Case Studies Region: Southwest

To most, the saying “giving 110 percent” is considered a positive one. For the folks at Texas Children’s Hospital, however, the idiom had taken on a slightly different meaning in the fall of 2013: The facility was consistently over capacity, and the impacts—on patients and physicians alike—were starting to take a toll. That November, leaders […]

Ed Wauters recalls the disappointment he and his team felt last year when LMC Corporation was not awarded the renewal of a large contract it had held for five years. As he explains, the client tried out partnerships with several of LMC’s larger, big-name competitors. “Sometimes,” Wauters says with a laugh, “you just have to […]

In-demand finished lots for homebuilders are on the drawing boards, a busy Kelsey Stone tells Blueprint in late 2018. Lots that will be ready for construction, and have water, sewer and road access. Homebuilders, Stone explains, don’t always develop their own land. Here, in and around the Texas Hill Country, many have shifted to a […]

At first glance, the wooden wares offered by Houston-based Building Products Plus (BPP) might not seem like the stuff of glossy magazine spreads. Yet, you’ll see them on a golf course in Da Nang, Vietnam, supporting sand-trap embankments and water-retaining walls to the tune of 2,000 linear feet. They withstand the traffic of thousands of […]

The grass is only greener over the septic system if it’s been designed and installed properly, which is why a lot of lawns are lush in and around the community of Canyon Lake in the foothills of Texas Hill Country. Since 1981, many homeowners and small businesses in the area have come to rely upon […]

When Jerry Merriman first got word that Merriman Anderson Architects (MAA) had been awarded a contract to restore the iconic Statler Hotel—a building which his firm had already been working on for close to a decade—he knew his firm would be resurrecting a once-proud downtown Dallas treasure. Actually finding treasure? That was never part of […]

At 1.2 million square feet, Toyota’s new North American headquarters isn’t so much a campus as a construction colossus. Located just outside of Dallas, Texas, the 11-building complex—an amalgam of hyper-modernist architecture and go-green accoutrement—took three years to complete. Its $1 billion price tag is more than the GDP of 21 countries. But while eye-catching […]

When Chris Hartley was hosting a recent get-together at the site of what will be an age-restricted housing community in north Texas, a young woman sounded ready to flash-forward the calendar a couple of decades. “She was saying ‘I can’t wait until we’re old enough to live here,’” says Hartley, who was recently promoted to […]

It’s the cornerstone of Shell Global’s Deep Water strategy, anticipated to be sucking 175,000 barrels of crude daily from beneath the Gulf of Mexico, by decade’s end. Built in South Korea and having arrived in Ingleside, Texas, last year for final construction, the four-column Appomattox platform will be 16 stories high and two football fields […]

On a Friday or Saturday night, the boardwalk buzzes with a town-fair vibe, as families bustle about shops and restaurants and the Caribbean-tinged vistas of the nearby docks. Less than a quarter-mile away, hundreds gather for a concert at an outdoor amphitheater, where the next day’s plans—a trip to the water park, a day of […]