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Beyond the Ordinary

The world is full of extraordinary. Join me in exploring all that sparks creativity and change.

latest inspiration posts

Final Push to bring Expo 2027 to Minnesota

It’s our last chance to prove why it’s Minnesota’s time to shine and host the 2027 World’s Fair! I have been honored to serve as co-chair of the Minnesota USA Expo bid committee, which has done a great job advocating for Bloomington to host the “Healthy People, Healthy Planet” specialized exposition. Minnesota bid committee members, civic leaders, the U.S. State Department, and allies were recently in Paris for the last meeting of candidate countries before the Bureau International des Expositions delegates' final vote.

Rashid Johnson’s Exploration of Black Escapism

Rashid Johnson is a New-York based conceptual artist who was born in 1977 in Chicago, Illinois. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Columbia College in Chicago and his Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Rashid has had numerous solo exhibitions at prestigious institutions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. He is known for his mixed-media works, which incorporate a wide range of materials including shea butter, black soap, ceramic tile, and plants. He explores themes of race, identity, and memory through his art, often using cultural symbols and imagery from African American history.

May’s Inspiration of the Month: Remembering Tina Turner

Tina Turner was a trailblazing icon in more ways than one. Born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939 in Brownsville, Tennessee, she was later known as the "Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll". Turner came from humble beginnings. She started singing in her small town’s church choir as a little girl and was later known to frequent nightclubs in my hometown of St. Louis as a young adult. It was at the Manhattan Club in East St. Louis where she first met Ike Turner after seeing him perform with his band, the Kings of Rhythm. She rose to mainstream fame and persevered through a turbulent marriage and career with Ike, eventually breaking free and receiving even more recognition as a solo artist.

May’s Architect of the Month: Donald Wexler

I have always admired the work of Donald Wexler (1926-2015), an architect known for his significant contributions to modernist architecture in the mid-20th century. Wexler was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1950 and moved to Palm Springs in 1952 to work for William Cody.

Crash Landing: The Inside Story of How the World's Biggest Companies Survived an Economy COVID Crisis

I recently read “Crash Landing: The Inside Story of How the World's Biggest Companies Survived an Economy on the Brink” by award-winning business journalist Liz Hoffman. It was an interesting exposé about how the world's most powerful CEOs built the US economy only to watch it fall before their eyes – and never saw it coming. The book does a great job of putting the reader in the middle of the CEO experience, from the realization of how deep the pandemic crisis would be, to the strategies they were working on to save their companies. Clayco and our team had these same stories. From helping the White House and CDC navigate how to work safely to keep our job sites going, to responding to the drastic growth of E-Commerce, we responded to the same circumstances.

Transforming the Everyday into Stunning Sculptures with El Anatsui

El Anatsui is a Ghanaian sculptor who has gained international recognition for his ground-breaking work in transforming everyday materials into stunning, monumental sculptures. Born in Anyako, Ghana, in 1944, he studied at the College of Art, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. In 1975, El began teaching at the Fine Arts Department of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. For more than four decades he was Professor of Sculpture and is now Departmental Head. He recently made the 2023 list of Time’s 100 “Most Influential” people, alongside noteworthy actors, politicians, and personalities. El was honored by the Nigerian art historian Chika Okeke-Agulu, who called him “one of the most impactful artists of our time.”

ARCHITECHT SPOTLIGHT

Jean Nouveau’s Dynamic Vision

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a building with a dome roof and a body of water

Beyond Book Club

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Cover of the book "Engineering in Plain Sight" by Grady Hillhouse, featuring a colorful illustrated landscape with bridges, tunnels, cranes, roads, and power plants representing various elements of the constructed environment.

Engineering in Plain Sight: A Book That Makes You See Things Differently

Medicine 3.0: how to live a long, strong and happy life

The Legacies of Two Great American Heroes

Inspiration

I have always had an insatiable curiosity

What causes me to get out of bed every morning is driven by inspiration. Ever since I was a little boy, I was inspired by my insatiable curiosity, which caused me to be a reader, a thinker, and a dreamer.

I can remember being inspired by seeing Bobby Kennedy on TV and watching videotapes of Martin Luther King Jr., and being deeply saddened by their assassination even though I was only 10 years old when I experienced all of this.

As a little boy, rocket flight was a big thing. I remember being fascinated by the moon and the stars and the astronauts exploring them.As humans we are achieving remarkable things that only a handful of years before were just in the imagination.