Foundations + Futures: 2020s with Ben Simmons and Veena Reddy

In this chapter of Foundations + Futures: By the Decade, we step into the 2020s, a decade that has asked Schmidt Associates to plant roots in a new market, take on the most complex projects in firm history, and figure out what servant leadership looks like as a new generation steps into leadership.

Ben Simmons, principal-in-charge and principal leading community work out of Schmidt Associates' Louisville office, and Veena Reddy, senior project architect and firm principal whose work in sustainability, education, and community-centered design shapes how the firm thinks about responsibility, join host Sarah Hempstead to talk through the decade and look at where Schmidt Associates is headed next.

Listeners will hear about:

• Welcoming Arrasmith into the family right before the pandemic hit, a Louisville firm with roots back to 1926 behind landmarks from art deco Greyhound bus stations to the Louisville Zoo's award-winning exhibits, and how a shared belief in servant leadership made the combination work
• The Kentucky Exposition Center, the largest project either has led, a multi-phase modernization of a beloved 1960s facility built to carry its legacy into the next 60 years
• CPS projects, from Iroquois High School to Hudson Middle School, the first new West Louisville high school since the 1930s, plus an in-design STEAM charter school for young women
• Taking sustainability from a buzzword to daily practice, an approach built on subtraction and efficiency, tailored to what each owner's budget, timeline, and building actually need
• Ben and Veena's own promotions to principal this past year, and their shared vision for the firm's next 50 years: becoming a true community resource without losing the culture that gave them both a voice

More than a tour of projects, this is a conversation about planting new roots, taking on work at a scale the firm had never attempted, and carrying servant leadership into a new city and a new generation. It's a look at how the throughline holds: good design serves people, and good leadership serves everyone else first.

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Transcript

Sarah Hempstead: [00:00:00] Every decade requires something a little different from Schmidt Associates. The 1970s called for courage to build a new type of firm. The '80s called for bold bets on people and places. The '90s required balancing growth and culture. And the 2000s called for a deeper commitment to education. In the 2010s, we called for leadership.

Now, the 2020s started completely different. A global pandemic shut down the world, and firms everywhere had to decide. Schmidt Associates answered by doubling down on our mission, supporting clients, and doing something we had never done before: welcoming an entirely new firm into the family. We're here today to talk about what that looked like, what it's meant, and where this firm is heading as it steps into its next 50 years.

Welcome to Foundations and Futures by the Decade. I'm Sarah Hempstead, and today we're closing out our series that is taking us from a folding chair on July 4th, 1976 to 50 years of design, relationships, and servant [00:01:00] leadership. And joining me for this final decade are two people who represent where the firm is today and where we're going.

Ben Simmons is principal-in-charge and a principal with the firm, leading community work out of our Louisville office with more than 20 years of experience in architecture and design across the Midwest. And Veena Reddy is a senior project architect and firm principal whose work in sustainability, education, and community-centered design has shaped how the firm thinks about responsibility in every project we touch.

Ben and Veena, welcome. Thanks 

Veena Reddy: for having us. Thank you. 

Sarah Hempstead: All right. So before we get into the decade, I wanna start with Louisville itself, because the city has a real energy to it right now. Absolutely. You're both deeply embedded with civic organizations, with projects, with business leaders, sitting with the communities that we're designing for.

So what's Louisville feel like right now? 

Veena Reddy: I feel like it is full of opportunity. Absolutely. There are such a great network of local leaders that allow for us to really start to look at how we can help. What is [00:02:00] the skill set that we bring? There's a collaborative feel where people bring their skill sets to conversations that really benefit the community.

Partnerships with community colleges, Metro Louisville, the government, transit authorities. You know, you really got these connections that we can start to leverage and really create valuable solutions. So I think it's pretty awesome. 

Ben Simmons: Yeah. I think the word I would use right now is energy. There's a lot happening in Louisville.

The things like food scene, the hospitality industry is really rolling. We are finding ourselves at the intersection of a lot of these local forces driving business- Mm ... driving investment, driving interest and care among the population. It's really exciting to just see how these different places and people and drivers are all coalescing around these really interesting and authentic outcomes.

Sarah Hempstead: That's awesome. It's a great place to be. 

Ben Simmons: It is one of the most... It's one of the hottest places to [00:03:00] be right now, literally. It is a great place to raise a family. It is a great place to go out and get a slice of culture, like at the local museums or the restaurants or the venues. Mm. And it's all really convenient.

