The completion of St. George City Hall may be the most recent high-profile project Jim Child has played a key role in designing, but it certainly won't be his last. He remains an active participant at Galloway & Company, despite being at an age when most people have long since called it a career.

The 73-year-old Child, renowned throughout the A/E/C industry for his thoughtful design, financial acumen, and cheerful disposition, insists he's enjoying the work as much as he ever has and remains committed to contributing his expertise to top-notch projects.

A Salt Lake City native and graduate of Skyline High School in 1971, Child earned a Bachelor of Business Finance (1975) and a Master of Architecture (1977) from the University of Utah, initially working for three legendary architects at Architects Planners Alliance, then led by Ab Christensen, Fred Babcock, and Ralph Evans. 

In 1983, Child ventured out on his own, starting James R. Child Associates (later JRCA) in Salt Lake. He quickly established himself as a good designer who was proficient at making budgets work on even the most complex projects. 

"I had a number of clients that were approaching me to do projects for them, so I went in and took the dive," Child said, reminiscing about the start of his firm 43 years ago.

For the first decade of the firm's existence, Child focused on work for private developers, which included a healthy dose of retail, shopping centers, and multi-family housing. He realized after dealing with a couple of challenging economic periods that navigating into the public sector would be a fortuitous move, giving the firm more viable, long-term stability when private work became sporadic. 

"As you go through downturns in the economy, the question is if you're going to survive or not," said Child. "We started doing some [tenant improvement] finish work for some government clients in the early 90s and then got connected with some government agencies, particularly the State of Utah [DFCM] and a few other municipalities. 

Working for a public entity was "kind of a conservative approach," he said, "but I decided, who's paying their bills and who am I having to fight for collections. I discovered my institutional clients were more solid, and it made life a lot easier. So, I really focused on working for municipalities, county projects, city halls, public safety buildings, and public works projects. We designed specialized facilities for great [public] clientele and it's been rewarding." 

St. George City Hall, which Child started working on eight years ago, is certainly one of his career highlights, a project that he spent an inordinate amount of time on, working through different iterations once City officials decided to scrap their initial renovation/expansion plan for a completely new, modern building. 

"We were initially approached [in 2018] to do some assessment work for the [City of St. George] police department and got a call the next week that we needed to focus on City Hall," Child recalled. "St. George has undergone extreme growth, and they were looking to expand and renovate the existing City Hall. COVID hit weeks before the project was ready to go, and over the next 6-8 months, we found out that St. George kept growing. We did a re-evaluation and determined a [renovated and expanded] facility wasn't going to meet their needs for very many years, and they'd outgrow it quickly."

In 2022, JRCA merged with Denver-headquartered Galloway & Company, a multi-discipline A/E firm that recognized the value Jim and his staff brought to the table. 

"I've been working with Jim for almost 20 years," said Christian Michaelson, a civil engineer who serves as Regional Manager for Galloway & Company's four Utah offices. “The most unique thing about Jim is his ability to bring people together. He really has a talent for building a team and uniting them in purpose and in such a disarming way."

"I always say my next project is the best one, but I've been very excited about [St. George City Hall]. It turned out wonderful! It's a community-focused building, and everything we've heard—from citizens, the staff—is very positive."
—Jim Child

Michaelson said Child is much more than just a good design architect. 

“He is really good at what he does, architecturally speaking, but he also has a real talent for finance," he added. "That's one of the reasons his business grew—he was able to help [clients] figure out their capital stacks and make their projects pencil."

Beyond that, he continued, "His biggest talent is just this very uniting air about him, like a calm voice, a voice of reason, and when things get difficult, he always has that laugh, that very Jim Child laugh. It's almost like his signature, his trademark. He's always been a client-first kind of guy. Goal number one for Jim is to do a great job for the client. Come what may, that is what he wants in the end. And I think people feel that sense of dedication to his craft."

Jim's son, Chris, spent 18-plus years working for his father, echoed Michaelson by saying his father’s humble, unpretentious nature helps clients feel comfortable during the design process.

"Humility is a big [factor]," said Chris. "It's one of the things that was instilled in me. Architects get a stigma for being self-centered about their design. [Working] in the public sphere, it flipped the script. It was more 'Let's put our egos aside and do what's best for the [public client].’ To create something that is beautiful and functional, but also not wasting money for the sake of a certain look."

Chris continued: "The other is passion. He's been semi-retired for just over a year, and he's still going strong. I jokingly chat with him, like, 'When are you going to retire? It's time to enjoy life and do something else!’ But he's just very passionate about the people he serves, and what he does."

Child is an avid outdoor enthusiast, spending as much time as he can hiking and skiing. It keeps him young, he says, as does working four days a week in the office (generally), with Fridays now open for recreation. 

St. George City Hall would be a fitting capstone to an amazing career, but Child isn't quite ready to call it a day.

"I always say my next project is the best one, but I've been very excited about this. It turned out wonderful! It's a community-focused building, and everything we've heard—from citizens, the staff—is very positive."