AEdifica Case: Nothing Lost in Translation
Date Posted: June 2, 2015
Posted In: News, Organizations,
by Tom Finan, Executive Director, Construction Forum STL
When Darrell Case traveled with his parents as a child from their home in South County to his grandparents’ home 13 miles from Rolla, they would pass the University of Missouri at Rolla (now Missouri S&T). Case knew then that he wanted to be an engineer.
What he couldn’t know then is that 100-mile trip would eventually lead him to work in 49 states (he is licensed in every one but Alaska) and to have a partner whose office staff answers the phones in French.
AEdifica Case Engineering, whose home office is located at 796 Merus Court in Fenton, has mostly flown under the radar locally during its 20 years in business. That’s probably due to the fact that a lot of its work is in other areas of the country. Over the years the company has also done a significant amount of work in the St. Louis Metropolitan area. And that local work is growing exponentially, along with work elsewhere in the U.S. and in Canada. Since 2011 the firm has grown from 13 to 42 employees.
Recognizing “Good People”
Darrell Case believes that good people are easy to recognize. He is part of a group of “alums” who ran rides at the Six Flags amusement park in Eureka during high school. A number of his professional connections today are from that group. His accountant is Mark Carlie of BOD Stone Carlie, and Dave Roemer the park’s current manager is a client.
His good people = good business approach is epitomized by his life-long involvement in Boy Scouts. Case is an Eagle Scout, as is his son. He has been a Scout leader for 25 years. AEdifica Case was the engineering firm on the new dining hall at S-F Scout Ranch near Knob Lick.
S-F Scout Ranch dining hall, designed by Mackey Mitchell
But Case is a also a pragmatist. He earned his ability to discern people through experience and through hard knocks.
By his own admission, Case was a less-than-stellar student at Rolla, and took longer than normal to graduate. Working stints during his college career had taken him to the oil fields of Texas. He returned there after graduation in 1982—just in time for the oil bust of 1983. Returning to the Midwest, he went to work for Clean Air Engineering, testing power plants to see if they needed air cleaning equipment.
This was decades before today’s strict personal protective equipment and confined space regulations. He soon decided that working, “in 20 below and 100 degrees, 300 feet in the air” was not where he wanted to be. Frequently he was working inside the equipment that was filtering power plant precipitates, with nothing more than duct tape keeping the dust at bay. “Inside an electrostatic precipitator when the dust is flying is not a good place to be, “he stated.
He went to Banashek and Associates as a drafting associate, and then on to four years under David Wilson at Tennill and Associates. Most of Tennill’s work was in hospitals and when Medicare funding was chopped so was Case’s position. Cannon Design hired him because of his medical experience. After three years there and another two years at SSC Engineering, he decided to strike out on his own in November of 1995
Good People in Another Country
Working a decade for others gave Darrell Case a good idea of the kind of firm he wanted to run. He started with one client, but it was a substantial one – McDonalds. He spent a year converting outdoor play spaces into indoor play spaces at McDonald’s restaurants. Edison Brothers was still doing a lot of building then. The firm employed three architects, and Case worked for all three of them.
He started building relationships with firms that were working around the country. Oculus, Inc. was doing a lot of work for SBC (now ATT). Case began working with them and Oculus today is one of AEdifica Case’s largest clients. “They’re flexible and consistent members that we can bring to the table. We have access into their firm, where we can reach right in when we need help,” said Lisa Bell-Reim, president of Oculus.
Case began calling on a Canadian architectural firm, Architects Dupuis Dubuc in Montreal, QC. One of the preeminent Montreal architects, the firm had portfolio of some of the world’s biggest brands in retail, as well as work in a number of other areas. Months went by with positive responses but no assignments. Finally, in May of 1997, the fledgling engineering firm was given a project to work on.
One project led to more. The Canadians were so impressed with the work Case’s firm did that in December of that year Case received a phone call from Michel Dubuc, president of the architectural firm. Up until this time the Dupuis Dubuc had used several engineering firms. Dubuc felt that he could elevate his firm’s game if he could find an engineering firm that shared his level of passion for design and client service.
He brought Case to Montreal, where they discussed forming an engineering company. “I had never spoken to (Dubuc) before his call,” Case recalled. But Case liked what he saw and his sense of working with good people kicked in again “When you meet people, you know a rainmaker who’s been around. I had worked around Kent Turner at Cannon and I could see the same thing in Michel. He’s also one of the most respected architects in Montreal.”
The idea was to bring the engineering services into the parent company. Initial discussions quickly led to an agreement to form a new company that would provide engineering services and would be jointly owned by both companies. Some of the engineering staff would be in St. Louis and some in Montreal. The engineers in Montreal would technically work for a different entity, as Canada’s version of the AIA prohibits architectural practices operating engineering firms.
Jean Claude Dupuis, who was in his 80s, was ready to retire. In 1999 the firm re-formed and rebranded under the name AEdifica in Montreal and AEdifica Case in St. Louis. Darrell Case owned half the engineering practice and a percentage of the architectural firm.
Success/Succès: The Same However You Spell It
When you call the firm’s Montreal office, the phones are answered in French. The website for AEdifica has both French and English versions, with French being the default. AEdifica and AEdifica Case have a practice that, like the corporate culture, is extraordinarily diverse – from Barney’s flagship store in New York City to an expansion of the Palais de Congress (Montreal’s convention center), and the learning resource center at Lindenwood University.
The firms’ tandem high-design/high-service approach has worked. AEdifica Case continues to perform work for long time clients like Schnucks, Dierbergs, and Shop and Save. AEdifica Case engineers will brew up engineering designs for 100 new Starbucks stores this year.
But the firm is also building new relationships. Callison, a 1,000 person firm with 11 offices and a large commercial and retail practice is awarding AEdifica Case an increasing number of assignments, Case said.
Five years ago the firm added the complementary structural engineering practice of Stephen Sacco, who is now a principal in the firm.
Stephen Sacco
This past February, Darrell Case was named Engineer of the Year by the St. Louis Chapter, Missouri Society of Professional Engineers. However you spell it – “success”, or “succès” in French – Darrell Case’s belief that working for and with good people is good business obviously works.