Skateboarders are unconventional users of the urban landscape, akin to modern-age explorers on wheels. They defy norms, breaking rules and risking injury in their pursuit of triumph and adrenaline. Viewing the world uniquely, they are visionaries who recognize their strength and often channel their mentality into various aspects of life. What others see as walls, railings, or urban features, skateboarders perceive as a dynamic game of risk and reward. Designated spaces transform into forums for meet-ups, play, agony, and triumph, challenging the intended use. Despite facing disapproval, skateboarders persist, seeing their passion as more than a hobby—it's a craft, an outlet, a way of life, and a culture unified by four wheels, passion, persistence, and devotion.
August Benzien is a skateboarder. In fact, it was Benzien’s love of skating that first attracted him to the University of Arizona. The University’s proximity to skateboard-friendly Tucson, with its plazas, urban spaces, and mild winter weather, meant it was a school where he could skate with friends, stay connected to his culture, ride to and from class year-round. So Benzien enrolled, looking forward to a fall full of skating when, in the weeks just before his high school graduation date, he suffered a serious knee injury, causing him to lay off the board for over a year while he recovered. Temporarily unable to skate, Benzien used his newfound downtime to refocus his attention on his university classes. At the behest of his father, a mechanical engineer, he initially enrolled in Architecture, with an open credit he also explored a 101 class in Landscape Architecture. Initially excited by the prospect of planning skateboard-friendly parks and plazas, he quickly fell in love with the craft, creativity, and discipline of design.
During his second year he had a transforming year where he began to focus and become fully engaged within the program of Landscape Architecture. A lot happened that year where he aligned and fully committed to the major of LAR. As his schedule merged into the requirements of the program he was quickly surrounded with like minded creatives that created a small group of devoted designers, visionaries, and innovators. One of these individuals was, his now wife Gina Garcia who became a great friend during school, uber creative and great collaborator that was where he developed that very skill that serves as the backbone of today’s creative pipeline. They built a bond that was a foundation of support and candor pushing each other towards consistent growth and improvement. Little did they know where that would lead them. While in the program they worked together in the Tejito Design Group a student collective that worked on a real world project giving them experience working together in a collective and provided a taste of real world presentation to corporate executives. The bottom line is the experience in the program provided a foundation far greater than just course work. It set the stage for a life journey.
Upon graduating in 1996, August was hired by the Connecticut design firm Towers|Golde as a Landscape Architecture graduate. During his tenure at the firm, Benzien flourished, worked on a broad range of projects from large scale university campus projects at Yale to an early milestone of Samsung HQ in Seoul. It was during this time that he developed many of the design practices, disciplines, methodology he still uses today. Nevertheless, his love for skateboarding continued to draw him back into that world, and in 1998, he was met with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. To join as an amateur rider an East Coast skate tour where he met what would become a launch pad of friendships opening the door into the industry of skateboarding. After about a year of freelancing a variety of design asks, for skateboards, apparel, trade shows, and being a right had creative as needed for INNES Clothing, he was approached by The venerable skate brand DuFFS Footwear. Being a direct consumer with insights directly from the athlete, on how to improve the performance of their products Benzien came with a proposal to design a skate shoe for Matt Hensley, a close friend and a legendary professional skateboarder (and also the accordion player for Celtic-punk band Flogging Molly). DuFFs agreed, and the shoes that were not quite where skaters wanted them to be, DuFFs newer ownership with a background in outdoor boots often resulted in shoes that sacrificed the needs of what skaters needed.
Benzien used the know-how he had honed during his time at CAPLA and his penchant, as a skateboarder, for seeing what others do not and for breaking the rules, to create a better skate shoe. The result was DuFF’s Gambler model. Though it looked nothing like the other skate shoes being designed at the time, it became a signature piece of footwear for Matt Henley. More than twenty years later, the original model is still coveted by collectors and has been cited as one of the more memorable shoes of that time for the Zig from what was and morning towards the needs of the consumer.
Benzien followed this foray into a career of footwear design, pushing innovation and creative problem solving being a catalyst to the industry with his repertoire with shoes for other well-known brands, including Dekline, Brown Shoe, and Emerica. Leveraging the skills learned early on from Landscape Architecture, whether it’s surfacing, sections, Isometric Views, etc. and solving for the needs of humans needs in their environments the crossover has proven to be a foundation of wealth creating a universal toolkit to communicate design intent. Currently, Benzien designs footwear as the Men’s Senior Creative Director Footwear Design for Nike Sportswear over seeing a wide range of footwear from Classic models to more future innovation for everyday needs.
Not only a talented designer, August Benzien is also a loyal University of Arizona alumnus and a committed CAPLA community member. Both Gina & August’s gifts as a family to the college have allowed the school to establish the Benzien Family Travel Scholarship, aiming to provide CAPLA students with the financial means to travel abroad as part of their university careers. Benzien has also served on the Dean’s Futures Council to help with the vision of the college as it looks ahead. Beyond his financial contributions, Benzien is always ready to support and advise CAPLA students and cheer on the Wildcats during his visits to Tucson.
In honor of his remarkable career and dedicated support, the Arizona Alumni Association is proud to name Richard August Benzien the 2024 Alumnus of the Year for the College of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture.