Ireland & Associates moves into new space

Ireland designed the remodeling and expansion of the Golden Kitchen Chinese Buffet restaurant into her new office space. Ireland’s firm occupies about half of the 4,800-square-foot structure; the remainder is available for lease.

Bales Construction served as the general contractor, and Malone Finkle Eckhardt & Collins was the engineer on the project. Liberty Bank was the lender for the project, which had an estimated construction cost of $200,000.

While Ireland has been at the helm of her own company for almost 10 years, she got her experience in the industry working for firms that are now her competitors, including Butler, Rosenbury & Partners, Pellham Phillips Hagerman and fellow architects Don Wiseman, Ben J. Goforth and Laura Derrick.

In 1995, Ireland started her own drafting business, Stephanie D. Ireland Inc.

After getting her architecture license in 2000, she began doing business as Ireland & Associates, and the firm has grown from two to six employees.

Ireland is the firm’s principal architect and has an individualized bachelor of science degree in architectural technology from Southwest Missouri State University.

While Ireland declined to disclose her company’s revenues, she said that they have grown tenfold since 1995. The firm now averages 25 active projects, up from five in the beginning.

One long-lasting relationship with a current client, St. John’s Hospital, has proved to be valuable to Ireland’s personal learning and business.

“I’ve worked with St. John’s for 14 years,” Ireland said. “I was relatively young, and Bill Syler, one of the vice presidents at St. John’s, really taught me a lot about health care – what to look for and how to design suites,” Ireland said. “(Syler) taught me the questions to ask and what to look for, and now it is to a point where he can call and say, ‘Hey, I need to design an internal medicine suite that has four providers,’ (and) from there I can usually fill in the blanks.”

Syler, vice president of facilities for St. John’s, said, “We almost use her as an extension of our family in a working relationship with us. She knows how we operate and basically the type of construction we are looking for … . It really streamlines things and allows us to do (construction) more cost-effectively.”

Of Ireland’s active projects, 23 are for St. John’s.

Ireland said her firm is working on a renovation and addition for a St. John’s dentist office, and a helicopter pad project for St. John’s in Branson.

One of the firm’s largest ongoing projects is a $3 million addition and renovation to the Missouri Orthopedic Institute (also known as the St. John’s Sports Medicine building). After 22,400 square feet of additions, the building will encompass 52,463 square feet.

“I am very excited about the Missouri Orthopedic Institute addition/renovation project … because it will allow the newest and most up-to-date medical technology in a physical therapy and sports medicine facility in the area,” Ireland said.

The type of new technology that will fill the sports Medicine facility is one example of the changes Ireland faces in keeping up with a technologically advancing industry.

“The technology that is going in the buildings has really dictated a lot of what we can and cannot do,” Ireland said.

For instance, “We have to do radio frequency shielding for some special equipment because it is so highly sensitive. We have to make sure that the vibration of the building isn’t going to mess up some type of equipment,” she said.

But it’s the constant challenge that keeps Ireland interested in her work.

“It is never boring; you never do the same project more than once. … I like the challenge. If it were easy, I probably wouldn’t do it,” she said.

While a majority of Ireland’s work is in the health care industry, she said it actually makes her so flexible. “I really feel in health care, if you are in it long enough, you end up doing everything. If you are specializing in health care, you do restaurants, you do office buildings, you do highly technical medical facilities, you do … bank facilities,” she said.

In addition to understanding a variety of structures, Ireland said she deals with a variety of regulations required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, Federal Aviation Administration, Medicare, and Medicaid.

“You have so many more regulations – state codes, local ordinances, and federal documents. It’s kind of like, if you do health care, everything else is easy,” Ireland said.

In the future, Ireland said, she plans to expand her client base by doing more marketing and advertising. However, she expects most of her projects will revolve around health care.

“It seems like a niche to be in … there are a whole lot of independent doctors out there and other types of doctors who aren’t affiliated with the system that need renovation or need new offices that I’d like to get into; because I know it’s something that I am good at,” Ireland said.

Outside of health care, Ireland said she is working on a project for Alternative Opportunities Inc. and a renovation for Steak and Ale.

With almost 10 years in business under her belt, Ireland said she plans to stay in Springfield and continue growing her business. Eventually, she may share it with others.

“In 10 years … I’ll be 49; I may be looking more toward, ‘How can I wind down or pass (my business) on?’ or maybe not do as much work myself,” Ireland said.

For now though, she’s enjoying the benefits of being her own boss.

“ … It doesn’t take an act of God to change something that doesn’t work. In larger firms it’s much harder to change processes even though it may be a better way of doing things,” she said.

[[In-content Ad]]