Going for the Green

Sustainable Features, Hot Economy Keep Texas A/E Sector Strong

Texas design firms remain busy as the economy sizzles and the need for talented design professional grows

By Debra Wood

The Tower Residences at the Stoneleigh Hotel (Image courtesy Gromatzky, Dupree & Associates.)

A steady demand for new construction keeps Texas design firms busy, but they’re watching costs, employing new technology to speed delivery and going green.

“Any major firm operating in Texas now, particularly in private development, will say it’s the best time we’ve seen in the last 10 years,” says Charles Gromatzky, a founding partner with Gromatzky, Dupree & Associates of Dallas. “People are feeling good and spending money.”

Gromatzky, Dupree & Associates, established in 1984, recently completed design work on the $100 million, 22-story Stoneleigh Residences; the Cirque, a 28-story apartment tower; and the 26-story 1900 McKinney Avenue, all in Dallas. It also serves as architect of record for the 46-story Museum Tower in Dallas.

“The Texas market is pretty healthy,” adds Ed Grun, a principal with Gensler in Houston. “The market is solid in all sectors.”

Greg Papay, a partner with Lake|Flato Architects of San Antonio, agrees, remarking that the market “has been really strong for the last several years” and he is “cautiously optimistic about the future.”

Lake|Flato crafted a master plan to redevelop the 26-acre former Pearl Brewery site in San Antonio slated for completion early next year. It also collaborated with HKS of Dallas to design a hotel and conference center now under construction at the University of Texas at Austin.

Engineers are staying busy, too. Bill Fendley, president of the Texas Society of Professional Engineers, reports a “continuous growth of development in all metropolitan areas in Texas.” He attributes it to a strong influx of new residents.

“There is not enough infrastructure to take care of the additional population,” says Fendley, a principal with Cobb Fendley & Associates. “I see no option other than the economy is going to increase, and as goes the economy, so goes architecture and engineering.”

Cost concerns  Even with a strong market, owners are seeking ways to keep costs under control, says Jeffrey Smith, a principal with Gromatzky, Dupree & Associates.

“There’s a lot of effort looking at prefabrication techniques,” Smith says. “We’re seeing more effort at least in high-rise construction to figure out ways to control pricing earlier in the process because of the rising cost of material and labor.”

Savings may result from substituting a less expensive material such as a curtain wall or window wall rather than brick or precast panels. 

“Owners are pushing back a little on some of the costs,” Papay says. “Things are moving just a pace slower than what they were. People are asking us to be creative and practical to make sure they are doing the right thing with their capital when expending higher than expected construction costs.”

Rather than rush to get out ahead of rising costs as owners often did in the past, Papay finds clients taking a more measured approach. Those with projects in planning for years express shock at current construction costs, he adds.

Gensler’s Grun says he has observed a demand for value design from the beginning of a project.

“There’s a huge trend to shorten the process and to improve the accuracy of cost estimating to deal with the volatility,” he says. “Value engineering has been an after-the-fact exercise. Value design is in process and interactive.”

Computer modeling Building information modeling, known as BIM, fosters earlier interaction.

BIM modeling expedites the design-build process by allowing contractor or subcontractor to collaborate in real time looking at the same digital plans as the architect. (Image courtesy of Walter P Moore.)

“The lure of BIM is its promise to materially impact in a good way cost, quality, schedule and projects,” says Jim Jacobi, a principal with Walter P Moore in Houston. “It enables members of the team to coordinate their work products in breakthrough fashion.”.

A contractor or subcontractor can collaborate in real time looking at the same digital plans as the architect. It streamlines the process. Steel fabricators can get started sooner with drawings extracted from the modeling software. Designers can pick up conflicts, such as a pipe running through a steel beam, and correct it long before drawings are produced or people are in the field.

“The quality of the drawings improves,” Jacobi says. “It’s a much quicker, more effective and accurate way of identifying problems.”

