| Growing
Up Years
Tom
Butt was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1944 just before
his father departed for France in World War II. He grew up in
Fayetteville, Arkansas, one of three brothers.
Tom’s
father, Judge Thomas F. Butt, served as an Arkansas Chancery
and Probate Judge for 50 years, longer than any other judge
in Arkansas history. He was also a U.S. Army Reserve officer,
rising to the rank of brigadier general and the mobilization
position of Chief Judge, U.S. Army Judiciary. Tom’s mother was
a librarian in the Fayetteville Public Library.
Tom
attended public schools in Fayetteville, graduating from high
school in 1962. He participated in Boy Scouts and played baseball,
football and basketball. He enjoyed art, camping, swimming and
fishing. Tom was also a scholar, finishing high school as a
National Merit Scholarship Finalist.
Summers
in high school were spent working for the Washington County
Highway Department, repairing bridges, patching pavement and
laying asphalt.
National Merit Scholarship Finalist 1962
Education
Years
Tom
attended the University of Arkansas from 1962 to 1967, graduating
with a Bachelor of Arts Degree and a Bachelor of Architecture
Degree.
During
summers, Tom worked, first, for the U.S. Forest Service on a
fire crew in the Kootenai National Forest on Montana. For four
more summers he worked as a Student Trainee Architect for the
Western Service Center of the National Park Service. He spent
two summers in Yellowstone National Park, one summer in Hawaii
and one summer in San Francisco.
After
two years in the Army and working for two architectural firms,
Tom returned to school for a graduate degree, receiving a Master
of Architecture in Urban Design from UCLA in 1973.
Military
Service Tom
was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers in 1966 after completing advanced ROTC at the University
of Arkansas.
He
attended the U.S. Army Engineer Officer Basic Course at Ft.
Belvoir, VA, from February to April 1968, and graduated with
the MOS (Military Occupation Specialty) Combat Engineer Unit
Commander. In April 1968. Butt was assigned to Ft. Polk, LA, where
he served the remainder of 1968 as a Basic Combat Training Officer.
In late 1968, he was transferred, with other architects and
planners, to a special master plan team to help prepare a plan
for Ft. Polk to become a permanent military post.
In March,
1969. Lieutenant Butt arrived in Vietnam, where he served the
remainder of 1969 and early 1970 with the Operations Section of
Headquarters of the 159th Engineer Group at
Long Binh. The 159th was part of the 20th Engineer Brigade serving
the south half of Vietnam. Under the 159th were three engineer
battalions, the 46th, 92nd and 169th, as well as the 100th Bridge
Company.
The
159th Engineer Group operated in the area west and south of
Saigon and was involved in road and bridge building, construction
of fire bases, air bases and cantonment facilities and land
clearing. The 159th also operated all the rock quarries in the
southern half of Vietnam.
Leaving the
Army and Vietnam in March of 1970, Butt was awarded the Bronze
Star and the Army Commendation Medal as well as the Vietnam
Campaign Medal, the RVN Campaign Medal and the National Defense
Service Medal.
 
Family
Tom
and Shirley Butt were married in 1971 in Muir Woods.
Shirley
has an undergraduate degree in mathematics from the University
of North Carolina and a Master of City Planning Degree from
U.C. Berkeley. For several years, she worked as a computer systems
analyst independent contractor, and later, she helped manage
Interactive Resources.
Shirley
has been involved in numerous community affairs, including serving
on the Richmond Public Development Review Board, the East brother
Light Station Board of Directors, the Point Molate Restoration
Advisory Board (RAB) and the Urban Forest Advisory
Committee.
Tom
and Shirley have two sons, Daniel and Andrew.
Andrew
attended the University of Arkansas where he received his Bachelor
of Architecture degree. He is a licensed architect and
recently became a principal at Interactive Resources. Andrew and Kimberly Martin were married
in April of 2001 and live in El Cerrito. Kimberly is also an architecture
graduate of the University of Arkansas and is enrolled in a
master degree program in historic preservation architecture at
U.C Berkeley..
Daniel
graduated from U.C. Davis with a degree in history and political
science. After two years of ski resort work Tahoe, he
completed law school and passed the bar examination in 2003. He
currently lives in Arkansas. Community
Service
Tom
and Shirley Butt moved to Richmond from Marin County in 1973,
attracted by the opportunity to live affordably in close proximity
to San Francisco Bay. In short order, community activist Lucretia
Edwards took Tom under her wing and made sure that he became
involved in community affairs. Tom was elected president of
the Point Richmond Neighborhood Council, became a charter member
of the Richmond Community Development Commission and, later,
president of the Point Richmond Business Association.
