Texas’ 2009 Top Design Firms

Despite a sour economy, many Texas-based designers experienced a good 2008

By Debra Wood

Turner Partners designed an addition to the Village High School in Houston. The three-story project consists of 21 classrooms totaling 45,000 sq ft of new facilities. (Photo: AkerZvonkovic Photography)

Although the number of new projects has declined due to tight financial markets and the recession, several Texas Top Design Firms finished 2008 in good shape and continue working on projects.

“We had a record year,” says Ralph Hawkins, chairman and CEO of HKS in Dallas. “I attribute that to geographic diversity of the firm and market-sector diversity.”

HKS has expanded globally, with projects in the Middle East. The firm, which ranks 19 on the list of top design firms this year, designs sports facilities, including the $1-billion Dallas Cowboys Stadium and a $73-million special-events center for the University of Texas at Arlington. It also does government, aviation, hospitality and health-care work. HKS designed a $151-million, 512,000-sq-ft, critical-care tower for Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas for Texas South Resources and the $250-million JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa.

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Work at HKS has declined in 2009, spurring the company to spend more time connecting with clients to learn how HKS can strategically assist them, reinforcing the brand and pursuing all-size jobs.

“We’re seeing interest in how we can produce our services better, quicker, cheaper,” Hawkins says. HKS has instituted LEAN processes throughout the firm, which is “allowing us to better implement our projects with higher-quality documentation,” Hawkins adds.

Market kind to medium-size firm Turner Partners Architecture, a 25-year-old, medium-size firm in Houston that ranked No. 78, also fared well in 2008, completing a few high-profile projects such as the 1,100-seat sanctuary added to the First Colony Church of Christ campus in Sugar Land, a three-story classroom building at the Village High School in Houston and BP America’s Westlake Child Development Center at the oil company’s West Houston office park.

“We had a record year in terms of revenue for the company and quality of projects,” says Jack A. Duran, executive vice president of Turner Partners.

Duran reports strength in the education, health care and government market segments. Turner Partners works in all commercial building types but primarily on the private side. It plans to concentrate in the days ahead on education and health care.

“We are going after building types that, historically, we haven’t done a lot of,” Duran says.

Turner Partners performed the site master planning and designed a 1,100-seat sanctuary addition to the First Colony Church of Christ in Sugar Land. (Photo: John Lindy Photography)

Growing strong Corgan Associates of Dallas also had a good year.

“We were fortunate to be involved in a number of large institutional projects,” says David Lind, CEO of Corgan Associates, which was founded in 1938. “They were well on their way before the recession ever hit the horizon.”

Lind says Corgan has not been involved in hospitality, housing and development markets, which contributed to its good year, and it maintained its market share in the public school, aviation, mission-critical facilities and health-care sectors. It ranked 18 on the top design list.

“Even in those markets, we are seeing a focus on asset management, renovation, renewal and infrastructure replacement, which are good projects for us,” Lind says. “Those markets seem to hold their own now, and our backlog remains strong in 2009. And we’re looking fine for the first part of 2010.”

Management consulting and research firm ZweigWhite has identified Corgan Associates as one of the 200 fastest-growing architecture, engineering and environmental consulting firms in the United States and Canada. The Zweig Letter Hot Firm List features design and environmental firms that have outperformed the economy and competitors to become industry leaders.

Corgan values its employees and provides additional training and growth opportunities through its Corgan College program. The firm has not laid off anyone during the recession.

Corgan Associates was part of the design team for Dallas’ One Arts Plaza, the first office tower built in downtown since the 1980s. Corgan worked with Morrison Seifert. (Image:Courtesy of Corgan.)

The company is in the midst of design development for a $500-million terminal redevelopment and modernization program at Dallas Love Field. Hensel Phelps Construction Co. of Austin was selected as construction manager, and Lind says he expects construction to begin early next year.

Corgan recently completed a terminal master plan for Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. In collaboration with HDR Architecture of Dallas, Corgan has begun design on the new $1.27-billion Parkland replacement hospital in Dallas. The BARA joint-venture team of Balfour Beatty Construction, Austin Commercial, H.J. Russell & Co. and Azteca Enterprises, all of Dallas, will build the hospital.

On the private side, Corgan designed the first 1-million-sq-ft phase of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas Richardson Campus in Richardson. The $145-million project, being built by McCarthy Building Cos. of Dallas, includes a 15-story office tower, seven-story office building and parking deck with space for 3,500 cars. Completion is scheduled for 2010.

Corgan recently received a contract to design the new Reading Room for The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. The project will convert administrative offices in the former Texas School Book Depository into a space for supervised access to the museum’s library and collections and a media room for meetings and to house the museum’s oral histories project. Cost is confidential.

