We’ve decided this month to write a brief biography to say thank you to Greg Stock who will be moving from Orlando to Ft. Lauderdale in the near future. For many years, Greg has been a consistent participant in AIA events with four years as treasurer and is a founding member of the Orlando Foundation for Architecture with ten years on their board. If you don’t know him, you have no doubt seen him gregariously navigating himself into the AIA and OFA’s sometimes crowded events.

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In his junior year of college it became apparent that he was a

carrier of the genetic disorder FSH muscular dystrophy, a

condition that causes one’s muscles to gradually contract

and decay. In recent years he has been confined to a

wheelchair but that was not always the case.

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Growing up in Kansas City, MO, his love of architecture

started when he was in grade school. His older cousin had

studied architecture and as early as the third grade he was

reading fiction with architects as characters. The local

newspaper had a weekly column on architecture that he

enjoyed. And the local explorers club had a program that

put you in architecture firms. He also took four years of

drafting in high school.

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Every year, the local home show would host a competition among high schoolers to design a house. In 1974, Greg entered the contest and took first place. He not only drafted plans of the house, but also built a model out of balsa wood. The model could be taken apart, each level was removable from the upper floor all the way down to the basement and looking inside you could see furniture and rugs framed pictures that he had carefully cut from Sears Roebuck catalog. The rooms were decorated with actual furniture and ground surface using the skills he had developed with his father and siblings.

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With no state schools offering a degree in architecture, Greg travelled west to study at Kansas State which offered in-state tuition to Missouri residents in exchange for Kansas students being allowed to study certain degree in Missouri universities.

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Greg’s family wasn’t wealthy growing up and making the connections that seemed necessary to get a summer job with an architecture firm proved elusive. He would often spend summers working at theaters or restaurants, but did spend one summer to help build an addition to their family home. In exchange for working the summer digging footings, printing plans, framing, drywall, siding and roofing, Greg was paid in sweat, 1978 Durant dollars. Perhaps this was the transformative experience that powered Greg’s passion for the details of how buildings are built.

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After that summer he was back at KSU and lamented to his classmates his inability to get work at an architecture firm. A professor overheard and offered him a job. When Greg could take a year off. That year he began working in his first professional job. It was typical of what you’d expect: measuring buildings, illustration, coloring plans, drafting bathroom layouts, etc.

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But this experience put him in a position to get a summer job the next summer in Kansas City. After graduating he hopped around a number of firms in St. Louis eventually settling at Christner Architects where he would work for eleven years.

At Christner, Greg worked on a variety of projects that were always switching between schematic presentations and construction documentation as needed. As he recalls, there was a time when Christner was slowing but was actively pursuing some large hospital projects. Greg was a valued member of the team and was working on the company’s second floor.

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The head of the company had determined that this large hospital client wanted to be sure they were hiring an architect that was an expert in hospitals. Consequently, the head of the company instructed the second floor that they were now hospital experts. Once the initial incredulity and consternation had passed, the second floor employees set themselves to find ways to be transferred to the first floor or simply making the most of it. But Greg was between projects and his next work assignment was a few weeks out while the company pursued these larger projects.

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Being on the second floor, Greg was now a hospital expert but still needed something to do. In lieu of finding a way to the first floor, he set himself to a different application. Using the company’s UNIX-based computer system and printers that were limited to 256 colors, he cobbled together banners with a grainy quality akin to the original MTV graphics. The banners — proudly — but with perhaps a tinge of irony — stated that this was the department of hospital experts. He mounted the boards to foam core and hung them from the ceiling grid. His co-workers were aghast, but he dismissed their concerns about billable hours and wasting of resources. “I needed something to do!” he explained.

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Not long after, the company held a staff meeting on the second floor. As the meeting came to a close the firm’s principal asked, “Why don’t we have more of these banners? We need more of them.”

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In the early 2000s, Greg’s FSHD was advancing. Although still able bodied and mobile, he found that the cold winters in St. Louis would lead to icy conditions that were proving dangerous. He had fallen several times and was sometimes unable to get back up. After one such occasion, his neighborhood board had fortunately united at a meeting and went out to find him laying in the snow.

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It was not long after this incident that he enlisted the services of a recruiter to find him a new home somewhere in the south, one with snow but not chronically or forming on the ground. His first Florida job came with a company in Tampa, FL where he worked for less than two years before being recruited to work for RLF in Orlando, FL. His biggest assignment was supporting RLF’s efforts with the VA Hospital in Lake Nona. By drafting over 400 pages of details, supporting three associated Community Living Center, Parking Garages and the campus Non-denominational Chapel, but when that campus project came to a close the firm reduced in size and Greg ultimately found himself unemployed.

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since been acquired and now Greg is a part of the Stantec family.

 

It was surprising to hear, given his success with Stantec here in Orlando, that he’s looking to relocate to Ft. Lauderdale, but he is motivated by several factors. Transportation is time consuming in a sprawling metropolis with multiple centers. First and foremost for Greg is Ft. Lauderdale’s more urban density and wheelchair-friendly streetscapes. From a centrally located apartment there, he can access most of the city’s key parts and should be able to enjoy more of what they has to offer using just his wheelchair. Additionally, there is a robust senior’s group in the area that can provide support, assistance, and activities as he moves toward retirement. Although Greg is quick to point out that he’s still planning to continue working for Stantec remotely and occasionally in their Miami office.

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Recently, Greg had occasion to visit his mother who is still alive at 95 and living in Kansas City. As many of us do as we get older, he recently returned home to help his mother with finally clearing out some of his personal history that is left behind. Working with his brother, they uncovered the model of the house that won the home show contest so many years ago. It was still intact and in good condition. Greg took some photos and reluctantly put the model in the trash.

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“It can be hard to let things go,” he said, “but sometimes it has to be done.”

 

We will miss you, Greg. And we look forward to your Orlando visits in the future.

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