A Conversation With ... Chris Ball

My dad started the firm in 1974, and he specialized in K-12 educational work. For the majority of that time, the firm was in an old white saltbox house that’s across from the police station. I think it’s a Mexican restaurant now called The Green Onion. That was our office for more than 20 years.

I went to school at the University of Kansas, and when I graduated, I went to Colorado and worked for a firm in Colorado Springs. I moved back here in 1995, got married and started working with my father.

I became a partner in 1998 and bought him out in 1999. We moved (downtown) in 2002.

My father is retired now. Right now I’m the only licensed architect, and I have three graduates, or interns. I still oversee all the work.

What types of design does the firm focus on now?

We still focus a large part of our portfolio on K-12 educational work. We’re currently doing the new $31 million Republic High School and the new $14.5 Hickory Hills school for Springfield Public Schools. We also have diversified a little bit. I have a project manager here who specializes in historic preservation tax credit projects, so we’ve been involved with a lot of the work downtown and we’ve been involved in a lot of the projects on Commercial Street.

What goals do you have for the firm?

I’m very interested in the ability of the firm to grow from the standpoint of our diversity and the types of projects and specialties that we have. But I don’t want to get a whole lot bigger. One of the advantages of the firm is that our clients always get to deal with me as the owner. I think that’s important … for the client and the owner of the firm to have a relationship. There’s only so much work I can do, obviously, so we’d like to focus on taking good care of our clients.

What about the firm’s move into urban planning?

We have done some planning work. We are doing a Community Development Block Grant project with the city of El Dorado Springs. (See project on page 28.) We decided to show a different side of us. A lot of times we’re thought of as a school architecture firm or a historic building type firm. We also submitted for the square redevelopment project with the city of Springfield and are waiting to hear if we get short-listed for that. They want to revamp the square area. We’re excited about that because we’re part of downtown.

There’s a lot on the books for downtown. What do you think of the progress so far?

I think we’re seeing a transition from the initial development, which was the easier projects, in my opinion, and now we’ve got some projects left that are more difficult, whether that’s because they’re bigger or … the complexity of the buildings.

This is sort of Phase II of the redevelopment … and part of that is the new projects like College Station where you have new structures inside the historic urban fabric.

What trends do you see from your clients?

The biggest trend right now is sustainability. I guess our hope is that it’s not a trend, and it becomes more of a mainstay of architecture.

Green design (is) a hot-button (topic), but it’s important, because you see … the effects of our lifestyles on the environment, and sustainable architecture is about designing buildings that have less impact on the environment.

Did you consider other careers besides being an architect?

I’ve known since the second grade that I wanted to be an architect. I grew up in the office, around it.

I did a little essay on a Big Chief tablet in second grade that said I wanted to be an architect, and that my dad let me run the copy machine and the blueprint machine. And I drew a little picture.

When my first daughter was born, my mother had it framed and it hung in her room until my second daughter was born and we moved it to her room, so I still have it.

Tell us about your family.

My wife, Susan, also graduated from the University of Kansas and has an accounting degree. She’s a stay-at-home mom and she does all of the accounting for the firm. We have two daughters. Elle is 7 and in second grade at Rogersville. She’s very into horses. Our youngest, Lindsey, is 3.