Architect Larry Simons is honored for his body of work.
Who is Larry Simons, and why is everybody saying such nice things about him? You’d think he’d died, the praise is so gushing. But no, he’s still alive—blue eyes flashing, white hair flowing. In many ways, he’s the “face” of Sonoma County. Even if you don’t recognize his name, you know the buildings he’s designed and (often) built.
This month, architect Larry Simons is being honored by the Redwood Empire chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Sonoma County Economic Development Board. “Larry Simons has been creating signature structures in and for the business community in this county for four decades, so we’re hosting a retrospective bus tour of some of his best works to celebrate that,” says Ben Stone, executive director of the Economic Development Board (EBD). “His work goes well beyond the utilitarian. It’s inspiring. You can see hints of Frank Lloyd Wright and other great architects; his works are timeless and inviting. It’s impressive, especially, to see the growth in his work and how it’s evolved over the years. It’s sort of like the Beatles: ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ has one sort of appeal, but ‘Eleanor Rigby’, and other subsequent works, are interesting on an entirely different level. As you study Larry’s work, it’s equally entrancing.”
Stone, who’s been with the EDB more than two decades, points to that diversity as one of Simons’ strengths. “His buildings go well beyond just business; they really speak to people, and they help bring business to this area. One of his buildings, over in the Stony Point Business Park, has a creek [a water course, actually] running through it.
When you spend time with Simons, you quickly become aware of his unusually refined sense of awareness and sensitivity to order and beauty—two things that don’t always end up together. It’s kind of amazing, in a sense, that someone with such refined sensibilities has been able to succeed and thrive in the business world. He’s a remarkable fellow.”
Intuitive design
Del Starrett worked with Simons through most of the 1980s. “Larry is a very good, very intuitive designer,” says Starrett, who now has his own architectural firm in Santa Rosa. “He’s particularly good at challenging contractors to do things they’ve never done before—and he could get away with it, because he’s also done construction himself. He wouldn’t design something that couldn’t be built. He’s especially good at putting things together in a dramatic way. Look at the state office building downtown, where the small entryway expands almost instantly into this open, high-ceilinged atrium with skylights that brings the outside in.
“In the ’70s, Larry was one of those most responsible for bringing life to downtown Santa Rosa. You look at the old “White House” [site at 3rd and E streets] or some of the banks downtown, where the spaces just jump with the murals, the choice of tile, the timeless pieces of art. Or look at the work he did at Equus restaurant, where you have the waterfall in the background and that wine rack that makes the bottles look as if they’re floating in the air. Larry does things that are innovative but classy. They have a timeless quality that resonates. He always liked to say, ‘Long after the cost is forgotten, the quality remains.’”
Starrett also pegs Simons as something of a perfectionist. “You wouldn’t call him ‘jovial,’” Starrett says with a nervous chuckle. “He can be quite serious and is always very focused. I can recall him inspecting a project and going over the feel of the back edges of the doors to make sure they were sealing properly. Maybe the best descriptor is ‘decisive’: He knows what he wants, and he knows how to get there. I think he’s a little more relaxed these days, especially when he’s on one of his horses. He’s really into English riding.”
(Starrett also makes a point to mention a time, years ago, when business was off and the firm had to be downsized: “Larry went out of his way to make sure those who were let go were able to secure jobs with other firms.”)
Getting started
The nattily dressed Simons is a gracious host. We meet at his Stony Point Business Park office, and he’s pleased to show me around the inspiring work environment. There’s water burbling through the central atrium, and the skylights allow contact with the outdoors. Curiously, his own office has no exterior windows, just glass to the interior space. “When you’re the owner, you take the last space,” he says. “What I need to see is right here,” pointing to dual computer screens showing images of his body of work. Of the atrium, he says it provides a place for people to stop for a moment, maybe read a book or have a cup of coffee. “You listen to the trickle of the water, and it provides a soothing, peaceful moment.”
As we walk the lake grounds, he points to several bigger-than-life renderings of the “Peanuts” crowd that he bought and bronzed. The philosopher Linus’ right arm is extended in open welcome. Woodstock is over in one corner, convening with the geese, while Lucy stands to the south, thoroughly self-engrossed. Snoopy, in his Joe Cool pose, remains open to one and all, as does Simons himself.
Born in Iowa in 1937, Simons was raised in Los Angeles, where his mother was a beauty operator and his father worked in a defense plant. “When I started college at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, I was thinking of becoming a civil engineer. I’d taken a couple of years off to work, because I needed the money, and my first job was as a design draftsman on hydraulic machinery for the Atomic Energy Commission. Design: That was my love. George Hasslein, who’d just started the School of Architecture at Cal Poly, changed my life. It was quite a mixed class in those days—young kids right out of high school, older veterans from the Korean War—and it was an exciting time and place to be. I was in my element. The school of architecture there, by the way, has become one of the finest in the world!”
After graduating with a degree in architecture engineering, Simons went to work at a number of architectural firms before settling at a small Palo Alto firm. “I was working with a fellow by the name of John Miller; he moved north and later suggested I locate my own office in Santa Rosa. I thought I might be big fish in a small pond, since there wasn’t much going on up there. Indeed, when we moved to Santa Rosa in 1966, there were only seven architect firms in Santa Rosa. Today, there are whole columns in the phone book devoted to architectural firms.”
