Public Architecture will be hiring a new executive director, which the organization hasn’t had since John Cary left in 2010. What was the motivation for not hiring another executive director until now?
Doing what?
I think the opportunity here is to really expand the organization, to continue to innovate, to continue to develop new strategies, to respond to our mission. But there’s a kind of operational growth and operational systems maturation that needs to happen, and that’s really more someone with a stronger business acumen [that’s] not where my strength is. So it’s really bringing in a more mature business point of view and operational growth point of view and skill-set than I have.
Looking over your time as president, are you going to take away any kind of legacies or particular accomplishments that you’ll be proud of?
I’ll be really happy if Public Architecture thrives going forward. I’ll be really happy if Public Architecture’s trajectory accelerates after I take this new position. Then I’ll have no qualms about, any thought that maybe I held it back. If that’s true, that I held it back from an accelerated growth, I’ll be happy to accept that in exchange for the health of Public Architecture and its success, so that would be really wonderful. I’d like to be the old man Peterson that they trot out at big events, and wheel out in some wheelchair and point at and clap to as the founder, and thank for kicking an organization off that’s become far more successful than its founder ever was able to achieve or maybe even envision. That would be a good, that would be a wonderful thing.
Read ARCHITECT’s full interview with John Peterson here.
