James Garrett Jr. has been building structures since he could walk.
“I've wanted to be an architect since I can remember - probably since about four or five years old - playing with Legos, Lincoln Logs, anything that I could build with physically.”
Garrett had a calling; architecture would become the perfect outlet for his practical yet wildly creative mind. He's now the managing partner of 4RM+ULA, a firm whose mission is to design high quality architecture for traditionally underserved communities.
Garrett was raised in the Rondo neighborhood, an historically Black community that was torn apart by the construction of I-94 in the '50s and '60s.
“My great great grandmother is widely thought of as to be the first Black homeowner in Rondo. Back in 1909 she purchased a home at 587 Rondo. So my family is very well known in the community. On my mom's side, five generations of us.”
Garrett says his mother was a child when their family home was seized by the city under eminent domain to make way for the construction of the I-94 freeway. Now Garrett is designing structures and spaces that are part of the neighborhood's renaissance.
Although Garrett always knew he wanted to be an architect, the journey to achieve that dream would be long and hard. Garrett moved to New York City to complete grad school. Upon his return to the Twin Cities he met another architect who shared his interests, Nathan Johnson.
They decided to start a business together, but they ran into many obstacles while trying to get their feet in the door.
“Traditional lenders tend to not lend to people that look like us, especially younger people that look like us. It's just considered an enormous risk.”
Garrett says when pitching a Black-owned company, not a lot of lenders will see the growth potential in your business.
“You know, being able to grow a lot of times is about being able to have access to capital. It's about having access to work opportunities and projects of course, but it's also about capital.”
For many years Garrett and his team operated on a cash basis. Without a steady flow of business or clients who could afford to take a chance on them, they had to make tough calls about what jobs they took and how they could make their vision come to life.
At the end of the day, Garrett says it was their creativity and distinctive vision that drew in new clients. They were able to expand upon customer ideas, while also bringing new and innovative concepts to the table. Garrett credits the diversity of his team.
“We built a firm around creative use of color, of art integration, of all of these things that are about expressions of ourselves, but more importantly, expressions of the communities that these buildings are built in.”
Garrett attributes a large part of the company’s success to his partner Johnson and their complementary strengths. Garrett is the ideas man; Johnson makes the ideas a reality.
“A successful partnership isn't one where both partners are good at the same things; I think a successful partnership is one where the partners bring very different skills to the table.”
22 years after its founding, 4RM+ULA has garnered public praise for several community projects, from the very successful Juxtaposition Arts Center that's rich with culture and expression to the Rondo Commemorative Plaza, which has become a central gathering place in the historic Black neighborhood.
At a time when many corporations are struggling with diversity and inclusion, Garrett says it’s actually really simple. He compares his staff to the quality ingredients that go in a good pot of gumbo; the more variety you have, the better the results in the final dish.
“So you can start to add to that gumbo, and you kind of reduce it down to the best flavors of it. And then you end up with something that's pretty tasty at the end.”
Over the years 4RM+ULA has grown from a staff of four to 16, and has offices in both St. Paul and New York City. Garrett says he dreams of someday designing a baseball stadium.
“I'm a big baseball fan. I played baseball in college, and I coach my kids in baseball. It's my favorite sport. So, one day, being able to build a baseball stadium would be awesome.”
In the meantime, the firm has more big projects on the horizon, including a brand new Latino Heritage & Art Museum along the waterfront in St. Paul.
(This story was reported as part of the Center for Broadcast Journalism's Summer Journalism Intensive, a training program for young aspiring reporters from diverse communities.)
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