Allergic to Rigidity
Independence of thought, the antithesis of rigidity, said Ms. Evans, is what she sought. ”I believe people trust other people who have the ability to say, ‘I hadn’t considered that,’” she said. “’That is a fascinating idea. Let’s think about it.’” Ms. Evans said the passion that is built into her working personality helped to make her a leader. “That passion, I think, is attractive to people coming into the field,” she said. “People are interested in becoming part of that kind of energy.”
Ms. Inside and Ms. Outside
Interchangeably sounding like both an office-bound technician and a far more public notion of an architect, she managed to cover both terminal points of her demanding job that left her vulnerable to critics. The combination of Ms. Evans’ reasonable-sounding logic and her always-professional manner froze critics in place. With the touch of a well-trained tactician, she organized and motivated the (youthful) redevelopment team that would be charged with transforming what was historically ordinary about Culver City into the magical. Architecturally speaking, she drove the streets of a town that was new to her, after moving here from Burbank in January of ’03. Envisioning as she went, Ms. Evans formulated notions of how she meant to mold the scarcely-noticed into the irresistible.
The Third Stop
Transferring from the cerebral pace at City Hall to an entirely different accent, a strongly physical lifestyle on a distant ranch, is not novel for Ms. Evans. She is entering the final two months of her third career. Before gliding into the sometimes-dense footing of government work 16 years ago, Ms. Evans had devoted her days first to special education and then to computer programming, mastering as she went. Obviously adaptable to broadly distinct callings, she navigated the route each time with three traits that may not be so commonly contained within a single personality. “Passion, energy and acknowledging other people,” are the philosophical underpinnings of her working life. “When these qualities are sincere, and they are in me, people are attracted,” Ms. Evans said. “Within the first couple of months here, I had a sense of Culver City. One of the techniques of Frederick Law Olmstead, a great architect (of the 19th century), was to allow people walking through his garden to have a sense of discovery. You may think Culver City is just a small community of 40,000. But it doesn’t take much to start discovering the intellectual marbling that runs through this community. It is so dynamic, so exciting. When you can tap into it, there is a constant sense of discovering.” One of the vivid philosophical ribbons wrapped around Ms. Evans’ tenure in Culver City was a commitment to “celebrate and constantly probe” the mystery of this town that she found so compelling. She is guided by the mantra that always, what is mysterious must be pursued. Supremely confident in her own ability and the knowledge that every task was conquerable, she says she never surrendered to apparent shortcomings. When she entered government work and found it difficult to speak in public, she forced herself to do it repeatedly until she mastered the art.
Next: Susan Evans talks about the grape flavor of her future.
