Brent Simmons, born in September of 1986, is a Kansas native and longtime resident of the I-70 corridor. he spent his early years in Olathe, Kansas before moving with his family to Columbia, Missouri in 1995. Following high school (technically — he’d been homeschooled since the fifth grade, and survived with only minor social awkwardness!) he moved back to Kansas City as his dad took a new job, only to move again a few months later as he started a college career at the University of Kansas.
This move took him to Stephenson Scholarship Hall, home of the “Bastard Sons of Lyle.” He lived in the hall for three years, managing the hall kitchen in his third year. He moved out for good at the end of the Spring 2008 semester and currently resides in a house shared with two other Lylemen, who tolerate his tendency to monopolize the garage.
A student in the School of Architecture, Brent has grown up in a culture of design. His father, also a KU alumnus, was a former Associate at BNIM Architects in Kansas City, and moved on into client-side architecture with the University of Missouri System before leaving the field for facilities management. He has interned at design and architecture firms large and small throughout high school and college, including a print shop and a design collaborative responsible for many custom homes in the Kansas City area. In school Brent has maintained very high marks in his design studios and is well-regarded by his peers for his unique insights and perspectives. In the spring of 2009, he was invited to attend the Kansas City Design Center for his fifth-year studio option, where he researched and developed a unique and innovative approach to small-scale urban public spaces.
Brent maintains an interest in a number of hobbies, ranging from music to computers to automobiles. He plays guitar, occasionally filling gaps for his church’s praise band, and has fond memories of his high school youth group’s band, the Flying Llamas of Peace. FLoP, as it was also known, is possibly the only band to have ever performed a punk-rock rendition of “Joy To The World” for a Christmas service.
As a computer enthusiast, Brent has built several systems, most of them from accumulated spare parts. He has many years of experience as an amateur system builder to draw on when diagnosing hardware and software issues, and keeps up to date with the latest in technology.
Brent has also had a long-standing interest in cars, but it is one that has remained low-key until recently, when he purchased his own car, a Torino Red 1991 Honda CRX DX (his previous daily drivers, first a 1989 Lincoln Town Car and then a 1993 Nissan Maxima, were the family’s cars). Brent has taken an interest in the maintenance and repair of the car, and took it to his first autocross in July 2008.
In the remainder of his spare time, Brent enjoys reading science fiction novels and attempting to write one of his own. He also may often be found playing an MMORPG, or occasionally an RPG of the pen-and-paper variety.