#5: Carter & Burgess Inc.
Two childhood friends from Fort Worth start a design and engineering firm in the waning days of the depression that becomes one of the largest architectural and engineering firms in the county. Sounds more like a plot from an Edna Ferber novel, but itÂ’s not.
It is the story of Carter & Burgess Inc., a full-service, multidiscipline, architectural and engineering firm with nearly 40 locations nationwide.
Started by Gene Carter and John Burgess in 1939, the firm now serves several industry sectors, including retail, transportation, land development and environmental. Since 1990, the company has expanded dramatically from 300 employees and $22 million in revenue to more than 2,500 employees and an estimated $420 million in revenue in 2005, up from roughly $376 million in 2004.
Part of the companyÂ’s growth can be attributed to the addition of architectural services in 1992.
“Since adding architectural service, we’ve really become a full-service firm,” said Chuck Nixon, vice president and senior architect for Carter & Burgess.
“We now have about 120 registered and licensed architects, which would make us one of the largest architectural firms in the country if we were a separate entity,” he said.
While Carter & Burgess have projects in all phases of development around the country, there are several local examples of the companyÂ’s work. Nixon, for example, has served as project director/principal in charge of several notable Fort Worth projects, including the Bureau of Engraving and PrintingÂ’s Western Currency Facility, the recently completed University of North Texas Health Science Center for BioHealth Building, the expansion and renovation of the Fort Worth Convention Center, and the reconstruction of the Cash America building, following the tornado in March of 2000.
Carter & Burgess has other local projects on the horizon. Higher education is a key focus at present for Nixon, he said, with the company working on a new master plan for the University of Texas at Arlington, building a new dormitory and student center for the University of Texas at Tyler, and continuing work with the University of North Texas on both the Denton and Fort Worth campuses. Carter & Burgess will also be doing work on the new, downtown Tarrant County College campus as well as developing plans to integrate the look and design of all TCC campuses.
Carter & Burgess is also the architecture and engineering firm of choice for XTO Energy and recently helped the company refurbish the Baker Building at Seventh and Houston Streets, an early downtown Fort Worth landmark. The 10-story building, built in 1910, is being restored to its original condition, which, for an architect, is pretty much a dream come true.
“You don’t get a chance like this very often, and we’re very proud of the work. It’s a beautiful building that was refurbished in the late ‘60s or early ‘70s, and we’re getting to help restore it to its original condition. It’s really going to be something everyone is going to be proud of,” said Nixon.
The firm is also designing a $30 million renovation and expansion of Prime Outlets in San Marcos, one of the nationÂ’s top-performing outlet centers and one of the stateÂ’s largest tourist stops next to the Alamo.
The 200,000-square-foot expansion will feature a Venetian theme with the addition of a bell tower, piazzas, a lagoon, and canals featuring gondolas, statues and gardens.
Another project the company is involved in is managing the $4.7 billion FasTracks program for the Denver Regional Transportation District (RTD) in conjunction with the construction management firm Parsons Brinckerhoff. FasTracks includes 119 miles of new light rail and commuter rail, the first phase of Bus Rapid Transit to Boulder, bus service expansion and 21,000 additional parking spaces at existing park and ride locations.
“Carter and Burgess have a proven track record in managing large projects and that was a key reason we selected them to manage what will be one of the, if not the, largest build-outs of a transit system in the country,” said William Elfenbein, chairman of the board for the RTD.
Though it has grown to an industry leader, the firmÂ’s beginnings were rather humble.
Eugene Hudson Carter and John Jarvis Burgess became childhood friends in Fort Worth in the 1920s. After high school, Carter studied landscape architecture at Cornell University and then worked on Depression-era Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects and private residences around the Fort Worth area. Burgess earned a degree in civil engineering at Virginia Military Institute and then worked on WPA projects in Fort Worth and Cleburne, before becoming an oilfield engineer in east Texas.
Burgess returned to Fort Worth in 1939 and the two formed the Carter & Burgess partnership. With dual capabilities of engineering and landscape architecture, the firmÂ’s business expanded to include military projects prior to and during World War II.
During the post-war boom, Carter & Burgess kept busy with major residential and commercial developments in Fort Worth, civilian airfield improvements in the area and continued military work. During the 1960s, the firm was involved in major urban renewal projects, and in 1967 it was selected among other area firms to help plan and design Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.
Carter & Burgess was incorporated in 1967, and during the next 15 years, the firm continued to grow in the immediate vicinity while opening offices in Houston and Dallas. The firmÂ’s increasing diversity kept it afloat during the Southwest real estate and financial decline of the late 1980s.
In 1990 Carter & Burgess began a decade that was marked by continued geographic expansion and the adoption of most major engineering and architectural disciplines. The result has been growth averaging 23 percent per year, according to the company.
Carter and Burgess remained involved in the firm until their retirements. Carter retired in 1986, and Burgess retired 1988. Burgess died in 1988, and Carter died in 2000.
The firm is now headed by its chairman, J. Phillip Deaton, and its president, Benjamin Watts.
Carter & Burgess Inc.
777 Main St., Fort Worth, TX 76102
Phone: 817-735-6000
Web site: www.c-b.com
Product/service: Engineering, architectural and surveying services
Number of employees: 2,660
Top executive: Ben Watts, president
Year founded: 1987
2004 sales: $376,334,338
