Farnsworth Group shuts down Springfield office

Farnsworth Group Inc. has left the Springfield architectural market.

Citing declining project volumes, officials with the Bloomington, Ill.-based architectural and engineering firm closed its Springfield office last week. Employees emptied the office at 2101 W. Chesterfield Blvd., Ste. B-105 on Jan. 15.

Company officials said the business decision followed nearly four years of incremental staff reductions. There were eight staff members still on board when the office closed, which was about one-third of the office's peak staffing of 23 employees during its four years here.

"It's been on a slow decline," said Bill Hercules, director of architecture for the firm in the St. Louis office. "It was a matter of getting sustainable work. Our ability to convert opportunities was lacking."

Farnsworth principals visited the office in mid-November to announce the closing, giving the remaining staff members two months to make career plans.

Farnsworth Group became a familiar name here about four years ago when the company acquired Wischmeyer Architects, which had offices in Springfield, St. Louis and Fayetteville, Ark. Hercules said the Fayetteville office closed in May 2002 under similar circumstances.

All projects that were on the drawing board will be fulfilled, Hercules said. "We will continue to serve our clients and fulfill our contractual obligations."

Revenue shortfalls

Although Hercules wouldn't disclose financials or projections, other Farnsworth officials said the office wasn't meeting revenue projections.

The revenue "wasn't quite what the company needed," said Joe Broberg, who works as a company trouble-shooter out of Farnsworth's Denver office.

Former Farnsworth architect Thomas Laskeris sensed the end was near for that reason. The firm was losing its share of the competitive Springfield market, he said.

"There was a lack of backlog. I think the firm kind of ran out of gas with the opportunities and they weren't able to further (develop) new clients," he said. "We ran into some stiff competition, and we weren't able to come away with some projects."

Laskeris left Farnsworth two weeks before the Farnsworth announcement hit. He is now an architect for Great Adventure Architects, which recently moved into the John W. Williams Building downtown at 301 W. Walnut.

New firm

Another former Farnsworth employee, Rita Baron, is starting her own architecture firm, Baron Design & Associates LLC.

"That has always been my plan," she said of owning her own company. "I just wasn't planning on doing it right now."

Baron served as senior project designer for Farnsworth Group for four years. She is taking three former Farnsworth associates with her as well as six projects she began in that office.

"I will continue to see through what's already been under contract with Farnsworth," she said. She will complete the projects as a subcontractor for Farnsworth.

Baron is best known for her work for local attorney and Wendy's franchisee Sam Hamra.

Baron Design & Associates is expected to open for business the first week of February in the recently completed Hamra Plaza at 1855 S. Ingram Mill Road, which Baron designed while with Farnsworth.

Moving on

One of the office veterans, senior project manager Jerry Compton, is going to work for Robert C. Boehner at 503 E. St. Louis St. Compton had been at the Chesterfield Village office for more than six years; he was one of three employees still there that had worked for Wischmeyer.

Compton served as interim office manager at Farnsworth for the past four months. He, too, is taking his active projects with him, he said.

Hercules said the new avenues his former employees are taking show the talent they possess.

"We had some fine people working there," he said. "The fortunate thing is that they all have jobs to go to. I'm encouraged by that."

He said that some of the architects and engineers from the Springfield office relocated to St. Louis during the staff reductions.

"The people that closed the office down have been through a lot," Hercules added. "My hat is off to them."