Circling the Globe in Architectural Style By LinDee Rochelle   Arizona Business Magazine, July / August 2001                     Cutting edge. Technologically advanced. Customer oriented. These terms run rampant in the promotional literature of most companies today, who are striving to create a picture of professionalism and confidence in the minds of potential clients. It takes more than a tri-fold brochure, however, to comprehend the inner machinations of a company and discern their true value. Many firms present a pretty façade, but are as tight as a clam when yor probe dives below their tranquil surface.                 Not so with The Durrant Group. Like an open book, the contents of this energetic architecture, engineering and construction management firm are listed for all to see, every faction of the multi-faceted group representing a different chapter and each project, another exciting page. Words like diversity and visionary are not rhetoric, but the description of a philosophy and mission, which encompass Durrant nationally and internationally.                 In 1933, Joe Durrant first hung out his shingle announcing his expertise in architecture, in Boscobel, Wisconsin, close to the legendary origins of Frank Lloyd Wright, in nearby Spring Green. Early in his career, Durrant re-settled in Dubuque, Iowa, gravitating toward the special design challenges of schools and hospitals. Now in its fourth generation of owner/leadership, Durrant’s corporate headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona (since 1997), serve as the hub to an ever-expanding flow of offices nationwide. At the helm of this impressive superstructure is President and CEO, R. Nicholas Loope, FAIA.                 Through the years, Loope himself, has never been far from the influence of Frank Lloyd Wright. He arrived at Durrant in 1997, after serving six hears as President and CEO of Taliesin Architects in Scottsdale, Arizona, the continuation of Wright’s architectural practice, which begin in 1893. John Rattenbury, an original Wright apprentice and current managing principal, remembers why they chose Loope to lead Taliesin Architects on an aggressive turnaround and growth path, which ultimately led to the academic accreditation of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. “People who are good business people,” says Rattenbury, “often are not artistic. Ryc combined those talents very well – education, architecture and business – and totally blurs the line between them, which gives him an unusual strength in what he does.”                 Loope’s leadership skills are the common thread running through his high level background, his presidency with Durrant and his tenured professorship in Arizona State University’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design. At any time, you might find him sealing a deal in Seoul, Korea, meeting with a group of peers to augment their individual strategies, administering to The Durrant Foundation, or overseeing the delicate design process for the next award-winning Durrant project.                 Barely four years into his incumbency with Durrant, Loope has been instrumental in expanding the group from eight U.S. offices, to seventeen, acquiring Leonard Parker & Associates in Minneapolis, Minnesota, proving influential in the Asian market; and the assets of Media Five, Ltd., based in Honolulu, Hawaii, internationally acclaimed for its comprehensive services throughout the Pacific Basin. According to Marilyn Eisenberg, Durrant’s National Public Relations Coordinator, “This latest acquisition extends Durrant’s presence to Japan and Australia, while strengthening its client services in Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines.”                 A major component of a CEO’s job, mergers and acquisitions, is what they do – and Loope does it very well. “Obtaining our growth goals is not all that matters. The tings we learn, the people we meet, the places we make, the actions we take along the way, also matter,” says Loope. But how does one acquire the skills necessary to know how and when to approach another firm, to negotiate the delicate dance of who comes out on top, to close the deal, or walk away? Is it a learned skill or an inherent talent? Behaviorists can debate this question all day. The truth is likely, both. As continuous learning should be a part of everyone’s life, so it is with a skillful CEO. Though you won’t find a “CEO 101” graduate course, you will find a Phoenix organization, comprised of carefully screened, top Valley CEOs offering assistance to each other for complex bargaining problems and intricate long term planning strategies.                 “Inc. Magazine’s ‘Eagles’ program is designed for CEOs to assist one another with the directions they are trying to take their company,” says West Coast Executive Director, Perry Sells. “We enroll CEOs of dissimilar kinds of businesses in peer groups of 8-10 members.” Strategic questions of joint ventures, divestiture and optimum organizational structure are presented to the group. Feedback is generated, says Sells, on whether they would do what the presenter is going. The group imparts to the questioning executive unbiased opinions of his decisions. “In Inc. Eagles, those other eight or nine CEOs have zero to gain or lose,” Sells says, except the benefit of the same quality assistance when it comes time for them to present a situation.                 As for CEO talent, Sells feels there are just some people born with it. “What separates Ryc from the pack is not only that he’s a great visionary, but he can get it done.” Many high-level thinkers can create a pie in the sky vision, but Ryc “ … can come back to earth and get the employees and the company to change.”                 This style of thinking has thrust Durrant into a national leadership role, evident as a member of AIA’s (American Institute of Architects) influential Large Firm Round Table. Demonstrating the power of a cohesive group and following Loope’s five year growth plan, Durrant realized one of its goals – attaining a prestigious rung on the ladder of Engineering News Record’s (ENR) ranking.  Coming from nowhere on the list of 500 top architecture, engineering and construction management firms, it currently ranks 246. Their next goal is to join top firms like RTKL, Gensler and HOK (with whom they’re currently working on several projects), in the top 100, by 2005. Leadership and influence is the motivating criteria, with an underlying premise that scale is strategic.                 