In any given week, architect Steve Curry could be working on an important medical facility, planning a summer camp or contemplating a YMCA building or renovation.
Curry and his partners at Curry Boudreaux Architects are a generalist practice, tackling both residential and commercial projects that serve the public in important ways. This month, Curry is the Houston Design District’s Leaders In Design honoree.
His father was in the Air Force, so his family moved a fair amount before settling in Baton Rouge, where he grew up. He came here to study architecture at the University of Houston in the 1970s and stayed.
Back in the 1990s, a group approached Curry and CBA about designing what would be Camp for All in Washington County. In time, they added Camp Aranzazu in Rockport, Camp Young Judea in Wimberly, Pine Cove and Camp Cullen in Trinity to their portfolio.
They promote historic preservation and “adaptive reuse,” which gives new purpose to old buildings. One example is HEAL High School, a mock hospital being designed inside Nimitz High School, a collaboration of Aldine ISD and Memorial Hermann Health System to prepare students for health care jobs with good wages.
“Adaptive reuse projects are ones we look for … and encompass all kinds of things,” said Curry, president of Houston Mod. “You can take a church or a pharmacy and make it into a restaurant or take a commercial building and make residences out of it. Retain the best of what we’ve got and move it forward to the 21st century and new uses.”