Mm-hmm. It's all within minutes of each other, not hours of each other. So it makes the scale of Louisville really, really attractive for a lot of people. 

Veena Reddy: Yeah. The density of the kind of experiences that you can have, you don't find that anywhere else, and I've lived a lot of different places. Mm-hmm. This is the one that I choose to stay and invest in because, again, you have that cultural energy that is only growing.

Mm-hmm. Yes, we're not the hub of metropolitan activity, but everything that you'll find, again, layers, layers that you can unpeel in a very short period of time. So as a visitor, it's fantastic. And as a person helping to shape the community like we, as architects, are, it is palpable, the layers of [00:04:00] culture. 

Sarah Hempstead: So what do you think that those things mean about projects in Louisville now?

How do they influence or change how we think about projects? 

Veena Reddy: Well, I don't think it changes how Schmidt thinks about projects, but I think it does change the design environment. People are understanding that we can't design in bubbles. We don't design for people. Mm-hmm. We design with people. 

Sarah Hempstead: Mm-hmm. 

Veena Reddy: So there's not a project that Schmidt does where we don't engage the stakeholders.

Mm-hmm. And that's what folks demand at this point from projects. Mm-hmm. Especially projects where the city, the government, their communities are investing their dollars- Mm-hmm ... their tax dollars, their grants, their donations. Mm-hmm. Everyone wants a voice, and very well they should because we are shaping their environment.

We're shaping their success. Mm-hmm. We're shaping the places where their children are growing up, the quality of the air. I mean, I can go on. But what I will say is that that is the nature of design as we see it today here in Louisville. Mm-hmm. 

Ben Simmons: I, I think for a long [00:05:00] time, I think Louisville still suffers a little bit by this.

We get in our, we get in our own way. 

Veena Reddy: Mm-hmm. 

Ben Simmons: And in the last couple of years, particularly since COVID, there is a bit more aspirational attitude among the city. We have a great mayor who is really excited about all the new projects coming online in Louisville. We have the city, we have private investment, we have the educational world.

Everybody is asking the same questions. How can we be, do, serve better? Like, it's always about how do we up our game? Mm-hmm. How do we step forward, doing it just a little bit better tomorrow than maybe we've always done it? Growing up in Louisville as a kid, it took us a long time to realize we weren't just a small, little Midwestern town.

Mm-hmm. We still have some of that, but it has an edge to it. It has a direction to it that I think is gonna carry on for a while. We have really good wins, and we have more things [00:06:00] coming. So it makes the practice of architecture, it makes the design conversations really exciting because people really aren't taking any of that for granted.

Sarah Hempstead: Yeah. 

Veena Reddy: And we have a foundation in design. Our city is planned- Yeah ... by Olmsted. There is order and magnitude in this city, and things get lost. Through different legislation to different ownership of what's governing planning. But we're able to start to look into it and start to find the order in what has become a little bit chaotic.

Mm-hmm. And I would like to be a part of that. Mm-hmm. I think I'd love Schmidt to be a part of finding that order again. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Reordering some of the things that might have gone awry, or at least bringing it to light in the conversations that we are privileged to be a part of. 

Sarah Hempstead: I love that you mention Olmsted and the pandemic within the same-

minute and a half because, because that kind of exactly goes to how Schmidt Associates came to Louisville. And in the heart of COVID, in the very, very beginning, of March in [00:07:00] 2020, instead of stepping back and being conservative as a firm, we opened up and welcomed Arrowsmith into the Schmidt family.

Arrasmith's a, was a Louisville-based firm with roots that went back to 1926. So they actually turn 100 this year. Were there any projects that you knew of about Arrasmith when you came to Schmidt? 

Ben Simmons: Yeah, I had heard they had been in the paper under the Bevin administration helping bring the Passport Health project online in Louisville.

Really incredible project. It had a lot to do with healthcare, which I didn't do a lot of practice in healthcare, but that was a banner project for the city and for the state. I know they were associated with that, and I knew through the grapevine that they had done a lot of healthcare work for some major institutional clients in Louisville.

Veena Reddy: Yeah. And while they have this light of healthcare, I've learned a lot about the love of architecture, the love of architectural urban detailing, and it's really fun to go around [00:08:00] town with some of the folks that came from the Arrasmith family just to point out some of the detailing, to point out some of the eccentricities that are unique to Arrasmith that have found their way all through their Louisville urban fabric.

