases. So, yeah, you just you have to understand, or or at least have some idea of where you want to go, what your passions are, and let them lead you places. You'll be surprised where they can go.
Sarah Hempstead:Well, and I know you well enough to know that you have a lovely family and a kiddo who is passionate about architecture too. How do you do that in this job? How do you maintain a balance between the passion you have for the work and for volunteerism, and for family and for church and all the all? How do you bring all the pieces together and stay healthy and whole?
Steve Alspaugh:Well, the healthy and whole part is probably, if I'm honest about it, I need to do better on that front. I've had a handful of health issues that maybe started five or six years ago that I mean, I used to play tennis to regenerate my batteries and, and I don't do that anymore, but I'm thinking about pickleball now. It's like a. The smaller court might work for me, but I really need to spend more time doing the things that I I can do, like hiking and biking, but clearly the hilly hundred days are behind me. But in terms of balancing all of that, you know I've I've actually mixed things like like we're doing work for my church right now. You know something Wayne told me be really careful about that. I don't care. Clearly I didn't listen, but but it is.
Steve Alspaugh:It is a balance of where you put your time, because there's a lot of extracurricular things with these community organizations that we get involved with that there's only one place for them to come from, because we we got to get our work done and so they usually come from your time at home in many cases. So, but they also have a clinic, co generative kind of cemetery, right, because you know, I spend time at my church. I'm involved there in a habitat build that's being actually a panel build that's being planned in our earth parking lot for September 23rd and I've been part of the playing team putting that together. But I've been involved with Habitat for years, you know, mostly through my church. But these things for me have found a way to, like you know, fit together like pieces of a puzzle that help me interconnect with these different groups and you find a way to make it work if it's important to you.
Sarah Hempstead:Well, two final questions, One that I ask everybody and one that I'm going to ask you, just you. So, for the first one, as you look back and I know this is like picking a favorite child but you have one project that is just really memorable to you and you're really proud of as part of your career.
Steve Alspaugh:Well, I had a list of six of them here, so you basically blown that up too.
Sarah Hempstead:I'll take six. You can give me six if you can't pick.
Steve Alspaugh:Okay, All right. Well, some of the highlights for me. I think you know I've had the opportunity to develop and bring to life a number of memorable projects, and none of this we do on our own right. We it's a village, but the ones that stand out for me are the higher education buildings and the performing arts facilities. Some of them are uniquely special are the the Fall Creek Pavilion we talked about it at the State Fairgrounds the Ivy Tech, Illinois Fall Creek Center Wow, you know, kind of bringing the Phoenix back from the fire for that one.
Steve Alspaugh:Plainfield High School, just my biggest first time ever. All new facility, you know, building a cornfield Gosling College Music Center and I would say the Michael Evans Center for Health at Marion University. But and the major health partners, Wellness and YMCA. Those are all some of the highlights that I've had really great opportunities to do, but their memorable because of the owners we worked with who allowed us to do great work, the design teams that work together to take advantage of that opportunity and to craft a legacy project for those communities that are. Now. They're better for it, you know they because of the services those buildings offer and the opportunities they create for the people in those communities. That's why they're, that's why they're great projects.
Sarah Hempstead:Those are great projects. Stay on the test of time, all right. So my question I ask everybody what's a book that you recommend to everybody? It could be something you're currently reading, something that you read that was transformative.
Steve Alspaugh:I don't read a whole lot on a regular basis, but one of my favorites I you know I will take a book on vacation or something like that, and but one of the that has stuck with me for a very long time was called Lost Moon. It's the story, the perilous voyage of the Apollo 13, by Jeffrey Krueger and Jim Lovell. Jim Lovell was an astronaut on that, on that flight, but the struggle of getting back to Earth after what happened to them in space was shared by Lovell on a very personal level, but but in a very pragmatic way, because that's how they had to get back to Earth. They had to solve one problem at a time and just get to the next thing, and it was. You know they've made a movie about it, starring a pretty good actor too, but but I read the book long before the movie came out, and it was. It was. It's very inspiring, but it's also about dealing with hardship and understanding, you know, just eating that elephant one bite at a time until all of a sudden you're back.
Sarah Hempstead:Well, Steve. Thank you for spending some time with me this afternoon. Thank you for being a part of our firm, our success, and the community. It's been really nice to hear some stories I haven't heard before about the influence that you've had on some of our work. To learn more about Steve, please visit our website at schmitt-archcom. You can learn more about his accomplishments projects he's been a part of. He didn't even mention his recent elevation to FAA and some of the transformative work that he's been involved with. And thank you for listening to Luminate: Navigating the Unknown Through Creative Leadership. We hope this episode has inspired you and supplied valuable insight into the world of creative leadership. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode. We'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback, so feel free to reach out to us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn at Schmidt Associates. Until the next time, keep navigating the unknown with creativity and confidence.
