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
75 Top Building Products | Dec 16, 2019
Top Flooring Products for 2019
Tarkett’s aviation-inspired flooring collection and J+J Flooring’s textile composite flooring are among the four new commercial flooring products to make Building Design+Construction’s 2019 101 Top Products report.
75 Top Building Products | Dec 16, 2019
Top Building Systems Products for 2019
FabricAir’s ceiling-hung fabric duct and Ellumi Lighting’s bacteria-killing lights are among the 13 new building systems products to make Building Design+Construction's 2019 101 Top Products report.
75 Top Building Products | Dec 12, 2019
Top Building Envelope Products for 2019
Sto's beetle-inspired exterior coating and Dörken Systems' UV-resistant vapor-permeable barrier are among the 28 new building envelope products to make Building Design+Construction's 2019 101 Top Products report.
Architects | Dec 10, 2019
Calling all emerging architects: Enter to win the $20,000 Forge Prize
This annual steel design competition will recognize three Finalists ($10,000 each) and one Grand Prize Winner ($20,000 total) for their novel concepts in steel-based structures. Entries are due Jan. 15, 2020.
Architects | Dec 9, 2019
Jonathan Moody promoted to CEO of Moody Nolan
New four-member Executive Team also named.
Big Data | Dec 4, 2019
AEC data's coming out party
AEC firms are finally putting to use project information they’ve been storing in their computers for years.
Building Owners | Dec 2, 2019
What building owners and AEC teams need to know about New York’s Climate Mobilization Act
On April 18, 2019, the New York City Council passed the Climate Mobilization Act, a suite of laws aimed to meet the city’s commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
| Nov 26, 2019
Steinberg Hart and Holzman Moss Bottino Architecture combine to elevate design, expand opportunities and strengthen client relationships
This union creates a national architecture firm with enhanced design capabilities and expertise.
| Nov 8, 2019
Philadelphia architecture firm EwingCole acquires Baltimore firm Gaudreau
Philadelphia architecture firm EwingCole acquires Baltimore firm Gaudreau.
Multifamily Housing | Nov 7, 2019
Multifamily construction market remains strong heading into 2020
Fewer than one in 10 AEC firms doing multifamily work reported a decrease in proposal activity in Q3 2019, according to a PSMJ report.