Tom
and Shirley were also attracted by the economic potential of
Richmond and the future of the City’s outstanding historic resources
and miles of undeveloped shoreline. Between 1975 and 1980, Tom
partnered with Jim Byers to save and rehabilitate the historic
Hotel Mac, turning it into the regional attraction it is today.
Tom also headed up the successful effort to nominate Point Richmond
to the National Register of Historic Places and worked with
the Contra Costa Shoreline Parks Committee and the U.S. Navy
to place Point Molate (Winehaven Historic District) on the National
Register of Historic Places.
In
the late 1970’s Tom founded the non-profit corporation that
saved East Brother light Station from destruction, restored
it and continues to operate and maintain it as public service.
East Brother lighthouse is Richmond’s oldest building and is
listed on the National register of Historic Places as well as
being a California Registered Historic Landmark. For the full
story of East Brother, visit the website http://www.ebls.org/.
In
the early 1980’s Tom served on the Richmond CETA Advisory Committee,
chaired the Richmond Economic Development Commission, served
as president of Washington Elementary School PTA, was a board
member of the Masquers, chaired the Citizens Advisory Committee
on Surplus School Property, chaired the Richmond Beautification
Committee and chaired the Mayor’s Ad-Hoc Committee on Santa
Fe Railroad and Community Relations.
In
the mid-1980’s, Tom founded the West Contra Costa Bay Shore
Council, which became a major player in Richmond City Council
and mayoral campaigns, ultimately changing the course of shoreline
land use from industrial to a mixed use of housing, technology,
commerce and recreation.
In
the late 1980’s Tom served on the Citizens Advisory Committees
for Richmond Shoreline Conservation and Development Strategy,
the Knox Freeway-Cutting Boulevard Corridor Study, and North
Richmond Shoreline Specific Plan. At the request of the Richmond
Museum Association, Tom donated the services of Interactive
Resources to prepare a successful nomination of the Ford Assembly
Building to the National Register of Historic Places.
In
the early 1990’s, Tom was elected president of the Richmond
Rotary Club and founded People Do! to make sure that the community
would benefit from mitigations of negative impacts from the
Chevron Refinery expansion and modernization projects.
When the Richmond Unified School District declared bankruptcy
in 1991 and closed the schools six weeks early, Tom successfully
sued the State of California to keep the schools open (Thomas
K. Butt v. State of California, 4 Cal. 4th 668 (1992). The
case was ultimately argued and won before the California Supreme
Court. Tom also assumed chairmanship of Herms
District, Boy Scouts of America, served on the board of directors
of United Concilio West and provided pro-bono architecture services
for the Richmond Rescue Mission
For
his efforts to save the schools, Tom was awarded the Richmond
Unified Education Fund Distinguished Citizen Award, and East
Brother Light Station garnered the National Trust for Historic
Preservation Honor Award and the Department of Transportation
Award for Outstanding Public Service to Transportation and Historic
Preservation.
Tom
was also recognized with the Presidential Award for Outstanding
Community Achievement of Vietnam Era Veterans.
Tom
is a member of the First United Methodist Church of Point Richmond,
where he serves on the board of trustees.
In
the decade of the 1990’s, Tom turned his community service experience
toward political involvement, running for the Richmond City
Council in 1993 and missing a seat by a mere 104 votes.
Two
years later, in 1995, Tom ran again and placed fourth in a race
for five seats, following one of Richmond’s nastiest campaigns
where he was the target of numerous hit pieces financed by Darrell
Reese, the BMW and Firefighters Local 188. According the West
County Times, Local 188 was the campaign’s biggest spender,
using over $80,000 to defeat its “enemies,” including Tom Butt.
In
1999, Tom was elected a second time to the Richmond City Council,
this time placing number two of the five members elected.
Energy
Conservation and Alternative Energy
Interactive
Resources was founded in 1973 during the “first energy crisis”
precipitated by a Middle East oil embargo. Similar to what is
occurring now in 2001, there was a great interest in energy
conservation and alternative energy sources.
The
original partners of the firm, including founder Tom Butt, plunged
into architectural projects that demonstrated innovative ways
to save energy.
Some
of the first homes in the Bay Area to incorporate active and
passive solar energy applications were designed by Tom Butt
and his partners at Interactive Resources. This set the pace
in California in the years immediately following the energy
crisis of 1973, influencing subsequent state energy conservation
legislation and speeding the incorporation of energy conservation
considerations into the mainstream of California architectural
practice.
In
1975, Tom Butt and Interactive Resources organized and implemented
the first statewide California Solar Energy for Buildings Conference,
repeated in 1976 and 1977 with hundreds of building industry
professionals attending.
In
1976, Tom Butt erected at his Point Richmond home the largest
wind generator in California and the first to feed power into
the PG&E grid. Fully instrumented by PG&E, it became
a research project that paved the way for commercial wind power
in California.
