Published Dec. 27, 2022
The blessings of 2022,
the promise of '23
By David Reed
It’s hard to believe 2022 has come to an end. Wow! What a whirlwind! With the new year just around the corner, I want to take time to remember all of our blessings and say “Thank you!” to everyone who's made this a memorable year for our team.
Personally, I've finished my term as AIA Oklahoma president and as a member of the AIA National Strategic Council. I just had my final AIA Oklahoma board meeting, where we passed the gavel on to Kristin Fasking of Fitzsimmons Architects in Oklahoma City. And I flew to Washington, D.C., to wrap up my year on the council.
What an eye-opening experience all this has been. I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve our profession – and I'm thankful that we've got some new blood coming in to lead us in these roles.
2022 also was a year of growth for our team. Our two summer interns – just outstanding young professionals – graduated this month and accepted full-time positions with our team, starting in January and February. We're very excited about that! And we're happy to report that Jun Kang Robinson, whose family moved away in June, will renew her daily work in January from San Antonio, where she resides with her husband and daughter.
And that’s not all! Bryan Broaddrick had another son in 2022, so he's steadily trying to grow the team in his own special way.
Reed Architecture and Interiors was blessed with several new projects in 2022, and we've completed some rather large ones. The Putnam City West High School basketball arena was finished this summer. East Central High School's new basketball arena also was recently completed. It will be available to the East Central Cardinals as well as the YMCA, which occupies space there. That marks a great partnership between Tulsa Public Schools and the YMCA of Greater Tulsa.
We are so passionate about what we do and the opportunity we have to serve our community, school districts, and the churches that have come on board, some through our partnership with Master's Plan Church Design & Construction. They have been great to work with – as have all the clients that gave us their trust and allowed us to serve them.
Grace Community Church opened its new children's addition this year. That's been a huge blessing for that Bartlesville church family. Grace City Church in Leesburg, GA, also opened its brand-new facility – and it’s already maxed that out. They are looking forward to phase two, which will double the size of their sanctuary that just opened. That's a tremendous blessing for them and our team, to get to work with them on that.
These are just a few of the blessings marking the second year our architecture firm has resided in downtown Sapulpa. We really love it here! This is just an incredible community, with a great group of professionals. We’ve really appreciated the welcome spirit of Sapulpa’s business and philanthropic communities, Sapulpa Public Schools, the Salvation Army, Sapulpa Main Street, and so many others. All have been so accepting of us, allowing us to follow our heartstrings and our passion for serving.
This year the City of Sapulpa named Reed Architecture project manager over downtown's master plan. The first tangible expression of that was the alley development phase one project, which went very well. That leaves us super-excited to begin phase two in January. We were also thrilled to see the success of the Route 66 Christmas Chute and what it has meant for our city.
Of course, the big, big news for our firm was to be awarded the Sapulpa High School and Junior High project this summer. We have been working with Sapulpa Public Schools for several years, but this is very exciting, to have the opportunity to design a new high school and junior high in our own backyard, if you will – my adopted hometown and the school district where my wife teaches and my children attended school. To design this school is just an incredible opportunity, one we are very grateful to have. We look forward to working with the administrators and teachers to deliver to Sapulpa taxpayers a first-class facility that will serve our community for the next 50-plus years.
These are just a few of the blessings marking the second year our architecture On top of that, Sapulpa Public Schools hired us to design a new baseball and softball stadium, along with an indoor practice facility, out on their west-side campus. These are just tremendous opportunities, and we are so grateful that people trusted us with these tasks.
As we enter 2023, we all have a great opportunity to help reshape and transform downtown Sapulpa into a thriving and growing community, one our students and families deserve. Our team is excited to be a part of that and to help Sapulpa attract new professionals and businesses to this town we love.
To those I work with – my teammates, consultants, and contractors – I want to thank you all for being such great team members and always working together to provide the absolute best service for our clients. And I humbly thank our clients. I want to thank every person who enters these spaces that we have the joy and honor of designing and building together. It truly does bring joy to my heart! Lord willing, these projects will benefit not only this generation but many more to come. I pray these spaces we design bring joy and happiness to everyone who walks through their doors and help them function and succeed at the highest level.
May you enjoy a blessed 2023!