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Regional Oral History Office University of California The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California John Casey: Beverly Willis Oral History Project Interviews conducted by Victor W. Geraci, PhD in 2008 Copyright © 2009 by The Regents of the University of California Since 1954 the Regional Oral History Office has been interviewing leading participants in or well-placed witnesses to major events in the development of Northern California, the West, and the nation. Oral History is a method of collecting historical information through tape-recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. The tape recording is transcribed, lightly edited for continuity and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewee. The corrected manuscript is bound with photographs and illustrative materials and placed in The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, and in other research collections for scholarly use. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account, offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is reflective, partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ********************************* All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between The Regents of the University of California and John Casey, dated December 18, 2008. The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. No part of the manuscript may be quoted for publication without the written permission of the Director of The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. Requests for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to the Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, Mail Code 6000, University of California, Berkeley, 94720-6000, and should include identification of the specific passages to be quoted, anticipated use of the passages, and identification of the user. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: John Casey, “Beverly Willis Oral History Project” conducted by Victor W. Geraci, PhD, in 2008, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2009. iii Discursive Table of Contents—John Casey Interview #1: October 29, 2008 Tape 1 Casey’s upbringing in Missouri, education at University of Kansas—Private practice and career with General Services Administration, “the government’s landlord”—Working with Beverly Willis on the IRS regional service center project—Strengths of Willis’s approach during selection process and collaboration with GSA and IRS—New information technologies, changes at the IRS, and obstacles to the completion of the project—Beverly Willis’s work ethic and collaborative spirit—the importance of design in government buildings. 1 Interview 1: October 29, 2008 Begin Audiofile 1 Geraci: Today is Wednesday, October 29, 2008, and I am conducting a telephone recorded interview with John Casey, in his Overland Park, Kansas home. This interview with Mr. Casey is being conducted by Victor Geraci, Associate Director of the University of California Berkeley Regional Oral History Office. And the interview is part of the Beverly Willis oral history series of interviews to document her life and work as an artist, architect, urbanist, lecturer, and writer. Funding for these comes from the Beverly Willis architecture foundation. John Casey was client representative for the General Services Administration, and served as the client’s representative while she was designing the Internal Revenue Service Center building. This project served as a benchmark for Beverly Willis’s career because of her firm’s newly developed computerized approach to residential land analysis, referred to as CARLA. Mr. Casey, first I would like to thank you for giving us the opportunity to interview you today, and ask for your permission to record this telephone conversation at this time. 01-00:01:01 Casey: You do. Geraci: Great. Let’s see if we can get a little bit better start this time. I would like to begin with, like I do with all of my interviews, talking a little bit about your background, your life, education, and the things that you were involved with as a young man, that led you down the path before you meet up with Beverly Willis and the two of you work on this project together. 01-00:01:25 Casey: Okay. Well, going back to the beginning, I was born in Independence, Missouri, 1943, January 1943. I lived in the Kansas City, Missouri area, where the metropolitan area encompasses both suburbs of Kansas City, Missouri and suburbs of Kansas City, Kansas, both sides of the state line. I was raised in the Missouri side until 1951. Moved to a little suburban town called Shawnee, and was raised there. Went to high school, graduated, and went on to the University of Kansas. Graduated from there in 1968 with a degree in architecture. Worked in private practice. I worked as an electrician while I was going to school, and then started working in private practice while still enrolled at University of Kansas, in 1964. In 1974, I moved over to the US General Services Administration, and worked there until January of 2007, when I retired. Geraci: Oh, so first of all, you’re a local Kansas boy. And your degree was in architecture, then. 2 01-00:02:34 Casey: That’s correct. Geraci: Okay. Now, you said you were in private practice? What type of projects? 01-00:02:41 Casey: We covered a number of types of projects. We did a hospital in Jerusalem; we did multi-family residential; we did some single-family residential; we did shopping centers; we did factories, small factories, like window fabrication plants, and different things along those lines. So it was both residential and commercial and industrial type work. Geraci: So it sounds like it was a larger practice, then. 01-00:03:16 Casey: Actually, we only had, at one time, six people; but we just seemed to have good inroads and joint ventures with several groups, and so it worked out really well. Geraci: Oh, great. So what prompted you to leave private practice, then? 01-00:03:30 Casey: We also worked for the City of Leawood, as the city architects. And one of the gentlemen that was on the council, the city council, worked for General Services Administration, and was the director of design and construction. And he made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. Geraci: So it was a good career move for you at that point, then. 01-00:03:54 Casey: Yes. And I think we were kind of in a recession in 1974, if I remember right. Things were a little down. So it was just a good move at the time. Geraci: And things were down, in fact. In the case of Beverly Willis, this is one of the reasons why she was working on developing the CARLA system, to look for efficient approaches to land use and land development, and still be able to have a profitable process for developers and for contractors, and keep projects moving. So you take your job with the government. What was your position when you first start with them, with the General Services? 01-00:04:36 Casey: When I was hired with General Services, I was hired as an estimator, as an architect estimator. I had the degree, but I hadn’t taken my licensing exam yet. And I took it shortly after going to the General Services Administration, and did pass, luckily, first attempt. Geraci: Good for you. 3 01-00:05:00 Casey: But anyway, I was hired as an estimator, and so I did that for probably— maybe the first year, at the outset, and did some architectural type work while I was there. And then I moved over to what they call the project operations branch and became an architect, that was my title, and I worked on one of the teams, and we did some in house design back then. Eventually, we got to the point where we contracted out everything, both design and construction, as well as operations, maintenance, and all of the associated type work that goes with owning and operating buildings. And that’s where I really got introduced to Beverly, while I was performing the duties of an architect for the project operations branch. Geraci: Okay. Now, when we talk about the General Services, what is this branch of government really responsible for? 01-00:05:59 Casey: General Services Administration is sometimes referred to as the government’s landlord. And they have different services in that administration, General Services Administration. And the service I was in was the public building service. They also have federal supply service, which provides supplies for all government facilities and entities and administrations; and federal telecommunications, which does voice and data, and so on; also motor-pool type services. But mine was public building services. And we were responsible for the design, construction, and operation of federal buildings that other tenants, other federal tenants used. The General Services Administration was the largest property holder in the United States, and maybe the world. And we have, oh, upwards towards about 400-million square feet that we owned and operated and maintained. Geraci: So really, they’re the overseer, then, for all the branches of the government, and the buildings and the facilities that they have. 01-00:07:06 Casey: The majority of them, yes. We don’t own them all, because military owns a lot.