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
Laboratories | Nov 8, 2023
Boston’s FORUM building to support cutting-edge life sciences research and development
Global real estate companies Lendlease and Ivanhoé Cambridge recently announced the topping-out of FORUM, a nine-story, 350,000-sf life science building in Boston. Located in Boston Landing, a 15-acre mixed-use community, the $545 million project will achieve operational net zero carbon upon completion in 2024.
Retail Centers | Nov 7, 2023
Omnichannel experiences, mixed-use development among top retail design trends for 2023-2024
Retailer survival continues to hinge on retail design trends like blending online and in-person shopping and mixing retail with other building types, such as offices and residential.
Giants 400 | Nov 6, 2023
Top 110 Cultural Facility Architecture Firms for 2023
Populous, Gensler, HGA, DLR Group, and Quinn Evans top BD+C's ranking of the nation's largest cultural facilities sector architecture and architecture engineering (AE) firms for 2023, as reported in the 2023 Giants 400 Report. Note: This ranking includes revenue from all cultural building sectors, including concert venues, art galleries, museums, performing arts centers, and public libraries.
Giants 400 | Nov 6, 2023
Top 170 Government Building Architecture Firms for 2023
Page Southerland Page, Gensler, Stantec, HOK, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill top BD+C's ranking of the nation's largest government building sector architecture and architecture engineering (AE) firms for 2023, as reported in the 2023 Giants 400 Report. Note: This ranking includes revenue from all government building sectors, including federal, state, local, military, and Veterans Affairs (VA) buildings.
Designers | Nov 6, 2023
DLR Group opens office in Nashville, Tenn.
DLR Group is expanding its presence in the Southeast with the opening of an office in downtown Nashville, Tenn.—a collaborative effort led by DLR Group Principals Matthew Gulsvig, AIA, LEED AP, and Randall Coy.
Healthcare Facilities | Nov 3, 2023
The University of Chicago Medicine is building its city’s first freestanding cancer center with inpatient and outpatient services
The University of Chicago Medicine (UChicago Medicine) is building Chicago’s first freestanding cancer center with inpatient and outpatient services. Aiming to bridge longstanding health disparities on Chicago’s South Side, the $815 million project will consolidate care and about 200 team members currently spread across at least five buildings. The new facility, which broke ground in September, is expected to open to patients in spring 2027.
Office Buildings | Nov 2, 2023
Amazon’s second headquarters completes its first buildings: a pair of 22-story towers
Amazon has completed construction of the first two buildings of its second headquarters, located in Arlington, Va. The all-electric structures, featuring low carbon concrete and mass timber, help further the company’s commitment to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2040 and 100% renewable energy consumption by 2030. Designed by ZGF Architects, the two 22-story buildings are on track to become the largest LEED v4 Platinum buildings in the U.S.
Sustainability | Nov 1, 2023
Researchers create building air leakage detection system using a camera in real time
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a system that uses a camera to detect air leakage from buildings in real time.
Adaptive Reuse | Nov 1, 2023
Biden Administration reveals plan to spur more office-to-residential conversions
The Biden Administration recently announced plans to encourage more office buildings to be converted to residential use. The plan includes using federal money to lend to developers for conversion projects and selling government property that is suitable for conversions.
Sustainability | Nov 1, 2023
Tool identifies financial incentives for decarbonizing heavy industry, transportation projects
Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) has released a tool to identify financial incentives to help developers, industrial companies, and investors find financial incentives for heavy industry and transport projects.