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CONSTRUCTION
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Volume 13
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Number 12
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DECEMBER 2016
As seen on …
Rooms with a view
Soci recently celebrated the grand opening of its new corporate headquarters, showroom and warehouse.
The Vector Constructors team enjoy their new Flower Mound office.
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GTV’s “Property Brothers.” FOX’s “Home Free.” Southern Living’s idea house. TLC’s new and yet-tobe titled Nate Berkus show. For Soci, being seen on TV and in magazines is just another day at the office. Now the designer and wholesaler of high-end tile and plumbing products, founded in 2004 by Todd Simpson, has a new place to be seen. The company has replaced its McKinney location and moved into its expansive new corporate office, showroom and warehouse at 718 S. Greenville Ave. in Allen. The upscale 4,666-sf corporate office houses sales and customer service departments and a conference room, but the 1,136-sf showroom is Soci’s star. The
sleek, light-filled space displays Soci’s array of porcelain, ceramic and natural stone products, concept boards and panels in innovative ways (think sinks displayed in pull-out drawers). Kristi Pecoraro, chief of operations, says tile is the showroom’s heart and that a space planner made sure every inch of display space had maximum impact. Even with the planner’s guidance, however, the Soci team debated every design aspect of the space’s shell. With so many of their own tile and sinks to choose from, the 25 employees had many discussions about what would be best for their workspaces and restrooms. continued on Page 21
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ven though Vector Constructors LLC only just recently set up shop in Coppell, rapid growth has already motivated its move to a new office at 3700 River Walk Dr. in Flower Mound. “In February 2011, we had three projects that were started in Arizona,” Mark Thomas, founder and working principal, explains of the company’s beginnings. “In early 2015, the developer partners that we work with in Idaho decided that they wanted us to work with them on some projects in Texas. We agreed that we would open up an office in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and manage these projects from that central location. Dallas tends to be a very easy hub to get in and out of with the airport, and they have an
exceptional trade market as well. It just made a lot of sense for us.” “We first opened an office in Coppell, and we chose that office as a site that we thought would allow us to grow for the first few years, but we quickly outgrew that space,” executive vice-president Randal Navis adds. “This led us to look for spaces in the Metroplex that were a little more centrally located. We’ve settled in the Lewisville/Flower Mound area and just really fell in love with the location.” “We’ve grown exponentially as a company over the past year, and we had a great time moving the office and doing the remodel together,” Candice Lyon, Vector’s financial controller, says. continued on Page 21
Fourth part harmony
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ormer alfalfa farmland in Richardson has yielded a new kind of bounty – the new “live, work, play”–style CityLine development. At full build-out, the mixed-use project will boast 5 million sf of office space, multi-family residential units, more than 60 dining and service retail options, two hotels and two parks. General contractor Austin Commercial worked with developer KDC, Corgan Architects, civil engineer Kimley-Horn and structural engineer L.A. Fuess Partners to complete CityLine’s fourth tower in October. Located at the northeast corner of State St. and N. Plano Rd., the 535,000-sf facility consists of a 12-story office building, a six-level parking structure and approximately 31,000sf of floor retail. The tower will provide more workspace for State Farm employees; the insurance company currently occupies 2.1 million sf of CityLine office space. The LEED-Silver certified project is a
shining example of environmentally friendly style. Steve Kitching, Austin Commercial’s senior project manager, says the building’s eye-catching exterior features and abundance of LED lighting are what people will likely notice at first glance. “The LED accent lighting on the perimeter of the building on the fin and eyebrow creates an architectural element that the designer was looking for,” Kitching says. “When you’re driving down George Bush and you see the project, you’ll actually see quite a bit of architectural accent lighting on all of the State Farm projects. The vertical fins on both sides of the building are unique as well as the horizontal eyebrow, which creates an architectural element, but it also creates shading.” Sunshades were used on the building to reduce energy use, which was only one goal of the project. Because it was aiming A vertical fin and horizontal “eyebrow” at the top of CityLine’s fourth tower are only two of the project’s many eye-catching details.
continued on Page 21