I am a registered architect have practiced in both Winston-Salem, NC (with projects that spanned much of the state between 1987 and 2013) and in Houston, TX (where I received my formal architectural education, began my career, and returned in 2013). Now that the rubber band has snapped, I am back in Houston serving as a Senior Project Director for Lone Star College’s Facilities & Construction department.
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I’ve had the good fortune to work with great clients over the years in all sorts of settings and a variety of building types. While I have a fairly diverse portfolio, two sectors certainly stand out: church and university projects.
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With over 60 church projects in my portfolio, I have deep experience in master planning campuses, the design of worship spaces, classroom buildings, fellowship halls, kitchens, recreational facilities, offices, and the other components that go together to produce a church. Projects have ranged from very small to mega-church scale.
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Projects for numerous universities has punctuated my experience at intervals. My first project was as a right-out-of-school draftsman working on the Chemical and Petroleum Engineering Building at The University of Texas in Austin. Some years later I led a team of architects, engineers, and interior designers in the design and production of construction documents for The Thurston-Bowles Buildings at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While that was under construction, I shifted my efforts to a large addition at Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center nearby. Some years later, I did numerous small projects for Winston-Salem State University, and prepared a study for Wake Forest College in Winston-Salem.
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My new position as Senior Project Director in the Facilities and Construction Department at Lone Star College in Houston has built upon my educational experience from a new perspective — that of the owner’s representative for multiple construction projects including the Center for Science & Innovation, the Energy and Manufacturing Institute Building at University Park campus, the Westway Park Technology Center. and the East Aldine Satellite Center. Currently I am overseeing work on multiple projects including the completion of construction for the new Student Services and Conference Center at Lone Star College’s Montgomery campus as well as the programming and design of the future Magnolia Center campus.
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I am married to Nancy Benton Parks and we have a wonderful daughter Marie. In my spare time, I like to travel and paint. I exhibit and sell some of the fruit of that interest, site-specific acrylic paintings, on this online gallery site.
Barry A. Parks 