For Simons, the allure of the North Bay is the terrain. “There isn’t a more beautiful place in the world to be,” he says with unbridled glee. “The terrain, the trees, the creeks, the rivers—this is heaven. Of course, it took me three years to put up my first building. I was 29 years old when I moved here with a wife and 6-month-old son and just $6,000 to my name. I was very naïve. I had an old Volkswagen and went out knocking on every real estate door I could find trying to drum up business. I went up to Cloverdale, where I met Harry Merlo, who later became president of Louisiana Pacific. Twenty years later, he flew me up to Tahoe in his jet and hired me to design the golf club house at Northstar! But the first dollar I earned here was for doing colored renderings of prefabricated houses that his company manufactured for $125 apiece.”
Envisioning the future
He’s obviously proud of the EDB honor, saying, “I think the idea of it is to promote a greater awareness of the built environment.”
“Architecture can bring a lot of joy,” continues the man who designed the Santa Rosa Junior College planetarium, revitalized the old “White House” in downtown Santa Rosa after the 1969 earthquake, created the Waterfall Towers on Bennett Valley Road, and is responsible for the marvelous “inside of a diamond” look at the old Marval Jewelers. He also ignited some of the early sparks of inspiration for what’s become (and is still becoming) the Prince Memorial Greenway. Famed Press Democrat columnist and local gadfly Gaye LeBaron tells that story:
“One day, Larry phoned and asked me to go for a ride with him. He wanted to share his vision of how Santa Rosa could grow. Finally, we stood on the bridge at A Street, looking up and down the creek. It was then solid concrete, for flood control, out of the ’60s. He wanted to remove the concrete, plant trees, bring back wildlife and open it up to people—to get buildings along the creek and put in open-air cafés. He’s a soft-spoken man but very determined. He had the vision and knew how to put what he was seeing into words. After I wrote about his vision, the Creek People [a loosely organized advocacy group] got involved, along with councilmembers Bill Knight and Steve Rabinowitsh. It took 20 years, but now you have the Prince Memorial Greenway.” (LeBaron happily reveals to me that Simons is an excellent dancer, too. “You should have seen him whirling his new bride, Jackie, around the dance floor last year!”)
“Gaye showed us the power of the press,” says Simons. “[The Greenway] never would have happened without her. The original idea was to use the creek to link the parks along its route, and to link Railroad Square with the downtown. You put those parks together—there’s Olive Park, Julliard Park, Spaghetti Park, Doyle Park, all the way to Spring Lake and Anadel—and you end up with one huge park! We have a great system, it’s just that the parts aren’t yet connected.” Simons may be soft-spoken, but his enthusiasm is decidedly full bore.
In fact, it was his passion for another unification project that initially connected Simons with Jim Brecht, who became his partner for 25 years. “Jim had interviewed me about the unification of Railroad Square for his senior project in college [Cal Poly, natch],” remembers Simons, “and I was immediately taken with his evident talent and intelligence. So I hired him as soon as he finished school, and he focused on the development side of our business. It didn’t take long before I offered him a partnership. Because he was so adept at what he did, it freed me up to focus on design, which is my forte.” (In 2001, Brecht had a fatal heart attack while training for a bike race at age 49).
Joan Woodard is Simons’ new partner. “Joan had been a developer on the East Coast and later in Oakland. When she came to us, she was writing a novel, but Jim asked her to come and do research as his assistant. She’s subsequently become absolutely indispensable to me—so much so that, last year, I asked her to be my partner. She’s now helping me write a book by delving into the interesting back stories of the buildings involved in the Board’s tour: Why does a building look the way it does? What were the desires of the owners? What were the problems involved? How did we meld the philosophy of the person with the natural environment of the site? Those are fascinating questions to me, and I hope they’ll be equally interesting to readers.” [Editor’s note: The Architecture of Lawrence Simons, SAIA: 1966-2007 will be available in conjunction with the tribute and tour.]
Horsing around
The one thing that keeps coming up in conversation about Simons—next to his perfectionist mode (“His house has exactly zero clutter,” says LeBaron)—is horses. Simons laughs. “That was my midlife crisis, when I turned 40. I’d always wanted a horse, and by then I had enough money to afford one or two. My late wife, Gudrun, had a horse, so I bought a couple of young ones—big mistake—younger horses are flighty and harder to handle and train. But I absolutely love them, and now I know better what I want. I started out training for jumping, and then got into competitive equestrian events. I really had fun three-day eventing, in which you do dressage one day, cross-country another and then stadium jumping, but I love dressage and have focused on that now for many years.”
Dressage (the term comes from the French word meaning “training”) requires horsemen and women to demonstrate how well their horses have been trained, their performance and gymnastic ability through a series of pageants and competitions. “Dressage may be the most important part, though, because it’s the best way to become a better rider, and it’s the best way to learn to communicate with your horse and to train it. You never really ‘get there,’ as it’s a continuing process.
“Horses are wonderful creatures, and each one has its own unique personality. My favorite for many years is called Romidor. He’s a Westphalian—that’s a German breed—and he’s a good jumper and very good at dressage. He has a really playful personality; when he was younger, I was on the ground a lot. He’s a very big horse and very beautiful, and when he hears my footfall, he whinnies because he knows it’s me. I keep him at Vic Trione’s home at Wild Oak near the polo field where I live.”
Along with the book, Simons is actively involved in helping the Santa Rosa Senior Center raise money for its new facility, which will be built across the street from his offices at Finley Center. “We’ve done all the design work on the 25,000-square-foot building, and we’ve helped Seniors, Inc. raise $7 million of the $10 million that will be needed. The drawings are done, and Senniors Inc. has donated them to the city. We’ll help the city manage construction of the project.”
At 71, Simons is eligible, age-wise, to make use of the Senior Center he’s building. But as fit, trim and vital as he clearly is, he’s simply not going to have the time. n
The author of eight books, Hinkle is currently at work on numbers nine and ten. You can view his work at RichardPaulHinkle.com.
