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11/21/2012
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NOVEMBER 26 - DECEMBER 2, 2012
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
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Accelerators graduating advanced companies Many clients of Bizdom, LaunchHouse emerging with sales, customers By CHUCK SODER csoder@crain.com
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Westlake Reed Leskosky has scored a pair of Asian performing arts theater projects, including this one in Hualien, Taiwan.
Westlake lands first Asian projects Architecture firm sees potential in Far East for arts projects By STAN BULLARD sbullard@crain.com
Paul Westlake returned last month from Taiwan, a trip he took not for pleasure, but for work. And the head of the Westlake Reed Leskosky architecture firm in Cleveland didn’t return home emptyhanded. Mr. Westlake secured a commission for the firm’s first project in Asia; it involves a pair of performing arts theaters — one with 1,300 seats and another with 700 seats — in Hualien, Taiwan. Its client is the Taiwan Land Development Corp., and it is partnering on the project with R.J. Woo Architects and Engineers of Taiwan. Mr. Westlake said he sees the project as the door to more work in Asia, where 300 performing arts centers are in the conceptual stage. It’s the same pattern the firm followed in the United States to extend its reach from Cleveland’s PlayhouseSquare, where it cut its teeth renovating the city’s historic theaters two decades ago
FILE PHOTO/JASON MILLER
Westlake Reed Leskosky managing principal Paul Westlake and continues to do such work today across the country. The firm now produces about 20 performing arts projects annually. With offices also in New York, Phoenix, Washington, D.C., and a partnership with architect Michael Lehrer in Los Angeles, Westlake Reed is entering rarefied air in the design world. In the trade magazine Architect, a September listing of the nation’s 50 largest architecture firms based on factors such as billings and staff size ranked Westlake Reed sixth, between Pei Cobb Freed & Partners and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill,
both of New York. Moreover, the publication ranked Westlake Reed first in sustainability, or environmentally conscious building design and operations. A standout project for Westlake Reed in the sustainability area is the U.S. General Services Administration’s first “net zero” building — a structure using no outside energy for its operation. It’s a $12 million project with Dallas-based The Beck Group that will be finished next year at the Wayne N. Aspinall Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Grand Junction, Colo. “It combines historic restoration
with energy conservation,” Mr. Westlake said, from solar cells on the building’s rooftop to a geothermal heating system for the 1918vintage structure. Investments in energy efficiency can pay for themselves in as little as three years, which is particularly valuable to government, educational and institutional clients who build for long time frames, Mr. Westlake said. From the energy requirements of such clients to the lighting and acoustic skills required for performing arts work and the security needs of federal agencies, Westlake Reed has seen more of its revenue come from work on the engineering and technical side of the design business. Mr. Westlake said the firm now has stakes in eight separately owned and organized enterprises, such as SustainTech, the Sustainable Technologies Design Group, which provides services from acoustics to master planning for energy use. Mr. Westlake estimates that 55% of its revenue now is from traditional architecture work, 20% is technology-related, and 25% is structural, civil and electrical engineering. “We’re a legacy firm, but we’re always growing,” Mr. Westlake said of the firm founded in 1905. ■
THE WEEK IN QUOTES “We understand that a large percentage of our business is based on the team (performance). But of that other small percentage, we have to be 100% perfect.” — Mark Shapiro, president, Cleveland Indians. Page One
“Students have to figure out how to take the legal education they’ve gotten and make that work for them. ... This will give them a sense that it’s not a deep leap into the abyss.” — Craig M. Boise, dean, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. Page One
“There just seems to be a huge amount of energy and inertia behind the health care industry that to me makes it interesting, and in Northeast Ohio especially.” — Matthew E. Albers, of counsel, Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease. Page 13
“Most people, if they’re going to take the leap, do so when they’re in a position to have a few clients coming with them.” — David Mills, The Mills Law Office, Cleveland. Page 14
Three months ago, Eric Golubitsky’s group-buying startup didn’t exist. That was before he entered the LaunchHouse Accelerator in Shaker Heights. Today, Gtail has a website, commercial partnerships and a few real, actual customers as of Nov. 19. That’s when the company sent out its first email deal to the members of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association. A few of them made purchases that same day. “We were a concept,” said Mr. Golubitsky, who isn’t revealing the strategy he’s using to set Gtail apart from other group-buying companies. “Ninety days later, we have revenues.” That’s what the for-profit LaunchHouse Accelerator was designed to do: Help an entrepreneur with an idea See SALES Page 19
INSIGHT
Done with that cell? E-recyclers will take it By GINGER CHRIST gchrist@crain.com
The “here today, gone tomorrow” nature of the electronics industry is creating a robust opportunity for those in business to recycle that equipment. As companies — and consumers — look for environmentally sound and data-safe ways to swap out antiquated cell phones and computers, local electronic recyclers are earning their livings dismantling those gadgets and selling the parts as commodities. Every day, more companies — large and small — are opting to go green and recycle electronics, said Craig Silverstein, founder of E-Scrap Solutions, an electronics recycler in Cleveland with 30 employees. And, as the economy continues to improve, businesses will be able to replace their electronic equipment more See RECYCLERS Page 12
CORRECTION In a Nov. 19, Page 3 story about Case Western Reserve University School of Law’s growing student exchange agreements, the timeline of expansion was misstated. By the end of this calendar year, the school expects to have agreements with 12 schools in Asia.