Clint Menefee

Clint leads SmithGroup's Higher Education studio in Texas and is a key player in the design of recreation and wellness facilities, which means he spends a lot of time guiding the design and construction of recreation centers on university campuses. Community recreation centers are a big piece of the studio's pie, too. These aren't your parents' gymnasiums either: Today's rec centers include climbing walls, swimming pools, synthetic playing fields, cardio/weight rooms, training/sports medicine facilities and much more. What a perfect fit for a guy who says his two passions are fitness and architecture. "I love the thought of being a part of creating healthy lifestyles in our young people," he says. "In a campus setting, students are creating lifelong healthy habits, and our architecture can help facilitate that." And like committing to a workout routine, Clint is dedicated to each project he works on. "Sweat the small stuff," he says. "A successful project is made up of hundreds of ‘small’ decisions and details that we took the effort to sweat."