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By Audra Distifeno for TCAJoB
Even through some tough economic downturns, Meier Architecture Engineering is celebrating 30 years in business this year.
Instead of following national trends, the company continues to grow and has remained an icon in the Tri-Cities region.
In April, Meier expanded to the Vancouver/Portland area with a second office ?to diversify our geographical presence,? said President and CEO Steve Anderson, and will serve to grow and enhance the existing business.
Anderson said the business? key to success is that employees believe in what they are doing and love their jobs, which sends a very positive message to clients.
?We are a service industry adding value to our relationship with personal commitment,? he said.
Terry Meier launched the business in 1982 with Rob Bready, Anderson said. Both men had a great attitude and an extremely strong work ethic
?Building something for the employees was a guiding principle and what followed was both community commitment and enduring client relationships,? Anderson said. ?We are still focused around this very strong foundation for our future.?
Anderson said he?s not sure how much money Meier and Bready made when they started out, but he didn?t think it was much.
?Over the last 15 years, our financial performance has swung wildly,? he said.
To preserve employees and future, Meier was briefly acquired by another company called MACTEC after losing a large federal contract on the Hanford site in the 1990s.
?That was the closest we came to closing shop,? Anderson said. ?We lost about 25 percent of our employees and even more financially. The company then made a very strong push to focus on commercial/private work to help balance our risk over the next year and we had some very good success.?
The tactic worked so well that Terry Meier bought the company back after just a year and Meier has maintained its independence since. In mid-2007, Meier sold a majority stake, 61 percent, of his architecture and engineering firm to his employees in an employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP. Three years later, employees purchased the remaining 39 percent of the architecture and engineering company from Meier.
Now the company has nearly 60 architects, engineers and support staff who provide consulting services and have completed more than 6,800 projects locally and abroad.
Meier staff is proud of an array of projects it has been involved in. It has provided full service architectural, civil, structural, mechanical and electrical engineering and interior design to myriad projects, including: Tri-Cities Community Health (three-story, 39,791-square-foot building in Pasco), Frontier Land Port of Entry (of which over 98 percent of construction waste was recycled), Cascade Natural Gas Regional Headquarters Office (26,000-square-foot brick and stucco building in Kennewick), Cayuse Technologies (a new information technology business center at the Cayuse Business Park, owned by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation) and Tri-City Business & Visitor Center.
In 2008, Meier received a ?Best Design-Build Innovation? award from Northwest Construction for the Cayuse Technologies facility. The local firm was also nominated for the Seattle AIA Civic Design Award in 2009 for the Tri-City Regional Business & Visitor Center design, a new 14,650-square-foot single-story regional business center in Kennewick.
Following in the tradition of Terry Meier, the company believes in utilizing state-of-the-art technology when it becomes available.
?He was very excited by technology and being on the cutting edge and thinking of what could be,? said Anderson. ?We have tried hard to keep that business strategy going with the latest in Autodesk produces, with the use of REVIT (an industry-leading Autodesk product) and Building Information Modeling.?
Most recently, Meier developed a web-based application database to allow staff to document field construction engineering oversight.
?We can now keep track of all changes, reviews and document engineering construction observations by populating in real time from a standard smart phone, all of these actions,? said Anderson.
This provides more transparency for the client and team members and greater efficiency in collaboration, which saves time and money.
Much of the industry?s equipment is standardized, Anderson said, however Meier was one of the first to utilize 3D modeling and interactive web design tools back in the 1990s, as well as LiDAR technology long before they became required practices ?for capturing existing surface conditions for As-built construction renovation.?
In addition to the diversity Meier offers its clients, a definite boon to the company was when it became employee-owned.
?There is a greater sense, by employees, that this is their business?we have also benefited greatly from our 30-year history. Clients know we are here to stay and can count on us,? said Anderson. ?That is a great comfort to people, especially in difficult economic times.?
Meier currently has 43 active participants in its Employee Stock Ownership Trust (ESOT), of which any employee is eligible to participate after one year of employment. Profits are shared to employee by the company making stock and/or cash contribution to the trust each year based on Meier?s financial success.
?The company is evaluated each year and a value is given to our stock, much like publicly-traded stock,? said Anderson. When an employee taking part in the ESOT leaves or retires, he/she is cashed out.
?There are many federal regulations and plan guidelines (with an ESOT), so this is just a condensed overview,? said Anderson. He maintains more companies could see greater success if they were employee-owned. ?It is not simple to administer, but it has been a great choice for us.?
Meier?s immediate goals include plans to seek diverse federal and state projects that require small business partnerships.
?Long-term, we are focused on steady and controlled growth in the medical, educational, energy and commercial sectors while balancing that with continued Federal services,? said Anderson.
?We?re here for the long haul, so we will continue to provide quality services to our clients and explore opportunities as they become understood,? he said.
?Reflecting on our first 30 years in business, Meier?s executives are deeply grateful to our clients for their confidence in our ability to carry out their design projects,? said Anderson. ?We also want to offer our heartfelt thanks to the employee owners and their families, whose creativity, dedication and sacrifices allowed us to fulfill our commitments while also helping build a strong foundation for future growth within our communities.?
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