A native of Charleston, West Virginia, I grew up in a home that my parents built on my maternal grandfather’s farm located just outside of the capital city. Some would say that I grew up “out in the country” and in many ways, they would be right. My mother’s parents also lived on the family farm, and it seemed that my parents and grandparents knew or were related to every person in that small rural community. Besides the normal chores of gardening, mowing, and schooling, I was involved with church and school choirs, piano lessons, artwork, and various church-related activities.

I remember as a youth going to the city and observing the many styles of buildings. I also enjoyed walking through new homes being built in our, by then, growing suburban community. This stirred an interest in architecture, but that was never fully realized until my summers looking for a job between my college years. I first worked as a gofer, running blueprints (yes, with those old smelly ammonia machines), as the dumb end of a survey tape, investigating sewage flows for a municipality’s civil engineering company, and eventually as a draftsman for a mechanical engineer.

In that garage-based business, I began to learn plumbing, heating and air conditioning, electrical design, and how to communicate with clients. I began to understand from the various manufacturers’ representatives about current products, systems, and solutions to project challenges. I enjoyed the work and decided I wanted to be an engineer involved with architecture from the systems viewpoint. My mentor found a place for me as an electrical designer/draftsman with an architecture and engineering firm. After ten years working in engineering with the firm, as well as a consulting engineering firm, I moved to Nashville. Shortly after arriving in 1989, I interviewed with a small four-person consulting engineering firm called Kurzynske & Associates. I was offered a position, have watched as the company has grown and changed throughout the years, and have considered it my work-home ever since.

daveb@kurzynske.com