In terms of dollars, current projects may initiate another rung on ENR’s ladder. The new downtown Phoenix Maricopa County Jail, for instance, will encompass the whole block west of the current Madison Street jail. Currently out to bid for a contractor, groundbreaking is being planned for late June this year, with completion scheduled for late 2003. At almost $110 million, it is nearly double in dollar size of the largest job Principal Project Manager, Scott Bohning, has tackled in his ten years with Durrant. However, Bohning brings 25 years of experience to the table, much of it in criminal justice work and was a key asset in earning Durrant the project.                 “My specialty,” says Bohning, “is police stations, jails, courts and prisons. We design them all over the country, as well as in the State of Arizona.” Another significant Durrant justice project includes the $58 million, 224,000 square foot, Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Facility in the northeast end of Minneapolis’ Phalen Corridor.                 Teamed with Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum’s (HOK) San Francisco design office, Durrant is confident the 4th Avenue jail will become a model for other municipalities. According to Bob Williams, Director of Maricopa County’s Criminal Justice Facilities Development Department, it was their competence, diversity and impeccable reputation that earned Durrant the project. In choosing the team of Durrant and HOK, they have been rewarded, even before the first scoop of dirt has been ceremoniously lifted. The county stands to save hundreds of thousands of dollars in a design that lowered the 1,362-bed facility from the originally planned high-rise to a mid-rise structure, incorporating three of the five stories into a mezzanine system. Space was a motivating factor. “It has to fit in the downtown area,” Williams further explained, “and that has been a huge challenge for Durrant. To site another jail downtown was not an easy task.” To remain on top of the project process and progress, Durrant followed what the selected programmers were doing, stayed close to the client, even participating pro bono at times, in community work, which addressed the downtown area where the jail will rest.                 Regardless of the semantics, public opinion was a major hurdle and the Board of Supervisors wanted it done right. To make the project palatable, if not wholly acceptable, says Williams, “We put together a downtown advisory committee with representatives from the City Arts Commission, the City Historic Preservation Commission, the City Design review Panel, and the local AIA. The business interests were well represented with Downtown Phoenix Partnership and the Phoenix Community Alliance; we had county planning and zoning, and the Citizen’s Jail Oversight Committee was created to oversee what I do and what Durrant does.”                 The imaginative, yet economical design of the new Maricopa County Jail renders it an unobtrusive benefit to the community’s criminal justice system. “That jail will look different from any other jail you’ve seen anywhere,” says Williams. “It’s a very attractive building; unless somebody points it out to you as a jail, you probably wouldn’t know what it is. It will have a warehouse look, because it’s in the warehouse district. So we’ve done and Durrant has done, what they could to make this building very acceptable to the downtown interests … and I can tell you that was not an easy process.”                 It is necessary in every Durrant project to wholly engage the firm’s talent while carefully planning and with thoughtful execution. Why? “The competition is fierce,” says Loope. “Three years ago when the county jail project came about, we had to make a go, no-go decision, whether or not to compete for its programming, which we’re very capable of doing. Durrant is known as one of the best U.S. firms for such services and a local favorite. However, if we did the programming, by county purchasing rules fiat, we would not be able to do the design work. We wanted to do the architecture and design of the jail knowing it would be a significant building for out city. We also felt it would be a major opportunity to advance the quality of jails throughout the United States, and influence quite frankly, incarceration facilities around the world.”                 With offices in Denver, Dubuque, Austin, Madison, Minneapolis, and Sacramento, to list a few, Durrant has applied the considerable skills of its market-oriented, client-focused project teams to retail, manufacturing, education, healthcare, and historic preservation. A modest expansion and renovation is treated with as much concern and respect as a ground-up, hundred million dollar plus design. From the Arizona School of Health Sciences’ new campus in Mesa, Arizona, to the City of Aspen’s Iselin Park Recreation Complex, Durrant’s involvement fully encompasses the needs of the community.                 It’s this same level of involvement and seeking ways to enhance their staff and the community, which lead R. Nicholas Loope and upper management to establish The Durrant Foundation in 1999, a not-for-profit charitable organization dedicated in part, to supporting educations activities and scholarships in architecture, engineering, interior design and construction management. A recent golf tournament at the Legacy Resort garnered $42,000 for the Foundation, which in addition to scholarships, will sponsor continuing education programs, public lecture series, archives to preserve architectural works with historic significance and publishing the results of sponsored research.                 Demonstrating progressive thinking in learning, teaching, design and design delivery, is why Durrant’s offices have received in excess of 175 design awards. Considered one of America’s leaders in schools and universities, libraries, criminal justice facilities, sports and recreational complexes, healthcare, religious, industrial, commercial and retail designs, as well as custom luxury residences, Durrant proves that given the right leadership, one umbrella company can work as a powerful, community-oriented team, creating successfully diverse structures for living, working and playing.                 Architecture firms until now have remained relatively staid and dependent upon their originators and “ … most architecture firms don’t outlive the owner,” says Loope. “As the fourth leader of Durrant, it is my obligation to ensure that there will be a fifth leader and to set into place a transitional climate that will nurture and champion talent not only to take my place, but to take the place of all of our leaders.”                 In a world vastly changing with the speed of light, rather than companies held hostage by data, “ … resident in some older person’s head …” we are now able to advance, through technology and teamwork, project diversity and sustain community involvement – whether it’s around the block or around the world. As Loope says, “We may be dreamers with deadlines, but unless we share that dream with somebody, it doesn’t get done.”     # # #