And even to visit places that are so commonly visited, like the Louisville Zoo, where you find out that the award women- winning exhibits that you're going through, like the snow leopards and gorilla forests, are all projects that Arrasmith has really brought to fruition. So it's pretty cool to see how something that we are continuing to grow, it has...

affects so much of where we live, everything that we're seeing and taking in on a day-to-day basis. It's really cool. 

Sarah Hempstead: It's a through line for sure to work that we continue to do now. If you know where to look, it's, uh, Arrasmith is everywhere. Their legacy is everywhere. Starting with, uh, William Arrowsmith, Bill Arrowsmith pioneered the art deco Greyhound bus station designs that you've seen on [00:09:00] postcards throughout the country right after the Great Depression, making public transportation feel clean and good and modern.

And those stations, many of them are standing today. And we continue to work with TARC, Louisville's current bus station, and public transit plans. And things like the zoo are another perfect example of that, where we continue to work with them today and have worked with them for generations. Their healthcare legacy also, if you knew, you knew.

Baptist Health, Norton Healthcare, Jewish Hospital, universities across Kentucky, 94 years of relationships with folks that they brought to the firm. In 2020 as we combined our firms' portfolios, the easiest thing to combine was the kind of underpinning foundation of servant leadership. I think that's why the merger worked even during the pandemic, even when it was hard, because we had that.

Servant leadership is a fiercely shared core belief 

Veena Reddy: And I will even say folks that are still here from the Arrow- Arrowsmith [00:10:00] legacy, such as Dan Billings and JM Chauvin, bring a level of that servant leadership- Mm-hmm ... and also just high level design- Mm ... to our group that I think it, it shows. JM, you know, his father was a, was a founding member of Arrowsmith.

Mm-hmm. So, and bringing those legacies and those histories, those stories and the experience into our firm is wonderful. 

Sarah Hempstead: Yeah, I mean, a century of trust, right? Yeah. I mean, that's pretty notable. As we pivot to the work this decade, I wanna talk about two projects that are of note and some of the most significant work of this decade for sure.

I'm gonna talk first about the Kentucky Exhibitions Center as just a transformational project. Ben, that's, that is your day-to-day life is the- That's right ... KEC. That's right. Could, can you talk a little bit about the number of moving parts- Sure ... um, how that works together, and kinda what transformational change will happen on that historic campus?

Mm-hmm. 

Ben Simmons: The Kentucky Expo Center, I went there as a kid for Carl Casper Auto Show, as well as the [00:11:00] Balloon Race and the Redbirds game. Mm. And it was this kind of catch-all place for all kinds of different activities. What I didn't realize as a kid was how many groups come there from now all over the country.

Mm. And we have some international clients. Mm-hmm. The breadth is gigantic. They have several hundred events a year. It's an operation 24/7. Mm. They have a slogan, they said, "The show must go on." So regardless of electricity or water or challenges that may happen from a logistical standpoint day to day, they are constantly hosting and/or turning event space over to the next visitor, vendor, exhibitor.

From a project management standpoint, by far the largest of any project I've ever had the opportunity to work on and help lead many, many stakeholders. We were told by Commissioner Schnell, commissioner of the Department of Agriculture, it was the number one project for him- Mm ... during his term at the kickoff meeting.

Mm. So stakes were very high for that. It's [00:12:00] one of the largest investments for the Commonwealth of Kentucky ever. All that aside, it's really about blending legacy with the need to modernize. 

Sarah Hempstead: Mm-hmm. 

Ben Simmons: And about carrying on this facility that really came on in the 1960s, and meaning so many different things to so many generations of families.

Mm-hmm. It's the great-grandfather, the grandfather, the father, and the son all walking the cow across the parking lot together. It's those kinds of real stories that are attached to a place like the Kentucky Expo Center, and bringing that online in these huge phases. I mean, phase one can fit six football fields inside the building, uh, which just seeing it in person out there is pretty exciting.

And yet, at the same time, it goes back to the basics of, like you said, Sarah, the servant leadership mindset of how do we move this forward? How do we solve these challenges? 'Cause there's still challenges- Mm-hmm ... with budget and scale and timeline. Mm-hmm. [00:13:00] Same things you encounter at all projects. It's just- Bigger.

It's just multiplied by 100, and you have a lot more eyes on that. So it's really about leading by example with the team, really listening, figuring out what is in front of us, how do we solve it, how do we, again, with an aspirational mindset, go out and really do the best job that we can? 'Cause it's really not about us.

