Michael Dekker
Tulsa World Business Reporter
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Architect Sarah Gould describes her profession like cooking.
“I think for me it’s more like a dinner party because you’re having to choreograph the entire event, as well as just prepare the meal,” she said.
“It’s not just about the meal; it’s about the experience. It’s timing, and it’s cooperation. For a big dinner party you’re probably not going to do it on your own — you’re going to have other people helping you, and you’ve got to be able to be productive while at the same time giving direction to other people to get them helping move toward the main goal.”
Gould has been named the 2025 Small Business Person of the Year by the Tulsa Regional Chamber.
She is president and CEO of Ethos Architects, which changed its name from KKT Architects earlier this month.
Gould and others will be recognized on Thursday night at the chamber’s Small Business Awards 2025 event.
A Tulsa native, she has two master’s degrees: one in architecture from the University of Texas and the second in architectural urban studies from the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa. She has a bachelor’s degree in French from UCLA.
She’s lived in France, Los Angeles and Austin, Texas, before eventually moving back to Tulsa and joining her firm in 2009.
After its previous principals — Andrew Kinslow, Patrick Keith and Whit Todd — retired, Gould eventually was able to purchase the firm and has led it since 2016.
KKT, now Ethos, was established in 1989 with the name Integrated Space Design. The firm has designed a multitude of private, nonprofit and public buildings in the Tulsa metro area and elsewhere, including the Gathering Place’s interactive children’s museum Discovery Lab, the Vast Bank building downtown and Bixby’s new high school.
Ethos, with a little over 70 employees, has offices in Tulsa and Oklahoma City.
Gould said that while some clients know exactly what they want and the process involved, others do not.
“They not only do not know what they want the building to be, but they don’t know what to expect and they don’t know how to prepare for making those decisions, and so there’s a lot of … guidance — helping them through that decision-making process to get to where they’re going to be happy.”
Also, she said, that can take consensus-building.
“I find myself kind of being a translator, as well, because sometimes when there is a board or a big group of people, they might even be saying something similar but they might not see how it’s similar,” Gould said. “So it’s finding those commonalities and helping them understand other peoples’ perspectives.
“It’s all about keeping your eye focused on that final project goal, … and then how do you orchestrate the different parts and pieces and help everybody to get there together to be something that they can now be proud of.”
Gould said that for the chamber award, she was interviewed by a group from out of state and was later notified via email that she was receiving the honor.
“It was really exiting to find out, especially right now, because it’s intimidating to go through a total rebrand.”
Ethos comes from the Greek word with the same English spelling and means “habit, custom or character.” The word ethics derives from the Greek word, which refers to moral principles and a system of moral values.
Gould said she had been thinking about the rebrand for several years, “because I knew the K and the K and the T were going to retire.”
Rebranding, she said, also reflects a change in generations for an architecture firm. Decades ago, she said, nearly all of them were naming the companies after themselves through acronyms.
“I think this younger generation is just a little bit more conscientious about (companies’) impact on the community,” she said, adding that the firm already went through one name change — from Integrated Space Design to KKT.
With its new name, she said, “No one’s going to have to say, ‘What are we going to have to do with Gould Architects when there’s no longer a Gould?’”
A similar rebranding happened with another Tulsa architecture and design firm — Selser Schaefer Architects — which changed its name to Narrate Design in 2023.
Asked about some of the projects her firm has done, Gould cited the new Bixby High School, which opened earlier this year.
“Bixby High School was really fun because they really allowed us to kind of think outside the box and create spaces that are really quite different than a typical high school,” she said.
Gould said Bixby Public Schools Superintendent Lydia Wilson told her the new high school has made a difference for students.
“(Wilson) said that she loves watching the students in that new building, because whereas they used to walk by right a piece of trash, students will lean down and pick up a piece of trash if they see it on the floor … because they just love it and they are so proud of it.
“I’ve always felt that way (about the potential of buildings), but to hear a real example of that in action has been really nice.”
Architecture, she said, “touches all the creative disciplines. I really believe that.”
As for her dinner party analogy, Gould said of designing and refurbishing buildings: “Ultimately, it’s never going to be the exact same. It’s always going to be a little bit different.”
business@tulsaworld.com
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Michael Dekker
Tulsa World Business Reporter
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