Oldest firm has newest technology

CNY Business Journal (1996+), Dec 15, 2000 by King, Tina

From its beginning 132 years ago, King&King Architects has been designing buildings and building relationships in Central New York. It is the oldest architectural firm in continuous practice in New York State and the fourth oldest in the United States.

King&King began with Archimedes Russell in 1868. Twenty years later, Melvin King joined and soon became a partner Kings have been involved continuously with the firm since then. Peter G. King, who is managing partner, is the fourth generation of the family with the firm.

For many years, King&King was located in downtown Syracuse, but, in 1986, it moved to its current location in Manlius, originally leasing and eventually buying the building in which it now practices.

Peter King says, "One hundred thirty-two years bridges a lot of years. For us to continue, we always need to be looking forward."

As a professional service company, it looks for better ways to serve its clients, and technology plays an important part, says King. The firm recently renovated its office space to make better use of technology.

As well as allowing a faster turnaround, says King, the latest technology enables significantly more efficient communication, both internally and externally. King&King Architects and the subcontractors on a project download information to established sites, allowing all team members to access current progress on the project and spend less time on the telephone or traveling back and forth to project sites. Clients also have access to these sites, which allow for easier updates on the progress of the project, and permit viewing of drawings of the design, and sometimes an animated walk-through of the final design. For example, teachers virtually walk through their school's new media center through the use of technology. King says that much work goes into creating an animated walk-through, but maintaining one main source of information allows the freedom to spend more time on the creative part of design.

King&King Architects uses digital cameras as another tool to save time. King says that often questions arise on project sites and the engineers need answers before production can continue. With the use of digital cameras, engineers photograph the problem and download it, so that the architects can view it to make a decision. King says that the use of digital cameras allows production to flow without sacrificing the quality of the construction.

Although the firm considered out-sourcing Web-site maintenance and related work, it found its in-house staff was capable of tending to the firm's technological needs. King&King Architects designed and maintains its Web site. King says that in-house staff not only tends to the firm's inhouse technological needs, but also develops programs. He says that one day the firm may market its ideas, but currently has no plans to do so.

New technology has been added internally. New software provides staff with the details of a project. King says that what used to be done by hand - graphing the details of a project - is now done more efficiently through the use of a program. Time-consuming meetings become less frequent, and there are fewer communication breakdowns among, project team members.

King says, "Today is a very competitive environment for any profession. Trying to promote a technological edge becomes very important." Part of that technological edge is evident through King&King Architects' commitment to staff development. Each year, dollars and time are budgeted for the continuing education of staff. Through a professional development plan, King&King Architects help employees reach their professional goals by providing money for courses of study that will further their careers.

Working for various educational, health-care and corporate clients, the firm specializes in designing highly technical spaces, such as the emergency room and OB/GYN delivery suite at St. Joseph's hospital and media centen in public schools. As a full partner with University Partners Group, based in Rochester, King&King Architects has done much work for the University of Rochester. Other King&King partners are The De Wolff Partnership and ENSR. Two of its more recent, highprofile projects are the Chamber of ,Commerce and Marquardt Switches in Cazenovia.

King is not able to predict the increase in sales generated by the firm's new technology, but says that King&King has seen a "steady increase" in revenue during the past several years. He says that as the company "gets more comfortable" with its new technology, it will be easier to track revenue enhancement brought about by the technology. Currently, annual revenue, according to King, is "about $6.5 million."