Business Spotlight: B&G Drafting Inc.

When college students Jim Baker and Ken Grant started B&G Drafting Inc. in 1971, they hardly had the goods for long-term success.

"We started off with almost nothing, and in just a few months, we discovered that we had the right talent to meet the market," says Baker, company president.

At that time, drafting was done with pencil and paper, and the impending gas crunch would make energy-efficient, cost-effective home construction a necessity.

Thirty-eight years later, a lot of things have changed, while others simply have come full circle. Ken Grant retired in 1999, but Baker continues with his sons, Brad and David. While B&G's focus is still residential, Brad Baker, a licensed architect, heads up B&G's commercial division, working mostly on apartments, strip centers and churches. David Baker handles much of the firm's day-to-day management.

The computer mouse has replaced the draftsman's pencil, and the economic crunch has made energy-efficient, cost-effective home construction a necessity once again.

The Mustang model

With more than 10,000 homes to his credit, Jim Baker knows how to design a house not only to maximize space and minimize cost, but also to achieve livability with a timeless quality.

Baker takes his cue from the 1968 Ford Mustang.

"The 1968 was such a beautiful car they had to make it again," he says. "And it's one of the best sellers out there."

What people don't realize is that the classic Mustang shared the same platform as the Pinto. A fender for a Mustang cost the same amount to produce as the fender for a Pinto, Baker says. The difference was in design.

The same principle applies to homes. "Why build ugly houses when we can make attractive houses just by thinking about it?" he says.

Home design has changed through the years, along with American culture.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, homes were built with formal living rooms - the front room with the white carpet and the good furniture that was often off limits, Baker says.

As the cost of housing rose in the 1970s, the formal living room disappeared, but design still wasn't exactly family-friendly. Mom was hidden away in the kitchen, while the kids were around the corner in another room.

In the 1980s, home design became all about lifestyle, and the Ozarks was on the cutting edge.

The lifestyle trend was driven in part by the lakes area retiree market that wanted multipurpose spaces for living and entertaining, all oriented to views of lakes, woods or golf courses, Baker says.

Three-car garages, four-fixture master bathrooms, great rooms and maintenance-free, all-brick construction are taken for granted now, but before those trends hit the magazines, they were putting their stamp on the Ozarks, Baker adds.

B&G played its part, doing research around the country and collaborating with forward-thinking builders who embraced the innovations that made for rapid sales and ongoing value.

"I would say we're progressive in our thinking," says custom home builder Rusty MacLachlan, president of the Home Builders Association of Greater Springfield. "A lot of the builders around here understand that good design is timeless."

Lifestyle is now the primary focus of B&G's home designs, Baker says.

For example, on paper it might seem like a good idea to have the kitchen at the opposite end of the house from the garage. "But if you've got a family with five kids and you're unloading groceries two times a week, that gets to be old," Baker notes.

Ed Alden, vice president of Stenger Homes LLC, says Baker has a gift for putting a client's vision down on paper and calls Baker's designs "contractor-friendly."

"I've had many an architect's design that it's a pretty picture, it's a pretty design, but it doesn't go together that way," says Alden, who came to the Springfield market in 1988. "(Baker's) measurements are done ... the way contractors think."

Aesthetics vs. economics

Tough economic times are nothing new to B&G, but Baker says the current recession is more challenging than those of the past.

"In the past recessions, builders always jumped markets. If they were building 2,000-square-foot houses and things turned bad, they dropped down to 1,500," Baker says. "Well, this time builders had no market to jump to."

As a result of the market's decline, B&G has seen its income drop by nearly 60 percent, Baker says, declining to disclose revenues.

While it lost one staff member in the process, the company is staggering hours to retain two of its longtime employees in anticipation of a resurgence.

And Baker is optimistic, noting a number of positive signs in the market.

The first half of the year, all Baker heard was negative talk, but that's changed. The doom and gloom has dissipated, and in recent weeks he's had a renewal of calls.

As home building surges, Baker says, his focus will be on cost-effective, energy-efficient homes. "I actually have a challenge now. It's not just drawings; it's how can I make this better and more affordable?"

He's prototyped a series of next-generation designs that are smaller and affordably priced, yet offer amenities such as storm shelters.

In the past, the tendency in resolving design issues was usually to increase square footage. Now, just as with automobiles, the solution has changed.

"Making them bigger is no longer the answer. The answer is 'How do we make smaller to do what bigger did?'" Baker says.