The 2000s: New Regions, New Services

As we celebrate our 130th anniversary, this series chronicles Freese and Nichols’ achievements decade by decade. These posts are based on A Century in the Works, written by Deborah Sizemore, covering 1894 to 1994, and Continuing the Journey, covering 1995 to 2015.

 

In the 2000s, Freese and Nichols focused on improving client service by opening 10 new offices closer to their clients. This expansion allowed the firm to respond more quickly, offer broader capabilities, and manage those capabilities locally.

“Almost all clients prefer to be served by someone nearby,” said Mike Nichols, who was Chief Marketing Officer at the time. “It’s important that decisions can be made locally by people familiar with the client, their needs, political situation and personalities. They appreciate having direct access to a decision maker, and our service is better.”

Some of these new offices were in areas where Freese and Nichols had been active for decades, such as San Antonio (2003) and Corpus Christi (2007). The new century also saw Freese and Nichols return to the Southeast Texas market.

Reestablishing Presence in Southeast Texas

From 1946 to 1959, Freese and Nichols had a partner firm in Houston known as Freese, Nichols and Turner. After the partners separated, they agreed to refrain from competing: The Houston firm, which eventually took the name, Turner Collie & Braden, would not pursue work in North Texas, and Freese and Nichols would not pursue work in Southeast Texas. Several decades passed under this unofficial arrangement.

By the late 1990s, the landscape had changed, and a national firm had acquired Turner Collie & Braden. Freese and Nichols leaders began researching firms that could expand its local capabilities in Southeast Texas, and Walsh Engineering caught their attention. The 12-person firm in Pearland, south of Houston, had a strong reputation built on 49 years of service to municipalities, the Texas Department of Transportation, and industrial clients.

Freese and Nichols acquired Walsh in the spring of 2000. Over the next few years, as the team steadily grew its work in Pearland and other midsize cities, more opportunities with the City of Houston and Harris County became apparent. To position itself to serve those clients, the firm opened an office in Houston in the spring of 2004; in 2008, Jeff Taylor came on board as Southeast Division Manager. Taylor, previously Deputy Director of the City of Houston’s Public Utilities Division, had been instrumental in water resources policy development in Texas on municipal and statewide levels.

Freese and Nichols expanded into the Southeast Texas market by acquiring Walsh Engineering. Pictured in April 2000 are Rodney Slaton, Hassan Moghaddam, Leslie Valdez; Darrell Arrant, Lynette Wilson, Forouz Bavarian, Judy Blair, Ron Bavarian, Patty Paxton, Rick Lane and Bill Walsh

Taylor expanded the staff in Houston and Pearland, bringing in experienced professionals from inside and outside Freese and Nichols. Today, the Western Gulf Coast Division has more than 180 employees performing services in all of Freese and Nichols’ business lines.

“I always knew that Freese and Nichols was strong in water,” Taylor said. “I didn’t realize how strong we were until I got to the firm. The internal processes we’ve built – from sales to project execution to client service – distinguish us from the lion’s share of our competitors.”

Strengthening Urban Planning Services

In the early 2000s, Freese and Nichols’ urban planning services were within the Architecture Group, led by Alfred Vidaurri. He identified that although the firm was seen as a leader in higher education planning, it had a weak position in municipal planning. So, the architects and planners began pursuing ways to grow Freese and Nichols’ expertise in this area. At the same time, the Texas Legislature was considering allowing design-build public works projects. With this alternative project delivery method, a client hires the same firm to design and construct a project, which could weaken Freese and Nichols’ core business, design.

“Most projects in our business have three phases: planning, design, and construction,” said Ron Lemons, then Chief Operating Officer. “We felt that because of alternative project delivery methods, we may not be able to hang onto design phase work, but there would still be a need for the planning and construction phases. We already had a well-regarded construction service group, which was probably the best in the state. We had good expertise in water resources planning and utilities planning, but not city planning. So we decided to shore up our planning side.”

In 2007, Shad Comeaux, Wendy Shabay, Eddie Haas, Dan Sefko and Jennifer Mason were among Freese and Nichols’ planners.

Freese and Nichols did so by acquiring Dunkin Sefko & Associates in 2007. The Dallas-based urban planning consulting firm had been in business since 1973, had served more than 60 municipalities across Texas, and had a successful working relationship with Freese and Nichols. Its services included municipal, economic development and land use plans; fiscal impact modeling; capital improvement programming; and demographic studies. With this acquisition, Freese and Nichols’ planning capabilities quickly expanded.

Meanwhile, the Legislature ultimately decided to allow design-build in phases; the number of design-build projects that a municipality may initiate each year is limited based on population.

“One result for us was that we got into design-build,” said Bob Pence, at the time the President and CEO. “We developed our alternative delivery capabilities to a much greater level. The other result was that we developed a strength of planning in all our areas, and now we’re much stronger planning-wise.”

A version of this story was originally published in 2019 by Dan Purschwitz. Edited and updated in 2024.