Leadership

A senior architect with over 40 years in the industry, experienced on a wide variety of project types, yet remaining a humble personality firmly grounded in recognizing there is always opportunity to learn and understanding that listening is fundamental.

Joel delivers to his clients a “get it done” attitude with the skills and knowledge to make it happen. Like many well seasoned senior architects, Joel started his career working on construction sites as a laborer during summers learning many trades “hands-on”. While attending the University of Texas at Arlington he worked for two years as a draftsman providing detailed shop drawings for a precast panel company on parking garage and commercial building projects in Dallas and Houston. In 1980 Joel accepted a position working on residential projects for three years with Ted Howard Architects in Dallas followed by four years spent in the roll of Job Captain on large high-rise projects at HKS Architects, then four years with LPA Architects in California on the John Wayne Airport Terminal, office towers and hotels. Joel then went on to launch a small practice in California where he was approached by one of the Partner’s from LPA to team together and launch a new firm, Stoutenborough Inc., where Joel spent his next five years helping to grow the firm from two architects to twenty six. Joel was charge of the architectural production department on national retail and theater programs before deciding to re-open his own firm where he spent the next several years growing it to fifteen architects servicing stadium seating movie theaters, big-box retail, restaurants and custom homes. After many years managing Greer Architecture Joel relocated to his home in Texas where he accepted a role with a Dallas firm for several years before being approached by and joining another prominent restaurant firm.

After some forty years spent in the industry Joel decided to return to operating his own firm in Partners 26, having teamed with other like minded and talented architects. Over the years Joel has also participated in the role of land developer where he acquired a significantly sized amount of raw land on a major southern California highway, designed its master plan for over a million square feet of build-out, authored its proforma in teaming with international investors, provided the entitlement and architectural expertise to more than triple the value of the investment for his partners. Joel has proven to have the vision, the experience and the drive to deliver projects, including management of the client’s development process and growth initiatives, strategic and organizational planning, design, project management, quality assurance, prototypes, national programs and developments for restaurant, retail and developer clients.

John is a licensed Architect with over 23 years of work experience in a variety of project types and has remained true to his ways and goals. John has remained a successful architect by actively expanding his knowledge and remaining open to learning from others throughout his career.

John attended the University of Arkansas School of Architecture in Fayetteville, Arkansas and received Bachelor of Architecture. While at the University of Arkansas he entered the Architecture Abroad Program in Rome, Italy and became a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity. When John wasn’t spending his time in Fayetteville during college he was working for his older brother, Eric, enjoying his days in the outside environment managing a landscape maintenance crew, handling client relations and services.

After graduation John began his architecture career in Houston, TX. Upon returning to the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex he continued to gain project experience in designing custom single and multifamily residences; various healthcare and research facilities including hospitals and surgery centers; large scale warehouse and distribution projects; various levels of senior living facilities; education sector projects (K-12); restaurants, bars and entertainment venues including a national multi-plex stadium theater program; and broad mercantile, grocery, and retail stores. John has been responsible for multi-million dollar projects including original design concepts and maintaining prototype designs. Through code research, project management, and construction administration John has completed various building types while maintaining budgetary restrictions and construction schedules. In addition to John’s design and construction experience, he has worked in the forensic architecture field evaluating existing building design failures. He has also worked with property owners, attorneys, design professionals, contractors, and the insurance industry doing invoice analysis, building failure analysis, cause and origin investigation, code review and interpretation, and opining in disputes and litigation related to building distress, personal injury deficiencies in design, and construction. Based upon his field studies, research of building components, code analysis, and the application of building science, he has authored reports and provided architectural forensic opinions at mediation proceedings.

James is a licensed architect with significant exposure to all sides of the industry: Architecture, Developer, Landlord, Tenant, and Construction; encompassing Planning, Design, Architecture, Construction, Project/Program Management, Marketing, Strategic Planning, and Business Development. This consists of over 30 years of broad experience ranging from retail, restaurant, corporate office, and multi-family to senior housing, life safety/seismic retrofit, historical renovation, and public transportation. Primary involvement has been with large national developers with multi-unit roll-out programs in retail, restaurant, and senior living facilities. As such, he has extensive experience with the entire development process, and how best to get things done. As a former Partner at another Dallas full-service architecture firm specializing in multi-unit restaurant development programs, James has been directly Involved over a 14+ year span with numerous restaurant concepts from custom designed, single units to multi-unit national chains and international developments. Other Client types included Retail, Legal/Corporate Office TIs, and autobody repair shop uses. Project types consisted of Ground-ups, Conversions, Refresh / Reimages, and Tenant Improvements. The diversity of these developments, client needs, and the scope of services provided have given James a breadth of knowledge that can be a significant asset for future clients. Program and project management responsibilities have cultivated the importance and expectation for delivering projects with high quality, on time and within budget. This drives the use of strong communication and collaboration skills across both internal and external multi-discipline teams. James has helped expand Property Development services that revolved around PSPs, due diligence, entitlement, permitting, and expediting efforts that grew into Project, Program, and Construction Management responsibilities. He helped establish and oversee a creative design team dedicated to providing complete design and graphic services from programming, concept incubation, space planning, and interior design to branding, digital 3D animations and procurement. He helped manage the internal interaction between the architecture, design, property development, and construction teams so that a client’s requested services for a concept and/or specific development are performed in a thorough, seamless process that captures the added value and benefits to the client that results from using a single resource for multiple services. James received a Bachelor of Environmental Design degree at Texas A&M University and was fortunate to participate in Texas A&M’s European Studies

As the Partner leading our design work, Phillip brings highly sought after talent and abilities that are on the leading forefront of our industry. Phillip is fully dedicated to his design work with almost twenty years of experience in Architecture & Interior Design, working both domestically and Internationally closely with clients, consultants and contractors throughout all phases and aspects of the design and construction process. Phillip holds a Master of Architecture degree with nearly 20 years of experience in schematic design, project presentation, branding, construction documentation, interior design, furniture design/ selection, and construction administration. He has worked with several major International Restaurant & Retail groups leading their design teams. He has applied his vision to many new concept developments and also in project management work for large multi-asset expansions, creating and communicating global design standards, and enhancing in-house design abilities for international flagship stores. In addition, Phillip conducted Global Design & Development coaching and training across thirteen different markets that are responsible for literally thousands of projects spanning the globe. He has also managed client accounts, working with numerous commercial and public projects such as fire stations, libraries, education facilities, and public recreation centers. Phillip is perhaps best appreciated for his ability of clear and concise communications with associate team members and most importantly with our clients to ensure the complete understanding of expectations, responsibilities and accountabilities while meeting our client’s deadlines, all accomplished in tangent with fostering great relationships.