Girard Kinney Background — original pdf

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Girard Kinney Park at Mueller About Girard Kinney Girard Arnold William Kinney, Jr. was born on March 4, 1943 at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, DC to parents Girard Senior and Cleora Deitz Kinney. In 1946, Girard and his parents moved to the Zilker neighborhood near Kinney and Virginia avenues, streets named aMer his grandparents. He was soon joined by his brothers George and Eugene, and his sister Virginia. The family home was built in 1873 by his grandfather’s great uncle, Coronel Griffin. He aVended Zilker Elementary, Fulmore Middle, and Travis High schools. During his teen years, he was interested in herpetology, a branch of zoology that focuses on repXles and amphibians. He collected, sold, and even milked snakes before selling the poison to the U.S. Navy for the producXon of anX-venom. However, aMer being asked by a teacher about what careers he and his classmates would want, he consulted with his father who asked him to name his skills. When Girard listed math and arts among his talents, his father suggested architecture, and so he began to learn more about the discipline during his high school years. Consequently, to pursue his interests in building design, in 1961 he enrolled at the University of Texas at AusXn in the School of Architecture where he was taught by many disXnguished professors, including Alan Taniguchi, whose father is the namesake of Mueller’s Isamu Taniguchi Park. Girard paid his way through school by ulXmately working three jobs simultaneously that also expressed his personal interests: fishing as a license clerk at the Texas Game & Fish Commission (now Texas Parks & Wildlife), architecture as a draMsman at the Calcasieu Lumber Company, and model cars as a manager of a model car racing track. Although he was set to graduate aMer compleXng all of his required hours, Girard quit school in protest to UT’s plans to demolish a collecXon of mature live oak trees and the university’s stance on the Vietnam War; however, he returned to UT in 1978 to take a final course and graduate. Girard has been married to Leyla Cohlmia for 40 years. They have a son, and Girard has a daughter from a previous marriage. Early in his long and remarkable career, Girard and his fellow architects developed the idea of building an auditorium/amphitheater along Waller Creek that he then pitched to the AusXn Symphony Orchestra, which resulXng in Symphony Square. Among his many architectural accomplishments are the designs for the theater-in- the-round Whisenhunt building at Zach ScoV Theater, the Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge that spans Lady Bird Lake in a joint venture with K+CDA Associated Architects, and the creaXon of AusXn’s Great Streets plan with fellow architect Sinclair Black. In 1983, Girard and his family moved to the Cherrywood neighborhood just south of the Mueller Airport, where he quickly became invested in the area’s concerns over the airport’s potenXal expansion. He became a driving force through the CiXzens for Airport RelocaXon, or CARE, effort to not only push for a new airport to be built elsewhere but to also recommend how to redevelop the 700+ acres once the airport moved. His crucial involvement in transforming the airport into a community included serving as the neighborhood representaXve on the City’s Airport Advisory Board from 1984 to 1994. He also chaired the RMMA Process and Goals Task Force in 1996, which informed the six primary goals that conXnue to shape Mueller nearly 30 years later. AddiXonally, he was hired by Mueller’s redevelopment team to conduct feasibility studies to reuse the historic Robert Browning Hangar and determine what it would take to allow future public access of the former airport control tower. Beyond his dayXme job and his passion for the Mueller redevelopment, over the years, Girard has served on the boards of the AusXn Chapter of the American InsXtute of Architects, the City of AusXn History Center and the City of AusXn Design Commission. He also founded the Cherrywood Neighborhood AssociaXon and the AusXn chapter of Scenic America, where he focused his energies on major roadway beauXficaXon.