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In this segment of KSMU's Sense of Community Series, Michele Skalicky profiles architect Tim Rosenbury.
Tim Rosenbury was born a New Year’s baby in the western suburbs of Chicago. He was three when his family moved to a small town in Central Illinois and he was in 6th grade when they moved to suburban Memphis where Tim eventually graduated from high school.The Springfield architect who serves as executive vice president of Butler, Rosenbury and Partners, graduated from Mississippi State with a bachelor of architecture. During summers he was there, he worked in several different architecture firms…
"My very first job was measuring old, abandoned warehouses along the Mississippi Riverbluff that would then be renovated, and so, I began working on the renovation of buildings at the very beginning of my career."
There were a lot of opportunities for renovating old buildings in downtown Memphis then. One project he worked on was the Orpheum Theatre, which he calls Memphis’ version of the Gillioz.Rosenbury met his wife Genie, and they moved to her hometown of Springfield in 1984. One of the reasons he came here was for the chance to begin designing new buildings...
"By that time--three of four years into practicing full-time--I had only done one new building, and so I thought, 'well, I'm going to get to do new buildings,' and it's a lot different practice doing new buildings than preserving and renovating old ones. And then, all of a sudden, it seemed like about ten years ago, I started doing a lot more of the renovation work I started my career doing."
Rosenbury has his mark on several public buildings in Springfield—the Juanita K. Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts, the Springfield Expo Center, the Federal Courthouse and the headquarters of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce among others.He’s proud of the work that he’s done and continues to do, but that’s not all he spends his time on. He’s currently finishing up a one-year term as chairman of the Springfield Chamber and he sits on two boards he considers crucial to the well-being of Springfield, including the Council of Churches of the Ozarks…
"The work of the agencies of the Council of Churches is so important in maintaining a safety net for so many families."
His leadership style, he says, is not to lead from the front or the back, but to lead from the middle—seeking a common ground for all…
"I think it's a cliche and maybe a little bit starry-eyed to think that every solution can be a win for all, but I think--I always try to seek from people what we have in common as opposed to what makes us different."
He’s been on the Salvation Army’s Community Advisory Board for at least a dozen years.Several years ago, Rosenbury and two others had purchased some downtown Springfield buildings—one was a building that had been donated to the Salvation Army, which the organization then put up for sale—the old Seville Hotel. The building, which Rosenbury says was in terrible shape, was home to several indigent people.He and the other investors were responsible for closing the Seville as single-room occupancy housing. But they didn’t just throw the people out—they found a better place for them to live with the help of the city of Springfield…
"But it was at that point right after that that I got a phone call from somebody on the board of the Salvation Army who said, 'do you want to be on our board?' and I said, 'not only do I want to be, I think I need to be after what I've just done,' but the Salvation Army is another one of those agencies that do so much behind the scenes."
It would be easy to just sit back and let others help out, but that’s not how Tim Rosenbury operates. He ponders why he feels the need to be involved in his community…
"I think part of it is that I was a middle child (laughs) of seven kids, and in our household the rule was if you wanted something done you'd better do it because mom and dad can't help you, they're busy with other things, and so it just seemed necessary."
He also admits to having a commercial interest in volunteering—but only in that he wants to give back to a city that has been so good to his business and to demonstrate his commitment to the community.One of the issues Rosenbury is most passionate about is communicating the importance of cultural diversity to long-term economic sustainability—something the Springfield Chamber of Commerce adopted as one of its key strategic priorities…
"The more I spend time working on it, the more it works on me."
He’s also interested in the quality of life for people in Springfield. He’d like to see the older parts of Springfield, including its neighborhoods preserved and renovated…
"Because I think decent housing for everyone should be a priority for our community."
He says someday the legacy he hopes to leave will include his two sons—Charlie and George whom he’s very proud of, his work as an architect and the business he’s helped to grow—Butler, Rosenbury and Partners.And a story about Tim Rosenbury wouldn’t be complete without mentioning his unique look in the form of the round glasses he’s known for wearing…
"There's a tradition among architects for wearing round glasses. Phillip Johnson had them, but the granddaddy of them all...was the Swiss architect Le Corbusier, and he had these big fat round glasses that, I guess, in the 50s and 60s, every young architect had to wear round glasses like that."
He says it’s helped, too, that he has horrible eyesight and has to wear glasses, so he decided to make the best of the situation…
"And so I'm the guy with the big round goofy glasses."
You can find this story and the others in the SOC series on our website ksmu.org.For KSMU, I’m Michele Skalicky.
