Excerpts from feature article published in the The Times of Trenton, Business Section, November 8, 2009
Trenton looked different before John Clarke came along.
Before the architect and urban planner founded Clarke Caton Hintz, the city didn't have a baseball stadium.
The Golden Swan, a string of mixed- use buildings on South Warren Street, was decaying and eventually abandoned, the historic Roebling mansion on West State Street was desperately in need of renovation and the cracker factory couldn't have aspired to offer crackers, let alone uniquely designed condos.
During the past three decades, Clarke's firm, which offers architecture, planning and landscape architecture, has left its mark all over Mercer County — not just by helping to shape its look and the uses of its land and buildings, but by giving something back to the community through volunteer efforts.
Now, the firm whose staff has grown from three to 35 is returning to its roots. This month, Clarke Caton Hintz will officially outgrow its offices in a train station on the outskirts of West Trenton and settle back into the heart of the city, taking up residence on the third floor of the Masonic Temple on Barrack Street.
The firm will rent the 14,000-square¬foot downtown space not far from the West State Street offices where it was born, but will pay for the renovations it will make to the circa 1927 building, Clarke said — including measures to make its third floor compliant with LEED, or "green," standards.
Once it arrives, the firm will also bring home its philosophy of supporting its community an interest that has inspired its seven partners, during the years, to give their time to local organizations including Passage Theatre, New Jersey Smart Growth Alliance, Habitat for Humanity and the Route 29 Scenic Byways Committee.
Clarke has been on the board of Isles, a Trenton community development and environmental organization, and will join the board of the Trenton Downtown Association when the firm opens its doors there.
And now that its offices will be nearby, he plans to invite students from Trenton High School to intern at the company.
Because the architecture field is underrepresented on TV, it’s hard to get teenagers interested, Clarke said. At the same time, he said, minorities are underrepresented in America's architecture firms.
Clarke hopes his internship program will be an impetus for change.
"For kids who have artistic talent but don't intend to become painters — if they'd like to make a living — then this is a good thing," he said.
It's certainly been a successful journey for Clarke, who was inspired as a child when he visited the Connecticut estate where his father worked as a gardener and saw architect Eliot Noyes building an addition to the home.
"I watched that happen, and I thought that was pretty cool,” the 66-year-old recalled.
A product of Cooper Union and Columbia University Planning School who taught architectural design at the University of Virginia, Clarke then worked for the Richard Nixon White House. As part of the Presidential Commission on Pennsylvania Avenue, he helped create a long-term plan to rehabilitate the street.
"There were some funny, liberal things Nixon did as president," Clarke said, "and that was one of them."
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