I know - it has been long time...

Well, it is July 13th and it has been months since my last post. This post may be long as I have so much to discuss.

The first item of note was the Hospitality Design Conference in Las Vegas in May. Tim Cushman and I presented a session about the trends in the Hospitality business. It was of course great to see Tim. The presentation went very well and we would be happy to speak again - we both have such congruent thoughts on Hospitality.

I was lucky enough to take a 5 day trip to London at the end of June/beginning of July as part of the PathNorth group. I spent the days getting to know some of the United States most influential political, business and civil rights leaders. We also had the pleasure of getting to know many of the same sorts of leaders from the UK. We had dinner in Churchill's war rooms with his grandson, we enjoyed Wimbledon with Stan Smith, we discussed world issues at Oxford Christ Church College with some of the world's brightest minds and we dined in the House of Lords with several members of the Houses of Lords and Parliament. It was a trip to remember.

As a family, we have traveled to Hilton Head Island and are planning another trip to the beach in the coming weeks. Karla and I spent a few days in Chicago with Manny Garcia watching the White Sox beat the Cubs. Hank continues to excel at golf - as a playing member of the US Kids Golf Tour, Hank has placed in the top 3 in each of his five tournaments to date. This past week he placed first with a front nine 42 - not bad for 7 years old. Sinclaire auditioned in an open call a few months back for Treasure Island - she was awarded a lead role as Captain Smollett. The play just ended it's run - and she was terrific. Karla has been busy with Maverick and keeping the summer fun for all of us - she is the BEST!

As far as projects go...we continue to busy (I'm knocking on wood!). We continue with the development of East Park with John Gray, Muvivlle in Fredericksburg, Virginia is under construction and the MVP project in Baltimore for Ray Lewis is just going in for permit. We are working on a beach residence in Apalachicola, Florida and another Muviville project - this time in Newport News, Virginia. On a fun note, Maverick was able to put together two of our best clients and friends (Lags and Srinath) so they could re-develop 3 Ruby Tuesday locations in Houston, Texas. These units will be new Pete N Shorty's - a concept I have loved for many years in Clearwater and Iowa.

My friend and client Michael Graves seems to be recovering well from his auto accident, but John Gray - another close friend has just gone through a similar situation. We hope he has a speedy recovery as well. On another note, a friend and colleague Andru Ramker recently endured a family loss - he is definitely in our thoughts.

We have welcomed back Marianne (now Poulter) from her honeymoon! She and her husband (David) spent time in Italy and Greece after their Youngstown, Ohio wedding last month. We wish them the best of luck. Now she is back to the fun at the office!

I will try to do better with the postings......and now for the quote:

"Keep friendships in good repair, you never know when they will need you and you them."...Sir Winston Churchill.


Raymond R. Schaefer, AIA/NCARB/IIDA
President / Founder
Maverick Architecture & Design, LLC