Until
well into the 1980’s Interactive Resources remained a leading
consultant in alternative energy applications and energy conservation
in building, designing hundreds of projects incorporating passive
and active solar heating and cooling, including six U.S. Government-sponsored
grants for research or demonstration projects in solar energy,
including the AIA Research Corporation Grant (sponsored by HUD)
for Phase II Development of Energy Performance Standards for
New Builders, 1978, and the Willow Park II Community Center
Case Study, a DOE Research Project, 1983
Business
and Professional Tom
Butt is one of the founders and president of Interactive Resources, an architecture-engineering-planning
consulting firm located in Richmond since 1973. For the almost
30 years of its existence, Interactive Resources has been the
largest firm of its type in West Contra Costa County.
Tom
is one of only two members of the Richmond City Council who has the
experience of starting and running a successful business over
a period of years with multiple employees. He is the only one
with a business located in Richmond.
The
original concept of the firm’s founders was to create a tightly-knit,
multidisciplinary, full-service organization – hence the name
“Interactive Resources.” Today, the organization lives up to
that name, providing architecture, interior design, planning,
civil engineering and structural engineering services in-house.
In addition, long time relationships with dozens of specialty
consultants makes Interactive Resources one of the most diversified
firms of its size in the entire Bay Area.
Tom
is licensed as an architect in several states and as a general
contractor in California. He has been previously licensed as
a real estate broker in California and has substantial education
and experience in real estate development and real estate economics.
In
his professional career, Tom continues to pursue multiple interests,
all of which have served him well as background for his work
on the Richmond City Council.
Architectural
Design
Tom Butt has served as the principal in charge or project
architect for a large number of building projects throughout
the Bay Area and California. Local examples include the Point
Richmond Tech Center I, the Richmond PG &E Service Center,
Mariner Square, Baltic Square and alterations to the Social
Security Federal Building.
Other
recent Bay Area projects include visitor facilities at Stag’s
Leap Wine Cellars in Napa and Beringer Winery in St. Helena,
seismic retrofit of four classroom buildings at the College
of San Mateo and the Margaret Lesher Student Union building
at Diablo Valley College.
Tom
Butt is a recognized expert in the field of building diagnostics
-- the art and science of investigating building problems and
failures, such as leaks, structural collapse, mold damage, wood
decay and water vapor damage. Many diagnostic assignments are
related to construction defect litigation, and Tom has served
as an expert witness on hundreds of such cases. Interactive
Resources not only provides the investigation of construction
defects; the firm often provides the design and construction
administration for repairs.
Tom
has written numerous articles on construction technology and
has authored or co-authored a number of national construction
standards under the auspices of ASTM (American Society for Testing
and Materials), where he serves on several committees and choirs
several task groups.
Historic
Preservation
Tom Butt continues a long interest in historic preservation.
With Tom as principal in charge or project manager, Interactive
Resources has completed more than 100 projects involving restoration
or rehabilitation of historic structures, many of which are
listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Tom has lectured
widely on historic preservation practice to groups including
the National Trust for Historic Preservation Annual Convention,
the Monterey Design Conference, and many civic clubs and organizations.
Under Tom’s
direction, Interactive Resources has prepared and administered
numerous successful grant applications for historic preservation
projects and National Register Nominations
Real
Estate Development
Tom has always been fascinated by the concept of “architect
as developer” as a way of way of controlling the quality and
design of a project.
At
UCLA, Tom’s master’s thesis explored the relationship between
design and real estate economics, and his thesis committee included
a representative from both the Graduate School of Management
and the School of Architecture and Urban Planning.
Tom
also completed the coursework for and obtained a California
real estate broker’s license in order to learn more about the
dynamics of the real estate marketplace.
In
the late 1970’s, Tom joined with Jim Byers to purchase the burned
out shell of the Hotel Mac and restore it to become a Richmond
landmark. Tom was both architect and general contractor for
the project.
More
recently, Tom has been both the architect and Development project manager for two commercial
projects in Point Richmond.
Coit Tower
San Francisco, CA
Interactive
Resources provided diagnostic, structural engineering and waterproofing
design for its rehabilitation
Hotel Mac
Recreation
and Relaxation
Tom
and Shirley both prefer outdoor activities, including hiking
and backpacking, canoeing and gardening. For many summers, they
have hiked and camped in the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains,
especially in the Yellowstone Park back country, where Tom worked
summers during his college years.
 Because
of the high fire hazards in the Point Richmond hills where they
live, the Butts have acquired a small herd of goats to keep
the brush down.
For
several years, Tom milked the goats and produced a very popular
goat cheese, but that proved to be too consuming an activity.
Tom
also maintains a vegetable garden and keeps bees, producing
a fine Nicholl Knob mixed herb honey.
|
Kimberly, Andrew, Daniel, Tom and Shirley
