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
| Feb 10, 2011
Medical Data Center Sets High Bar for BIM Design Team
The construction of a new data center becomes a test case for BIM’s ability to enhance project delivery across an entire medical campus.
| Feb 10, 2011
Zero Energy Buildings: When Do They Pay Off in a Hot and Humid Climate?
There’s lots of talk about zero energy as the next big milestone in green building. Realistically, how close are we to this ambitious goal? At this point, the strategies required to get to zero energy are relatively expensive. Only a few buildings, most of them 6,000 sf or less, mostly located in California and similar moderate climates, have hit the mark. What about larger buildings, commercial buildings, more problematic climates? Given the constraints of current technology and the comfort demands of building users, is zero energy a worthwhile investment for buildings in, for example, a warm, humid climate?
| Feb 9, 2011
Hospital Construction in the Age of Obamacare
The recession has hurt even the usually vibrant healthcare segment. Nearly three out of four hospital systems have put the brakes on capital projects. We asked five capital expenditure insiders for their advice on how Building Teams can still succeed in this highly competitive sector.
| Feb 9, 2011
Businesses make bigger, bolder sustainability commitments
In 2010, U.S. corporations continued to enhance their sustainable business efforts by making bigger, bolder, longer-term sustainability commitments. GreenBiz issued its 4th annual State of Green Business report, a free downloadable report that measures the progress of U.S. business and the economy from an environmental perspective, and highlights key trends in corporate culture in regard to the environment.
| Feb 8, 2011
AIA names 104 members to College of Fellows
The Fellowship program was developed to elevate those architects who have made a significant contribution to architecture and society and who have achieved a standard of excellence in the profession. Election to fellowship not only recognizes the achievements of architects as individuals, but also their significant contribution to architecture and society on a national level.
| Feb 4, 2011
President Obama: 20% improvement in energy efficiency will save $40 billion
President Obama’s Better Buildings Initiative, announced February 3, 2011, aims to achieve a 20% improvement in energy efficiency in commercial buildings by 2020, improvements that will save American businesses $40 billion a year.
| Jan 31, 2011
Cuningham Group Architecture launches Healthcare studio with Lee Brennan
International design firm Cuningham Group Architecture, P.A. (Cuningham Group) has announced the arrival of Lee Brennan, AIA, as Principal and Leader of its new Healthcare studio. Brennan comes to Cuningham Group with over 30 years of professional experience, 22 of those years in healthcare, encompassing all aspects of project delivery, from strategic planning and programming through design and construction. The firm’s new Healthcare studio will enhance Cuningham Group’s expertise in leisure and entertainment, education, mixed-use/housing and workplace environments.
| Jan 31, 2011
HDR Architecture Releases Evidence-based Design Videos
As a follow-up to its book Evidence-based Design for Healthcare Facilities, HDR Architecture, Inc. has released three video case studies that highlight evidence-based design principles in action.
| Jan 31, 2011
CISCA releases White Paper on Acoustics in Healthcare Environments
The Ceilings & Interior Systems Construction Association (CISCA) has released an extensive white paper “Acoustics in Healthcare Environments” for architects, interior designers, and other design professionals who work to improve healthcare settings for all users. This white paper serves as a comprehensive introduction to the acoustical issues commonly confronted on healthcare projects and howbest to address those.
| Jan 28, 2011
Firestone Building Products Unveils FirestoneRoof Mobile Web App
Firestone Building Products Company unveiled FirestoneRoof, a first-of-its-kind free mobile web app. The FirestoneRoof mobile web app enables customers to instantly connect with Firestone commercial roofing experts and is designed to make it easier for building owners, facility managers, roofing consultants and others charged with maintaining commercial roofing systems to get the support they need, when they need it.