Mm-hmm. It's really about the Kentucky Expo Center- 

Veena Reddy: Mm-hmm ... 

Ben Simmons: and their legacy. How do we preserve that while bringing on these really exciting new facilities for the next 60 or 100 years? So doing all that and making it look simple and easy is my job. And so I keep the bourbon industry alive. And I don't get a lot of sleep, but you gotta have fun.

If you don't have fun, I think you're gonna miss a part of that. But it's been an incredible process. We're wrapping up the first phase at the end of this year, uh, December of '26, and then we start into phase two, which will go through the end of '28, and then who knows from there? There's talks of other phases and other work, so [00:14:00] it's exciting.

It's exciting to be a part of such an incredible landmark for the commonwealth, and we're just... I'm just really thrilled to be working on it. 

Sarah Hempstead: And Mina, I'm gonna pivot to you to talk about the second project, which is really a cluster of projects when I think about JCPS. On multiple sites to change and improve the trajectory of students' lives in Louisville.

Can you talk a little bit about working on any one of those projects or all 

Veena Reddy: of them? I'd love to, and I think it goes back to maybe what I spoke about earlier, which is that engagement- Mm ... and this understanding of all the parts and pieces. It goes back to what you were just speaking about. When you understand that your projects are Not just places for learning to occur, but also teaching tools and operative moments where you can start to engage students from the very beginning.

Mm-hmm. Not students only, but staff. Mm-hmm. So many folks are not really brought in and brought to the table- Mm-hmm ... to discuss the things that impact them on the daily basis- Mm-hmm ... and therefore are subject to constraints that they might [00:15:00] otherwise have chosen differently. Mm-hmm. So with the JCPS projects, we started with Iroquois High School, and that was sort of our intro into getting to know Jefferson County Public Schools and build trust, and teach them how we like to work with them, which is to, just to begin with, "Hey, all cards are on the table.

Tell us your what keeps you up at night," to borrow your phrase. Mm-hmm. What keeps you up at night, and what are your priorities? Mm-hmm. And starting to stack those priorities, and not just doing that on the facilities side of things and just looking at budgets and what needs the most work. But really looking at what does it feel like to teach here, and what are the emotions that we're trying to achieve here?

What are the outcomes that we want? How do we want the students to feel when they arrive- Mm-hmm ... and when they leave- Mm-hmm ... eventually, when they have to leave? So Iroquois was one of those experiences where we inherited a very, underserved building. So essentially, that transformation was really successful in that we were able to open up those [00:16:00] spaces, brighten them, clean them up so that they were healthy spaces.

Super important to education. And that's the kind of project that has allowed for us to start to work even more deeply with JCPS. And one of the things I'm most proud of us for doing is our work at Hudson Middle School, where we're kinda deep in construction right now. But the first West Louisville High School since the 1930s, and this underserved population, we were able to procure that job and really work with them to celebrate the Hudson Middle School culture, named after Dr.

J. Blaine Hudson, who was a civil rights activist and a huge boon to the Louisville community. So lots of story there. But essentially, we were so proud to deliver a project for that client at that level of magnitude, because we were able to respect the legacy and also the purpose of that space. And now, I mean, I didn't think I could find a better project, and then we found the project that is perfect for Schmidt.[00:17:00] 

A STEAM public charter school w- with the most brilliant- Young females- Mm ... we have met through our educational experience that inspired us actually as we design, as we work with them. So this is in design right now. But yeah, there are certain projects where you know, they're like, "Was, was this project made for us?"

Yeah. And as a woman-owned business who celebrates all aspects of diversity and human health and wellness and mental health, this project is just, it's exciting. We're learning as the students are learning. They're learning about what it takes to make architecture and make spaces, and we're learning about a culture that we didn't know existed.

Sarah Hempstead: Well, so that's a great segue 'cause you talk about health and wellness, and I know this is something you've spent a significant part of your professional career working on, sustainability, building health, people health. Can you talk a little bit about what it ta- what it means to take sustainability from a buzzword to something that is practiced and interwoven [00:18:00] into everything that we do?

Veena Reddy: You have to just not say the word sustainability- ... and just do it. What that means is as we evaluate how we're gonna construct a building, we look for the efficiencies that every owner wants from, on a budgetary standpoint, but it goes hand-in-hand with making a efficient and Earth-friendly building. So I think we forget sometimes that sustainability isn't additive.

