MINNEAPOLIS — When Franklin Ellerbe opened for business in 1909 in borrowed drafting space in St. Paul, he had no way of knowing that his fledgling design shop would someday become one of the country’s largest full-service design firms. Today Ellerbe Becket is a celebrated name in American architecture, and is establishing a similar reputation worldwide.

Ellerbe Becket has grown to 12 offices, with active projects in Western Europe, the Middle East/North Africa, the People’s Republic of China, Russia and New Zealand—no small feat considering the world economic situation. In pursuing global work, Ellerbe Becket has maintained a long-term view. Despite the economic volatility in Russia and the Pacific Rim, Ellerbe Becket maintains offices in Moscow, Seoul and Tokyo.

Ellerbe Becket was the first, and is among the largest, firms in American health care architecture. It also is among the leading designers of educational institutions, professional sports facilities, government entities, corporate and developer facilities.

The Return of the Master Builder
By the mid-1990s, Ellerbe Becket was one of the oldest and largest design firms in America, but CEO Robert Degenhardt, PE, says there was something missing. “Customers were becoming increasingly disenchanted with the process of getting buildings designed and constructed. We set out to reinvent the industry by creating true collaboration with the firm’s clients and stakeholders on every project.”

The result has been a return to the time-honored tradition of the “master builder,” a process Ellerbe Becket calls “integrated services.” In this approach, the firm leads design and leads the construction process—taking integration a step beyond the practice of design-build. “True collaboration delivers a seamless team—a team that includes the planners, designers, builders, and—most importantly—the owner,” said Degenhardt. “I think Franklin Ellerbe would approve.”

By 1998, the firm had US $100 million dollars (in construction volume) of integrated services projects underway. Ellerbe Becket expects to double that figure this year.

90 Years of Innovation
One of the keys to success, according to Ellerbe Becket President Rick Lincicome, AIA, is that the firm applies the same standard of creativity associated with design to all aspects of its work: planning, engineering, interiors, construction. Over the years, the firm has been responsible for a number of industry innovations. Lincicome shared a few:

1. Bank One Ballpark, home to Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks, is the first facility in the world with a retractable roof and natural grass. The ballpark has 5.5 acres (2.2 ha) of roof that open and close in five minutes (1998).
2. Ellerbe Becket has become a leader in patient-centered care implementation, such as “wellness centers”—a dynamic new approach to maintaining patients’ health by combining preventive and complementary medicine, fitness and social interaction (1990s).
3. Tom Ellerbe, son of founder Franklin Ellerbe, was a leader in the cooperative movement and initiated many innovative management concepts. Ellerbe was the first large firm to pay salaries and provide employee benefits, and the first to experiment with a four-day work week. In keeping with this attitude, at retirement in 1966, Tom gave the company to the employees.
4. During World War II, Northwest Airlines chose Ellerbe to plan its facilities at the St. Paul Municipal Airport. Structural steel being scarce in wartime, Ellerbe engineers came up with an innovative solution: the largest, laminated pine arch-trusses ever fabricated to span the 170-ft. (51.8 m) width of the hangars.
5. Also in the 1940s, Ellerbe staff pioneered five major new plans for hospital design: the cross, radial, cloverleaf, Y-plan, penta and numerous variations.
6. In 1922, Tom Ellerbe proposed a radical new approach to hospital design: equipping each room with private bathroom.

Degenhardt said a simple formula of innovation and teamwork have kept the firm successful for 90 years. “It’s been our attitude that we have many stars instead of one star,” he said. “This gives opportunities for a lot of people to do good work and get good rewards.”