CEO Roundtable: Architects & Engineers

Each month, we gather around the table with a different group of Springfield business leaders to discuss industry trends, workforce and company operations. Join us as we get a behind-the-scenes look into our business community from the C-suite.

For this CEO Roundtable podcast, partners from local architecture firms sit down with Springfield Business Journal Executive Editor Christine Temple. This month’s guests are George Mandrik, BRP Architects; John McNabb, Sapp Design Associates Architects Inc.; and Larry Parke, Hood-Rich Inc.

An excerpt from the start of the podcast follows.

Christine Temple: The American Institute of Architects has predicted a slowing of project volume. The past couple of years has seen more growth and activity, but they’re looking at just maybe over 2% growth this year after estimating firms nationwide had 20% growth in 2023. What are you seeing within our local industries and within your firms?
John McNabb: Over the last two years, there was a lot of government funding that was put out there in such programs as ARPA. A lot of those programs, the funding had to have been allocated by the end of 2024. We saw a pretty large volume in 2023, 2024, because all the money was trying to get spent. So, we were anticipating 2025 to be more of a return to normal.
George Mandrik: In 2024, it started off pretty good and then toward the middle of it slowed down quite a bit. We actually started to see kind of a rise toward the end of 2024, and 2025 has been a busy year so far, a good year for us and the projection for the rest of the year is looking strong.
Temple: What’s your project mix?
McNabb: We’re pretty heavily in the public sector, so lots of schools, lots of libraries, civics, so a lot of those were tied to those government funding, so that’s why we were seeing that surge.
Larry Parke: For us, it’s really mostly private. We do some public work. We’ve been steady in the past year, probably not that frantic pace to John’s point that we saw in 2023 and 2024.
Mandrik: We’re also mostly private. We do some public work, but it’s limited in nature. A lot of our clients, they were kind of waiting out the election year, see how that plays out. It seems like no matter what the results are, that people are always a little bit more able to move forward. They’re a little bit more excited, because they can predict it a little bit more. On the national level, those clients have pulled the trigger right around that November timeframe. A lot of hospitality-type work is moving forward.
Temple: The city of Springfield’s comprehensive zoning code update, that’s been something years in the making and is maybe kind of finally coming to fruition. This is the first time that the code’s been updated in three decades in this comprehensive nature. From our reporting, we understand that the current code is really based on that land-use type of model and zoning types, and this new code favors more multiuse; it favors more design in the plan that kind of fits that Forward SGF goal of quality of place. Curious how that impacts your work? Are these welcome updates?
Parke: It’s a welcome update. It’s long overdue; the code needed to be updated. So, I’m optimistic about it, but I’ll be really interested to see how it’s implemented once the final version is passed. And there’s some architectural guidelines that are in there, and so I’ll be interested to see how that’s enforced.
Temple: Do you feel that the guidelines are good for architecture firms, or how would you characterize them?
Parke: To be determined. It’ll be interesting from my perspective to see how it’s implemented. That’s not really clear to me.
McNabb: Keep in mind there’s the difference between requirements and guidelines. You can have all the guidelines, but if there’s no enforcement or no requirements to it, then you never know how that’s going to happen.
Mandrik: I’m with these two guys. There’s a couple of things that I like that we’re implementing and that’s kind of adapting to our growing nature as a city, as we don’t have a whole lot of land available leftover for development within the city limits. So, we’re going to become more urban. And I think the zoning code is starting to address that in the way that they do mixed-use developments and how they implement the zoning layers within and make the city more connected, kind of striving toward that. Those are really good elements, but from a design standpoint, I still haven’t made up my mind on that point. The implementation, the regulation of it and really the interpretation of it. Who’s to interpret it? And is that going to be a stumbling block for architects, or is that going to really help the city?
McNabb: Overall though, it is definitely a positive thing moving forward just because things change over time, so you really do have to keep these codes updated just to stay current with the different change of how the city has grown.
Temple: How do you think this might change the look of our city to have this place-based type approach, maybe 20 years from now when this comprehensive plan is over?
Parke: I really think it’s going to be a little more urban than what it has in the past. To George’s point, we’re running out of land, anxious to see the adaptive reuse and how that will happen. It’s probably something that hasn’t happened in Springfield a lot.
Mandrik: I’m curious to see how it’s going to look. From one side, is it going to limit some of the architectural or is it going to expand the design throughout the city? Hopefully it’s the latter. It’s going to make our cities a little bit more interactive, a little bit more connected and a little bit more oriented on the placemaking from a design standpoint.
McNabb: I think complacency would be much worse. So it’s good hearing that these conversations are happening. The speed is yet to be determined how quickly, but I think the important thing is that they’re having these conversations and the leaders of the city are having this vision and where they want to get the city moving forward to.
Temple: What about design trends? What are you excited about in your work, maybe materials, the look or the challenges clients are bringing you?
McNabb: One design trend, and it’s been around for a little bit but it continues to gain momentum, would be clients are wanting spaces to be more flexible. They want it to be more adaptable; they want to use them in different ways. We’re seeing furniture is playing a much more pivotal role in this. And so companies like a Grooms, we work with them a lot so that they’ve really helped out with that to help design the space and look at different ways how that space could use.
Mandrik: From an exterior standpoint, a lot of the design trends are being driven by energy codes that are being more developed and more adapted throughout jurisdictions throughout the nation, but also the skilled labor. We’re done with the age of where you could draw a very finite detail and just expect the skilled labor to execute it properly. More rainscreen-driven envelopes and those kind of elements that are a lot of premanufactured parts.
Parke: I work a lot in the hospitality sector, and from that standpoint, private equity has come in and bought most of the hotels. Now we’re kind of seeing a pushback against that because private equity is just trying to squeeze out as much dollars as they can out of a property. And so with Gen Y and Gen Z travelers, they’re expecting a little bit more. And so there’s a return to true hospitality of how a guest is treated. It’s not a transaction anymore. It’s making them feel welcome and meeting and exceeding their needs.