Pro Forma Architecture, a 17-year-old Dallas-based firm, has merged with PGAL, an international architectural and engineering firm based in Houston and operating nine other offices in the U.S. and one in Mexico City.
Founded in 1946, PGAL employs more than 200 architects, planners, engineers, and designers. It has a wide-ranging portfolio in office, transportation, hospitality, education, healthcare, recreation, and government. (PGAL just got the okay from the city council at College Station, Texas, for a $1.96 million contract to design a new police station that will sit on 12 acres of city-owned property.)
Pro Forma specializes in designing municipal projects like libraries, senior centers, and fire and police stations. Through this merger, PGAL will expand Pro Forma’s expertise for its growing client list in Texas’s north and central regions.
“Now, there’s no projects we can’t pursue.”
– Jeff Bulla, Co-founder of Pro Forma
Jeff Bulla, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, Pro Forma’s co-founder, is staying on as Principal at PGAL’s Dallas office. He and his company’s four employees moved into PGAL’s office in January.
The 54-year-old Bulla tells BD+C that he began to question Pro Forma’s ability to compete as an independent firm in North Texas when the last recession was raging in 2008-2009. “The big firms started fishing in my pond and going after everything in sight,” he recalls. That made it harder for Pro Forma to get projects and offer competitive packages.
Bulla says he’d been approached by a number of firms about merger opportunities over the past 18 months, but nothing came of those conversations until PGAL came calling last October. At the time PGAL was going through a leadership transition in its Dallas office, which has been around since the early 1990s.
Pro Forma was on PGAL’s radar, says Bulla, because the two firms had competed for projects in several Texas markets, including PGAL’s home base in Houston. “They decided to look for a firm that already had an established reputation,” says Bulla.
He says he was attracted to PGAL’s culture and values, particularly its requirement that all of its principals be actively involved in projects. “I was impressed when I heard that the CEO had an office on the production floor.”
Bulla notes that PGAL’s operations are cloud-based, making collaboration among its offices around the country much easier and more likely. He also singles out PGAL’s generous employee-benefits package, and the company’s commitment to maintaining a stable workforce by shifting jobs among its offices depending on workload, as contributing factors to his decision to sell Pro Forma.
“Now, there’s no projects we can’t pursue,” says Bulla, who is especially eager to take advantage of corporate relocations to Texas. To bolster the Dallas office, he says “we’re looking for talent,” specifically “creative interns proficient in Revit.” He intends to add project architects and managers, and is looking longer term toward possibly adding an engineering principal to the office.
Related Stories
Giants 400 | Aug 27, 2021
2021 Healthcare Sector Giants: Top architecture, engineering, and construction firms in the U.S. healthcare facilities sector
HDR, AECOM, Turner Construction, and Brasfield & Gorrie head BD+C's rankings of the nation's largest healthcare facilities sector architecture, engineering, and construction firms, as reported in the 2021 Giants 400 Report.
Giants 400 | Aug 27, 2021
2021 Office Sector Giants: Top architecture, engineering, and construction firms in the U.S. office building sector
Gensler, Jacobs, Turner Construction, and STO Building Group head BD+C's rankings of the nation's largest office building sector architecture, engineering, and construction firms, as reported in the 2021 Giants 400 Report.a
Giants 400 | Aug 26, 2021
2021 University Giants: Top architecture, engineering, and construction firms in the higher education sector
Gensler, AECOM, Turner Construction, and CannonDesign head BD+C's rankings of the nation's largest university sector architecture, engineering, and construction firms, as reported in the 2021 Giants 400 Report.
Giants 400 | Aug 26, 2021
2021 Data Center Giants: Top architecture, engineering, and construction firms in the U.S. data center facilities sector
Corgan, Holder Construction, Jacobs, and Whiting-Turner top BD+C's rankings of the nation's largest data center facilities sector architecture, engineering, and construction firms, as reported in the 2021 Giants 400 Report.
Hotel Facilities | Aug 26, 2021
Building hotels with modules, with citizenM's Menno Hilberts
In this exclusive interview for HorizonTV, Menno Hilberts, Managing Director of Project Management with hotelier citizenM, explains how the company is employing modular construction to help double its presence in the U.S.
Giants 400 | Aug 25, 2021
Top 40 Engineering/Architecture Firms for 2021
Jacobs, AECOM, Burns & McDonnell, and Alfa Tech top the rankings of the nation's largest engineering architecture (EA) firms for nonresidential buildings and multifamily buildings work, as reported in Building Design+Construction's 2021 Giants 400 Report.
Giants 400 | Aug 25, 2021
Top 95 Architecture/Engineering Firms for 2021
Stantec, HDR, HOK, and SOM top the rankings of the nation's largest architecture engineering (AE) firms for nonresidential and multifamily buildings work, as reported in Building Design+Construction's 2021 Giants 400 Report.
Giants 400 | Aug 25, 2021
Top 160 Architecture Firms for 2021
Gensler, Perkins and Will, HKS, and Perkins Eastman top the rankings of the nation's largest architecture firms for nonresidential and multifamily buildings work, as reported in Building Design+Construction's 2021 Giants 400 Report.
Sports and Recreational Facilities | Aug 25, 2021
The rise of entertainment districts and the inside-out stadium
Fiserv Forum, home to the 2021 NBA Champion Milwaukee Bucks, proved that the design of the space outside a stadium is just as important as inside.
Architects | Aug 24, 2021
AIA’s Compensation Report reveals how architecture firms weathered the pandemic
According to the report, architecture firms lost 16,000 positions between February and their low in July of 2020.