Yeah. It's actually somewhat subtractive. So our approach to sustainability is to look for where the project is going- Mm ... in terms of program, in terms of materiality, and to find the right solution for that owner that is gonna bring it the most Earth-friendly, climate-friendly, I'll use the word sustainable- Mm

solution for them long-term. And certain projects might lend themselves more towards the health and wellness of the constituent, some of our education projects, like Cathedral. And others might be more on the energy balance side of [00:19:00] things, looking for ways that we can increase energy efficiency of certain things by tightening up the envelope or by looking at the actual source of the energy, l- pivoting towards geothermal, looking at daylighting conditions where we can maximize those things.

So we try to be as specific as possible with every project. We're very fortunate that some of our clients are coming to us with these questions and concerns, and we're able to look at how we can start to think about what works with their budget, with their timeline. I think we're always gonna be challenged.

It's always gonna be the first thing that gets questioned or concerns, and we, we're gonna just try to continue to amass the data that's gonna allow us to continue to evolve and help our communities adopt a lot of these principles. 

Sarah Hempstead: And Ben, you're working with community stakeholders, business leaders pretty much daily.

How have you seen that conversation shift or change over the years? 

Ben Simmons: I think people are a lot more keen to what is [00:20:00] happening down the street or next door than maybe, uh, 10, 15 years ago, where it was more about these folks really focused on their projects and not really paying attention to what's going on around them A lot of our conversations, particularly in the early phases of projects before we do any design work, when we're first having those conversations, the what if conversations with owners, it, it's...

We always try to raise, "Hey, are you aware of..." Or they will bring, "Hey, this other thing is happening nearby." It just happened with us. We met with an owner- Mm ... this morning who were talking about adjacent agencies- Mm ... or properties nearby. Or this real sensitivity or sensibility around what's happening around us, and how do we do the one plus one equals three- Mm-hmm

where we can build off of their momentum. It's a shared momentum at that point. And we're not working against them by our own projects. That, that was never in the conversation 10 or 15 years ago, I don't think. I think everybody [00:21:00] just really wanted to play in their own sandbox. Mm-hmm. And so now you see a lot...

And it's kind of our job, frankly- ... to do as many stitching of the pieces together, to do as much stitching as we can when it comes to this agency over here and this group over here, and maybe introducing them or just informing the process- Mm-hmm ... that each one is going through. Informing each group what's happening, 'cause sometimes they just don't know.

And adding that into the conversation and really painting a rich context- Mm ... can really elevate that outcome. It can really start to bring in these other ideas and other strategies that makes the solution so much more sophisticated and advanced. Mm-hmm. That really is about planning and strategy. It may not really have anything to do with the dollars at that point.

So that's really 

Veena Reddy: exciting. At the end of the day, it does come back to the dollars, because you're reducing duplication and you're increasing efficiency. 

Ben Simmons: Sure, sure. Mm-hmm. So it's that kind of [00:22:00] where can we find the relationships, project to project, agency to agency, or just what challenge are you sol- you trying to solve over here- Mm-hmm

that this group over here is also trying to solve, and how can we pool those resources and take that intellectual capital- Mm ... and really deploy it strategically. To me is as exciting- Mm-hmm ... about designing the, what the building is gonna look like. It's about how these buildings or projects can serve these greater purposes.

Veena Reddy: Mm. Yeah. It's funny how your profession changes, where it started off as the building, and then it really has just turned into like, wow, this is so much more than a building. Mm. This is just a node in a swirling vortex of energy. And I think that's... But it's gotta work within the vortex. 

Sarah Hempstead: Well, all, all of it kinda gets to that big core idea of servant leadership, right?

Listening for the bigger problem inside the bigger problem, inside the bigger problem, and solving as many of them as you can. Is real sustainability probably. So we've traveled six [00:23:00] decades in this series from our folding chair to a firm of 150 people and growing, a body of work that touches lives throughout the region.

And it's been, it's fun to tell the story. I had to cut a few stories. You guys did pretty good. I don't think I'll have to cut anything from this segment of it. But I guess before we close, I want to acknowledge that both of you became principals in the firm this past year. Congratulations. Thank you.

Veena Reddy: Whoop whoop. 

Sarah Hempstead: It's not a small thing. It's a big recognition and responsibility based on current relationships and relationships you'll continue to build, leadership. The story of the firm is always about the people. What do you want the next 50 years to look like? 

Veena Reddy: I have a lot of things that I want the next 50 years to look like Go for it.

