Q. You have an extensive background and you've worked around the world; why did you pick Hawai'i to establish your career?

A. It goes back to travels and people and relationships. I knew a number of people in Hawai'i through (American Institute of Architects) and other things, and while working in Boston and talking with folks, they said you really ought to take a look at what's happening in Hawai'i. It's a very exciting place, it's a new state and there's a lot of opportunity and great projects to come along. I visited Hawai'i shortly after that and that was around 1970 and I got very excited and wound up joining Architects Hawai'i and moving out to Hawai'i in the summer of 1971.

Q. How do you adjust to the peaks and valleys in construction and the economy?

A. Two thoughts come to mind: One is that it's very important to always try to look around the corner and take your best shot at figuring out what you think might happen. Sometimes you're lucky and sometimes you're not. But it's putting in the energy to always be very aware of looking at that. The other thing is I give great credit to the founder of our firm, Cy Lemmon, and also Frank Haines, who was president and for so many years set the mode of the office strategically that we would always invest our time and energy into developing the expertise to do a variety of different project types so that when the economic times moved from one side to the other we would be able to get our share of public work and private development work, and hospitality and healthcare, and the various many things that the firm has been involved in over the years.

Q. How has Architects Hawai'i changed since you joined the firm?

A. There have been so many changes in the way buildings are designed and built between that time and now. One thing that I feel very grateful for is that when I joined Architects Hawai'i in 1971, we had a staff of about 65 and we were at that time the largest architectural practice in Hawai'i and we have maintained a very strong position and we're successful in maintaining at or close to that leadership position up to this day. Our staff is a little under 100 now.

Q. Do you still do a lot of international work?

A. My focus in these past 10-15 years has been more centered on our main practice here in Hawai'i and its relationships to the rest of the world, rather than being the guy who has been stationed away from Honolulu and Hawai'i. However, I do travel quite regularly to a variety of different places for the office and I make it a point that the travel is part of my enjoyment and stimulation. But also it's part of the necessity of really understanding.

Q. What did you get out of working in such places like Rome and Uganda?

A. That to me was a great experience on how to be able to accomplish things with very simple means and kind of get your arms around projects and solve problems from the seat of the pants as well as with the aid of a big organization. I think that's the biggest thing that it kind of helped me learn to understand a little bit better.

Q. Can an architect be successful by just staying in one place?

A. In life it's always necessary that, in order to be fulfilled, to figure out what your center is and what your home base is, and for some people that center is not as physically tangible. I've known a lot of people during the years that I was living in Asia who were permanent ex-pat nomads and they did very well. They loved that life. They loved moving around and meeting new people, and yet they did have a center based on family and friends and long-distance communication. For others, staying in one place is wonderful. Frank Haines, who is still chairman of our company, was the guy that hired me and he's never worked anywhere else in his professional career other than Architects Hawai'i. He travels a lot, but he basically has stayed here and is one of the great mentors in my life. It's a personal choice. For me, when I came to Hawai'i I was kind of ready to really settle down in one place and I felt a firm like ours offered the range of different projects, offered the sort of stimulation that other people might get by moving companies and moving locations.

Q. Are you involved in community organizations?

A. We all have to decide what's important for us and for me my emphasis always has been the professionally oriented community organizations. The thing that I'm very heavily involved in and very passionate about is the Urban Land Institute. ULI is a national/international organization that focuses on education and best practice about use of the land both in urban and in rural settings. I've been very excited about helping to create a more significant presence for ULI in Hawai'i because I think that there's a lot of stimulation and learning for all of us through that organization, so this is my current passion and I've been very privileged to be head of ULI for Hawai'i.

Q. What are some of the issues facing ULI?

A. The strategic focus that we have identified here is affordable housing, transit-oriented development, rural community and rural land issues. All of those things that you often see talked about in the news and in the paper are issues that are ULI's core issues that we try to contribute to by convening groups, by bringing in experts, by showing case histories of best-practice projects, situations that have worked elsewhere, that could be considered here in Hawai'i.

Reach Curtis Lum at culum@honoluluadvertiser.com.