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Volume 18
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Number 7
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JULY 2016
Homegrown engineering
Building the region
The Barker & Associates team includes L-R: Michael Didion, mechanical EIT; Justin Solis, PE, vice president and senior electrical engineer; Alfredo Losoya, HVAC and plumbing designer; Don Barker, PE, LEED AP, principal/president; Ken Briggs, mechanical EIT; Monica Hodges, CDFA, office manager; and Carlos Benitez, PE, electrical engineer.
Members of the ISEC team in Boerne came from ISEC locations across the country, joining with local hires as the Central and South Texas regional office has grown.
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elebrating the 10th anniversary of Barker & Associates, Don Barker, principal/president, credits providing service to the industry and having control over the projects he took on – along with a very supportive wife – with making it all possible. “I couldn’t believe it had already been 10 years,” says Barker. “It seems like we just got started, but then I look at all the stuff that we have designed, all the projects that we’ve been involved with – and I’m very proud of it. I had no idea it would grow to this, and I’m very lucky to have started this company. It’s been a great experience.”
After receiving his associate’s degree in drafting and design from San Antonio College in 1986, Barker worked for TxDOT. In nearly five years, he went from being a bridge inspector to being in the office, designing roadways, grade separated ramps and retaining walls. With his parents’ support and the sale of his Fiero, he went back to school and earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from UTSA in 1994. When he set out on his own after working for a few local firms, he and his wife, Elenita Ravicz, prepared for a reduction in salary and him working from home. continued on Page 24
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he small branch office ISEC started in the San Antonio area with one person in 2012 has grown into a regional office for Central and South Texas with 13 people in the office and about 20 carpenters in the field. With the Boerne office continuing to grow, the need arose to relocate this year in March to 31007 I-10 West, Suite 112. With a little more than 3,000sf of office space finished out and another 1,500sf ready to be finished as growth continues, Jerry Hirth, general manager, notes that this space should accommodate local growth for the next five to 10 years. With ISEC for 18 years working his way up through the ranks in the
company’s Rocky Mountain region, Hirth relocated from Colorado in 2014 to build Boerne into one of the company’s regional offices. Today, he oversees operations in Central and South Texas, focusing primarily on the San Antonio and Austin markets. Though the focus is work in those two cities and their surrounding areas, ISEC covers all of its projects within the State of Texas from the Boerne office, the sole exception being the Greater Houston area, where ISEC has its only other Texas location. In this regional market, Hirth observes that a lot of the work is continued on Page 24
Framing a new look with more space
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hen the HEB in Olmos Park was ready for a change, TBC Commercial handled the 65,000-sf, wall-to-wall remodel and 10,000-sf expansion. Though TBC does quite a few HEBs, working with the locally based grocer for about 15 years now, HEB SA #8 on Olmos Drive utilized a new design with unique elements. The remodel spruced up the whole interior with all new finishes, paint and polished concrete floors. This allowed for a new deli department, a new floral department, and they were able to enlarge the produce area. Adding 10,000sf to the building also expanded the store’s pharmacy, business center, men’s and women’s restrooms, and administrative offices. The estimated project cost was $8 million. The store was in continuous operation during the construction, which began in September 2014 and finished in December 2015. Elements of the exterior
design took more time than originally anticipated due to the unique use of space frame and acid-etched glass, explains Chuck Landry, project executive. Also, the exterior façade was D’Hanis wall tile. The space frame was approximately 25-ft tall and wrapped around the front of the store, and though space frames are mostly installed horizontally as a roof structure, this space frame was installed vertically to hold up the glass panels along the storefront which bear the HEB name at the entrance and above the pharmacy drive-thru. “The space frame was constructed in the parking lot and had to be crane lifted to specific anchor points set in the wall,” recalls Landry. “The margin of error was very minimal, so it took some time to set each frame at night while the store was closed. The lighting behind the frame TBC Commercial worked on the remodel and expansion of this HEB in Olmos Park, implementing a new design for the grocery store.
continued on Page 24