Ben Simmons: I'll think about it 

Veena Reddy: Well, I'm gonna ramble for a minute 'cause you're gonna cut this somewhere I think- We see, we started this off by what are, what are the opportunities here. Mm-hmm. I see the next 50 years of us becoming a fundamental resource in this community. Mm-hmm. [00:24:00] Not only just as provisions of architectural services- Mm-hmm

but as community stakeholders that really, that really are invested here, that people know that they can come to us. Mm-hmm. And that they, that we are reliable. Whether they want us to be at an event and start to educate folks- Mm-hmm ... on practices, if they need help planning. Mm-hmm. If we wanna serve on boards, we wanna be present and available.

We wanna grow in sustainability. We wanna be part of that charge here. We don't, we don't want to kinda fall into the status quo. So I see us really, really continuing to, through our good relationships, starting to channel the energy and of those good relationships into positive change for the community.

And I think obviously, that doesn't happen overnight, so I'm just gonna say let's do that for the next 50 years. 

Ben Simmons: I think part, I think a lot of it goes back to [00:25:00] what does Schmidt look like in 50 years from a people perspective. We are just getting started in Kentucky. 

Veena Reddy: Mm-hmm. 

Ben Simmons: I know we have a legacy with Harris Smith, but I think the Schmidt culture, the Schmidt way of life, the Schmidt philosophy around project execution is really being embraced as being unique in Kentucky.

I think a lot of clients are recognizing that. They're starting to hear about it or work with us. The word is getting out. I think in 50 years we're, we're going to be as institutional perhaps as some of our clients. I think as we take on more and more projects that are these community impact level pieces of work, I think you're going to see more and more thought leaders from the architecture industry come to us.

Sarah Hempstead: Mm-hmm. 

Ben Simmons: Because I think there's a unique opportunity with Schmidt in Kentucky for design leadership as well as servant leadership- 

Sarah Hempstead: Mm-hmm ... 

Ben Simmons: in the market, and people are just now learning about that. And I think the more time that passes, more people will come knocking on our door [00:26:00] like Vina and like myself- Mm-hmm

who were looking for that intangible thing that really drove them, but they were having a hard time articulate that. And I think as we build out more and more of our portfolio down here, and that message remains consistent- Mm-hmm ... I think the people, the culture will just continue to grow, and we're gonna continue to see really, really great folks come into the fold- Mm-hmm

to contribute to that story, to grow out that bench, that roster of skillsets and abilities 'cause I think the right people will share the passions that Vina has articulated around being a community stakeholder and being passionate about our built environment. So- Again, I, I look at it as we are about an inch down a very long runway-

for, for the firm. And it, frankly, it's gotten me very excited. Mm-hmm. Because I, I talk to my friends who aren't in architecture or construction, and they see us- Mm ... in the world. Mm. They see us in the newspapers or on social media, and they're excited about that- Yeah ... because [00:27:00] it's giving back to them. 

Veena Reddy: Mm-hmm.

Ben Simmons: So I, I think it's just this tiny little snowball that's gonna get- Yeah ... bigger and bigger and bigger. But it's, but it's really exciting. It makes it fun to come to work every day. 

Veena Reddy: Yeah. The, the thing I would like to say about, you say what are the next 50 years to look like? There are a lot of things that I don't want to change.

Like, while we want to grow, I think we don't want to ever stop feeling the way that I felt when I first got here, which was that I had a voice. And we want everyone who walks through our doors, who gets an opportunity to work on all these great projects to feel and just be in our culture, to know that they will always be able to find their passion and to articulate it to, whether it be their colleagues or leadership, and say, "You know, I feel strongly about this thing."

Mm-hmm. "And I'd love to work on it a little bit more. I'd like to pitch it to somebody." That entrepreneurial feel- Mm-hmm ... that people get when they are brought into our culture is fantastic. I don't want that to change. It's gonna [00:28:00] keep us pertinent, relevant, and excited. Yeah. 

Sarah Hempstead: I don't want that to change either.

And that seems like that's a pretty good place to leave off for this conversation about the decade, which certainly isn't over just yet. I think our story is about people, of people who took entrepreneurial initiative to make things happen, from the single chair to where we are today. We believe good design can help everybody.

That's core. That hasn't changed. Servant leadership, core, hasn't changed. I don't want that to change. And I think it's those promises that carry us forward. So thank you both for being here today. Thank you to everybody who's traveled these years with me as you've listened to the podcast. The best chapters are still ahead, so stay tuned.

And to learn more about Schmidt Associates and our work, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at Schmidt Associates.