Bryce Pearsall, FAIA

by Heather Livingston
Contributing Editor

Summary: Bryce Pearsall, FAIA, is managing principal and chair of DLR Group and the new chair of the AIA Large Firm Roundtable (LFRT). The LFRT is a group of chief executives from approximately 60 large AE firms. “The leadership role of the roundtable has never been more vital,” says Pearsall. “The collective experience and wisdom of the membership will play a key role in helping firms, and the industry, emerge from this economic climate stronger and better able to meet the needs of both clients and architects.”

Education
I graduated from Iowa State University in 1971 with a bachelor of architecture. Then, I was off to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers School at Fort Belvoir, Va. I don’t know how educational that is, but I learned a lot there and in that service. I’ve also been involved with Iowa State and other educational facilities from a professional side. And I’ve been on architecture committees, chaired the Architecture Advisory Committee, and currently chair the College of Design Advancement Council, both of which are at Iowa State. Those aren’t traditional education, but I’ve learned a lot from doing all of that stuff.

Why did you become an architect?
As a youth, I really enjoyed art and drawing buildings. In high school—back when you had some choices of technical classes—I didn’t want to take wood shop. I didn’t want to take auto mechanics. I took drafting because I loved it, as well as sketching and art. I slowly started becoming more exposed to some of the great architects of the last two centuries and seeing some of the residential work of Wright and some others. I think I was 13 years old when I said that I was going to be an architect, and there was never any other thing in question. That’s just what I was going to do, and so the path proceeded from there.

I worked for two different architects while I was in college in Iowa, so when I graduated I ended up with quite a bit of professional experience as well as my degree. I thought both firms were tremendous. I have always looked back and said both of those experiences together were very, very good … it was a wonderful collaboration of knowledge and learning. Still today, I’m very, very close friends with the people who owned those firms.

Have you always worked for large firms?
No, the firms in school were small. In one case, it was a 3-person practice; in the other case, it was a 10-person practice. I worked with the latter for five years, but when I came out of college I went to work for DLR Group in Omaha. Back at that time, you wouldn’t have called us a large firm. I think I was employee Number 39. That was in the early ‘70s. I had a brief hiatus for duty in the service for about four months and then came back to DLR Group.

From there, we grew the firm and expanded. We moved to other places and started offices. We had a few mergers and acquisitions through the years as well, and we grew the firm from 39 people to the roughly 600 whom we have today. Since graduation from college, I’ve spent my entire career here at DLR.

Do you have any hobbies?
I do; probably too many of them. I play golf poorly and not very frequently. I love all sports. I have three adult children and I did a lot of their sporting events with them, but I also started collecting model trains with the kids and it grew into a collection. I also am really hooked on classic and muscle cars.

What is the purpose of the Large Firm Roundtable?
The roundtable was started in 1984 when, if I remember correctly, somewhere around 8-10 leaders of some larger firms got together to discuss current issues of the day, one of which was an inability to get professional liability insurance. The charter that we have basically says that it’s made up of firms that have at least 150 employees and 50 AIA members.

The roundtable is a forum for large-firm leaders to exchange ideas and thoughts about practice for the benefit of all large firms and clients, and certainly not to the detriment of small firms. That by no means is the point. The point is to look at large project issues, large firm practice issues, and also try to help the entire practice of architecture and multidiscipline design in general. It isn’t just trying to help advance large firms or small firms. It’s trying to help advance the entire practice and to try to provide a better professional background and service for all of our clients, no matter where they might be. There are roughly 58 firms right now in the roundtable, and it’s just a good group of very bright, energetic leaders of various ages. Some are a little bit younger leaders. Some are a little bit older leaders, but they’re all very strong leaders of their firms.

What are some particular concerns for large firms during an economic downturn?
It’s probably not just unique to large firms, but certainly during a recession we’re very concerned about advancing the work we all need to do inside and outside this country in terms of keeping up with sustainable issues, infrastructure, and trying to find ways to do that in a very tough economy. Right now, we’re talking about and planning at our upcoming meetings what should be in the stimulus plans and how can we help to advance our desperate need for environmental concerns. Another concern that we have is how to grow good people and keep good people in the profession in a down economy. Probably any business or profession is concerned about that, but we as design firms are very concerned. We don’t want to wake up X years from now and find that there’s a gap of talent because a lot of those people had to leave the profession and never came back. That’s a big concern for us.

Do you think that tools like BIM and IPD become more or less important during tough times?
I think they absolutely just plain are important. Whether it’s tough times or good times, those things are very much at the forefront of where our profession is going. At our firms, we’re involved in those issues and trying to help lead those issues all the time.

We did a an unofficial survey of all our firms a few years back and asked, “How many of you are doing BIM and some of the integrated delivery practices with it?” Quite a few hands went up, but certainly no more than half the firms. Then we asked, “How many of you are doing that on more than 20 percent of your work?” Almost all hands went down. We did that same survey this past year and almost every hand in the room stayed up for both questions.

It’s something that we all know is good. There are still bumps in the road and things that you have to figure out. We do feel that we need further advancement in the technology so that it handles more engineering and large projects, but the vendors are working on that. We have a group of people within the roundtable who are working directly with a handful of the different vendors on those issues, talking about them and looking together at where our focus needs to be to improve those things. We know it’s a good thing. We know it’s an important thing and we’re all doing everything we can do to keep advancing it.

What advice would you give to other large firms?
Always base your practice on some very fundamental values. The best thing for our clients, our environment, and our firms is that we base our practices on integrity, honesty, trustworthiness, certainly on creativity, but also on support of our clients. If we can really make those the core values of our practices—large or small—then you’ve got a true foundation to build on. Different firms may have unique strengths or ideas and different ways of proposing or delivering those to clients—and that’s all very good. But, first and foremost, the foundation of a really great practice is its core values.

Over the last few years, the number of architects working in small firms has decreased as firms have merged and created mega-firms. Do you think this trend will continue?
I think so. I don’t think it’s going to drastically increase in percentage, but I think the tendency is there because of the nature of practice and the larger types of projects that seem to be developing. Those things are in many cases requiring more resources to be brought to the project, and I think that will continue to drive more firms getting larger. There are economic reasons also. Small and midsize practices are excellent parts of our profession. There are many, many outstanding small and midsize firms, and I think that there’s a role that will continue with those. But I suspect that in a strong economy large firms will continue to get a little larger and there will be more that develop that way.

Final thoughts
The Large Firm Roundtable is a tremendous group of high quality firms and people. The types of ideas we share make our profession better and make our services and the delivery of those services better for our clients and our society. I have learned so much from the roundtable’s great leaders and hopefully have given a little bit back in return. It’s that professional collective camaraderie that is one of the real strengths of the roundtable that makes it very worthwhile and very fulfilling.