Charter Builders is constructing Midway ISD’s Intermediate School 2, designed by Huckabee. (Photo: Courtesy of Huckabee.)

Finding a niche: Focusing on K-12 “We were blessed,” says Tom Lueck, president of Huckabee in Fort Worth. “We are fortunate to have many repeat clients, and that’s where the majority of our workload came from.”

Huckabee, No. 35, primarily designs in the education marketplace. While K-12 has held up well during the recession, school districts are now facing funding challenges. Lueck says caps on maintenance and operating funds and on the amount districts can borrow through bond issues for new buildings have affected new projects.

“That has led to districts looking for design solutions that are more cost effective,” he adds.

A new 86,500-sq-ft prototype elementary school design by Huckabee for Longview Independent School District in Longview features a geothermal heating and cooling system, standing-seam metal pitched roofs for durability, equipment mezzanines for ease of maintenance and insulated solid masonry exterior walls.

Charter Builders of Dallas broke ground in February on Huckabee’s Intermediate School No. 2 for Midway ISD. The firm created a compact design with an open feel and extensive daylighting, which will extend from the library to interior classrooms through small group rooms. Construction will cost $19.2 million, $1.7 million under budget.

HKS designed the $151 million, 512,000-sq-ft critical-care tower for Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas. (Photo: Courtesy of HKS.)

Huckabee operates debt free with lean staffing, and it has avoided laying off any employees during the recession. Tommy Huckabee founded the company in 1967. He began his career in the construction industry.

That experience allowed him to create an architecture firm that produces easy-to-build buildings, with easy-to-read drawings and a proactive attitude toward contractors, Lueck says.

Building green“ LEED is still a topic of discussion but not quite as prevalent as in 2007 and early 2008,” Corgan’s Lind says. “Part of that may be that people are more accustomed to it, and it doesn’t have the shine it did in its infancy.”

Lind adds that clients expect LEED features, and several jurisdictions now require it.

Lueck says school districts are becoming more interested in LEED-certified designs because the designation helps reinforce their green initiatives to the community. But other districts are incorporating more sustainability and energy efficiency but not filing for LEED due to the paperwork and associated costs.

A water treatment plant expansion project in Dallas was AECOM’s largest project to break ground in 2008. The firm ranked No. 2 on the Top Design Firm’s list.( Photo: Courtesy of AECOM.)

HKS still finds clients want sustainability. It designed the new University of Texas at Arlington special events center to achieve LEED silver certification.

“There’s a huge social consciousness among our clients now that every one is doing all they can to reduce [use] of carbon-based fuels in our buildings,” Hawkins says.

An urban appeal Duran says there is a strong push toward urban architecture, with people moving back into downtown, and that’s a market Turner Partners plans to pursue.

“If you look at the way Houston is structured, there is more development on the transit corridor, and that will be a driver for future development,” Duran says. “People want to be close to work, to be downtown. The younger generation is wanting to move toward the hot spots.”

Mixed thoughts on modeling HKS employs building information modeling on all of its projects, even if clients do not understand the benefits.

“BIM produces better-coordinated sets of documents and it, ultimately, will provide good data for contractors,” Hawkins says. “We see more integrated project delivery in the future.”

Lind says demand for BIM is off from a year ago.

“It’s an emerging technology that doesn’t quite satisfy all of the expectations certain clients have of it,” he says. Still, Corgan continues to invest in the software and training.

Turner Partners is “more aggressive in pursuing BIM-related projects, which might lead us into doing more government work,” Duran says. “There are not a lot of firms our size that have BIM capabilities. We think that will give us a leg up.”

Federal dollars Few federal stimulus dollars have not tricked down to Texas design firms. Corgan has received federal work related to its core markets, but those projects were funded before Congress passed the stimulus package. HKS also has picked up more ongoing federal work, outside the stimulus package.

Lueck says some school districts have received funds for technology and infrastructure projects.

“We’re hearing about some grants for districts for renewable energy, geothermal and those types of renewable energy,” he adds.

Other trends Projects are coming in costing less than estimated, Lueck says. For example, at Mansfield High School for the Mansfield ISD, the low bid was $59.4 million from Lee Lewis Construction of Lubbock for the 421,000-sq-ft school. Original construction estimates ranged from $85 million to $90 million.

“That shows how big a dip we have seen in the market,” Lueck says. “Contractors are bidding projects very low. It makes forecasting future pricing more difficult.”

Hawkins says he does not expect the recovery to occur until next summer. However, he anticipates Texas will rebound more quickly than some other parts of the economy.

“I’m hopeful for our profession, the whole design and construction industry, that we get back on the road to recovery pretty quickly,” he says.