Would you believe Brian and Dan met 40 years ago?

In 1984, Dan Fay graduated from Fayetteville Manlius High School and now was looking to study to become an architect. He found that Onondaga Community College had a great architecture program and quickly enrolled. Coincidentally, Brian Manning had also just graduated from Cato-Meridian High School and was also looking to study architecture. Sadly Cayuga Community College didn’t have an architecture program which led him to enroll in the next closest community college, Onondaga Community College.

Now that both Brian and Dan were enrolled in OCC’s Architecture Program they began to learn more about the different skills and techniques they would soon come to utilize almost daily. However one difference from their studies and their current work was that while now most drafting techniques are done using a computer software, at this time the program heavily focused on drafting designs by hand. This process of manual drafting took a long time and meant that a lot of their college time with their fellow classmates completing drafting assignments. During this time Brian Manning got talking with a fellow named Dan Fay. The two quickly realized they had a lot in common, including their birthday!

Over the next 2 years Brian and Dan became good friends and spent many hours learning and practicing many architectural skills they now use in their day to day work. In addition to drafting classes, many hours were spent together cutting out little squares, working with modeling clay, and building models for their design classes. After graduation the two parted ways. Brian went to work for an architecture firm in Syracuse and Dan started working at Teitsch-Kent-Fay Architects, P.C.. It was a great surprise to both of them when Brian showed up at TKF in 2003 to interview for their project manager position.

Over the past 40 years Brian and Dan’s friendship and working together abilities have grown greatly. They have been able to utilize much of their shared knowledge from their studies at Onondaga Community College to assist them in the projects they work on. This friendship and shared experience is something both cherish greatly and look forward to knowing each other for many, many years to come.