Buxton-Kubik-Dodd principals build on friendships

Kubik and Buxton met when they both worked at the local design firm that is now Pellham-Phillips, and when Kubik was ready to launch his own firm, he called his friend.

“She was running a two-person interior design shop out of her home, and she said we should do something that nobody else in Springfield was doing,” Kubik said.

They formed Buxton-Kubik Interior in 2003; Dodd, a former colleague of Kubik’s at Sapp Design Associates, came on board a year later, and the name was changed to Buxton-Kubik-Dodd.

The firm met its five-year profit goal in its first year, and though the principals declined to disclose actual revenues, they said the key to their success is the way they work together.

“The (partnerships) that fail are because they weren’t friends,” Kubik said. “I spend more time with Joyce and Jon than I do with my own family. That’s what makes us a good partnership – we talk outside of the office, and we care about each other. Plus, we all specialize in different things and bring different (talents) to the table.”

Though the firm’s focus is on architecture – especially interior architecture – it is branching into other areas, including construction management and furniture design.

“The idea is that we can be really good at all of these little pieces in a construction project,” Kubik said. “You get the design process and then you have the building process, and then there’s the after-building process – furniture, mirrors, finishes. We can do all of those things now.”

Mark Uhler, president and CEO of Southwest Community Bank, was impressed with the firm’s dedication to the redesign of the bank’s facility at 3333 E. Battlefield Road.

“Some firms will do your design work and then you’ll never see them,” Uhler said. “They were very hands-on, very helpful, and they did a great job of coming over and making sure things were done right and in a timely manner.”

While Buxton-Kubik-Dodd does offer a wide range of construction-related services, Buxton said clients aren’t forced to use the company for all their needs.

“It’s a smorgasbord – if it’s not right for the client to use us for the construction management, that’s fine,” she said. “They can pick and choose what’s the best fit for them.”

Some clients come to the firm with a general idea of what they want for their new space, but Buxton said clients all want the firm’s ideas and expertise.

“People come to us so they can get more than what they can do creatively themselves,” she said. “They want a quality product, and they don’t want to make a lot of mistakes. I have 25 years of mistakes that I’ve left in my wake, and hopefully I’m not making the same mistakes over and over again.”

The firm used its expertise to redesign the space for Deep, a division of advertising firm The Marlin Co., according to company President Dennis Marlin.

“They’re good at understanding your business and how it works so they can design an efficient space, but also helping you capture your thoughts for the feel of the space,” Marlin said, noting that the design had to account for lighting, meeting space issues and the company’s new color scheme.

Buxton-Kubik-Dodd has 11 employees, including the three partners. Each of the firm’s projects are overseen by one of the partners, and while that theoretically limits the amount of work the company can take on, the principals believe it’s important to preserve high standards.

Growth may be in store for Buxton-Kubik-Dodd, but the firm’s principals don’t want to let it grow too big.

“We will never be an 80-person firm,” Kubik said. “The idea is to be the best that we can in the areas we work in.”

And don’t expect to see the firm drastically spreading its geographic reach, either.

With the exception of the company’s work designing high-rise interiors in China – where the firm has one full-time employee – Buxton-Kubik-Dodd’s work stays mostly in Missouri, Arkansas and Kansas.

“Our focus is home – this is where we live,” Kubik said. “We’re compensated by being able to see the designs we’ve created and see it built. That’s more powerful than anything money can buy.”