Someone To Hold the Horses
photo courtesy/© Ezra Stoller/Esto
In 1966 the architect Frank Welch designed an outdoor pavilion on a ranch east of Midland. Known as “The Birthday,” it represented an important turning point in Welch’s career. This was why Welch had it photographed by the famed architectural photographer Ezra Stoller. Of the handful of images produced, a few include a horse that provides scale to both the compact modernist structure and the expansive desert landscape.
When I was still at Lake|Flato, one of the partners told me about how, as a young employee in Welch’s office, he participated in that photoshoot. If I’m remembering the details correctly, Kim Monroe described how it was his job to hold the bridle of this horse to make sure it didn’t wander off. I loved this story and asked him to write about it back when I was the interim editor of Texas Architect. He refused, barking something about writing not being his strong suit, but I still hoped to someday receive more details. Unfortunately, that won’t happen as Kim passed away last month.
A friend once described Kim as the closest thing he had ever encountered to a real-life Simpsons character. This was not an insult. Instead, it was an acknowledgment that like Homer, Ralph, or Moe, Kim had a distinct voice, numerous clearly drawn (and sometimes humorous) characteristics, and was, at his core, a good person.
Kim was a mentor to many in the office where he was known for possessing an encyclopedic knowledge of contracts and details. When a project was just getting underway, he would navigate the buggy AIA Contract software to tweak the language and add the necessary legal clauses. Likewise, when a design was almost complete, a printout of the drawing set would be presented to him so he could bleed all over it with a red pen, revising details and editing notes. The process may have been nerve-racking, but it always helped. Kim could be gruff, but that directness came from a generous place. He wanted to make the project better and he wanted you to become a better architect.
After I left Lake|Flato to establish HiWorks, Kim and I would occasionally meet for lunch and I would continue to ask for advice about how to handle a particularly tricky detail. Kim would always oblige. He even reviewed the set of construction documents for the Nelson Street Theater as it was nearing completion, redlining the drawings with the same thoroughness as he had back when we still worked together. Although that project had its own unique set of challenges, none of them were the result of a poorly designed flashing detail.
Neither contracts nor flashing details appear in glossy architectural photographs, but that makes them no less important. Kim Monroe might not be the first name that comes to mind when you think about the work of Frank Welch, Ezra Stoller, or Lake|Flato, but his contributions were critical nonetheless. Every great building needs someone standing just out of frame, making sure the roof doesn’t leak and that the horse doesn’t wander off.
