August 25, 2014

Architect Dale S. Brookie dies at age 72

Dale S. Brookie, a founder of NAC|Architecture, died July 27 in Kirkland at age 72.

Memorials to him will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Woodmark Hotel, 1200 Carillon Point in Kirkland, and in September at Spirit Lake, Idaho.

Brookie earned a bachelor of architecture degree in 1965 from the School of Architecture at Montana State University in Bozeman, and then began working in Spokane for Culler Gale Martell Architects.

Brookie

He and Ron Tan soon began their own firm of Tan Brookie and later added Moritz Kundig, together founding Tan Brookie Kundig Architects in 1970.

In a tribute to Brookie, NAC said he had a passion for educational architecture. In 1979, he became a founding principal of Northwest Architectural Co. (now NAC|Architecture), and the firm won Spokane Public School District's competition for 13 new elementary schools.

Brookie wanted the firm to serve the entire Pacific Rim. He commuted from Spokane to Seattle and then transferred to that office to help it expand. NAC said he spread its reach along the Interstate 5 corridor and then into the Rocky Mountains, collaborating with his brother Dean Brookie's architectural firm in Durango on school expansions for Colorado. It said Dale Brookie's attitude has contributed to its current reach from Alaska to California and from Hawaii to Massachusetts.

Brookie was president of the American Institute of Architect's Washington Council of Architects in 1982. Under his leadership Washington legislation was enacted that mandated the selection of architects for public projects be based upon qualifications, and that legislation is a model in other states.

Brookie served with the Construction Specifications Institute in the Northwest, including as president for the Spokane area, and was active in the Council of Educational Facility Planners International.

He liked to create wonderful places for students, NAC said.

It quoted Robb Stanton of Lake Stevens School District, who worked with Brookie on Cavelero Mid High in Lake Stevens — one of Brookie's last projects before he retired in 2006.

Stanton said Brookie was calm and reasoned, and assured him that NAC would do everything it could to get the school open early, and it did open ahead of schedule.

“We've expected the impossible from our architects ever since, and I believe they silently curse Dale for this even today,” Stanton said.

Brookie had integrity, was available to staff and mentored designers, NAC said, and he “would drive like a mad man to be at some distant location for a client night or day.”

In his retirement, Brookie did not let diabetes and heart conditions hamper his enthusiasm for traveling, playing golf, the Mariners, and spending time with grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his wife Pat, who died at a young age, leaving him as a single parent. Brookie is survived by his daughters and son, Kim Hauck, Kelly Brookie and Brant Brookie, and their spouses, by his brothers Dean and Jim, and by his grandchildren Madison, Kiara, Thomas, Zoey, James, and Nicholas.