Walter P Moore planned and coordinated underground utilities for the Methodist Research Institute at the Texas Medical Center in Houston using BIM. It also employed BIM while working on the 65,000-sq-ft corporate headquarters of Satterfield & Pontikes Construction in Houston..

Jacobi says owners are beginning to require BIM for their projects. However, he adds that many firms still lack BIM capability.

“It’s generating a tremendous amount of excitement, not just in Texas but everywhere, and it’s still in the early adopter phase,” Jacobi says. “It’s shaking things up.”

Gensler is employing BIM software while designing a mixed-use Houston project with a hotel, residential units and 1 million sq ft of retail space.

“We’re using it to shape the design, layout of the vehicular flow and figure out cost implications. We can do it in a fraction of the time and with better 3D visuals for us and the client,” Grun says.

Papay says Lake|Flato made a huge leap to BIM about a year ago and now uses it for every job.

“It’s a powerful tool, and we’ve been able to use it to our advantage to produce things to share with clients,” he adds.

On the other hand, Smith says he has not observed much owner demand for BIM but calls the move to that technology inevitable.

Going Green  Sustainable design also is taking hold in Texas, although the state still has some catching up to do, says Stephen Sharpe, communications director of the Texas Society of Architects.

Larry Speck, a principal with PageSoutherlandPage in Austin, adds that the United States lags many other countries in building green, but owners are expressing more interest. And some governments are pushing sustainable designs. Key elements include improved indoor air quality, waste recycling and changes in building type, with people living more closely together. 

PageSoutherlandPage recently completed the design of a $60 million regional headquarters for the General Services Administration in Houston. It includes a second skin to shade the structure, which creates a cooler micro climate next to the building, decreasing energy consumption. It is designed to achieve LEED certification. The company also developed in partnership with Hargreaves Associates of San Francisco and Lauren Griffith Associates of Houston a master plan for Discovery Green, a $93 million, 12-acre, environmentally conscious park in downtown Houston that will include a solar energy photo collection zone.

“There’s incredible interest in sustainability,” Speck says. “Those not interested are behind the curve. There will have to be huge changes in the next decade in how we deal with the environment.”

Papay agrees, saying that not discussing sustainable features puts a firm at a competitive disadvantage.

Sean Garman, a member of the Perkins Will national LEED design  team in Dallas, says there is a greater demand for sustainable design, especially among municipalities of which many are making LEED mandatory and higher-education clients.

“I think it is global citizenship kicking in and the reality of the financial aspects of maintaining buildings,” Garman says. “The general public is getting more aware. People want to do the right thing.”

Garman discusses sustainable features and the LEED process with clients at their initial meetings and identifies goals to pursue. He estimates owners receive a return on investment in about two to three years.

Perkins Will is currently designing an approximately 100,000-sq-ft biological research facility for the University of North Texas in Denton that is tracking for LEED silver certification; a 66,000-sq-ft renovation of and addition to a science building at Texas Woman’s University in Denton that will meet LEED gold standards; a 38,000-sq-ft chemistry and biology building at North Lake College in Irving, heading for LEED silver certification; and a biology, chemistry and physics facility for Richland College in Dallas, which strives for platinum LEED certification.

Staffing issues  The strong building market has design professionals stretched thin. Fendley says not enough engineering schools exist and those that do are not graduating sufficient numbers of students to meet demand. TSPE is working with colleges to encourage more people to pursue engineering careers.

Lack of staff is forcing some firms to outsource work overseas to India and China, Society of Professional Engineers’ Fendley says.

Talent shortages also plague the architectural side.

“The Dallas-Fort Worth market is woefully understaffed with qualified architects and young intern architects,” Gromatzky, Dupree & Associates’ Gromatzky says. “Universities are not producing as many young, talented graduates as the market would bear.”

Gensler has increased its staff from 185 people to 230 within the past eight months.

“There seems no satiating the demand for talented people,” Gromatzky says. “It’s hard to find good people, particularly with five to 15 years experience.”

“Finding people has been a challenge,” Grun says. “We find a shortage in the eight to 15 years experience bracket. A good many didn’t stay with the profession through a recession.”