The Beck Group contributed its design/build expertise on the St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church project in McKinney, Texas.

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Integration is a key word at The Beck Group . Although most general contractors offer design/build services, the Dallas-based company says it never separates design and construction. “We are an integrated leader,” Principal Betsy del Monte explains. “We’re responsible for design and construction. We bring our building expertise into the very initial phases of the design process.”

The current Beck Group is a result of a merger of two companies: HC Beck, a family owned third-generation contracting firm, and Urban Architecture, an architecture company where del Monte had been a principal for six years. Since the merger in 1999, The Beck Group performs independent architecture and independent construction, but its greatest strength is integrated services, del Monte notes.

The key, she says, is cross-training. “The professionals we hire have qualifications in either architecture or construction management, but are then given the experience of working together or even doing the other’s job,” del Monte stresses. “That way, people begin to understand each others’ processes and issues and what happens all the way through.”

Serving primarily the commercial, healthcare and educational markets, del Monte says some clients are still hesitant to take advantage of The Beck Group’s approach. “The challenge is making our clients understand the value of integrated services,” she says. “They still feel that there is a greater value when companies are protecting themselves against each other, as opposed to collaborating. And some owners still feel that there is value when there is tension between groups.”

Integrated service is less combative and more effective when solving problems, del Monte adds, offering a better chance for innovation. The best way to make clients understand is to let them experience it, she says. “Once they experience it, they realize that if something happens, there is only one group to go to,” del Monte emphasizes.

“There is only one company to solve the problems, there’s no finger-pointing, and the only [thing] to do is to solve the problem, she continues. It’s much more effective in dealing with the unexpected. Things get done on time, they get done on budget, and there aren’t a lot of unexpected costs at the end of the job.”

Del Monte adds that The Beck Group goes through intensive training to ensure quality results. “There’s a learning curve to make sure people who grew up in the old approach understand the collaboration,” she continues. “You can’t just do business as usual and expect the same result. There is a high level of training - [it requires] an extensive 40 hours of in-house training for every employee, every year to make sure employees understand [the process].”

Wrote its Own BIM
The Beck Group also offers development services both in its own projects and in independent projects. This includes programming, site selection and acquisition, cost budgets and accounting and contract management. “We’re better architects because we understand construction, and we’re a better contractor because we understand architecture and development,” del Monte says. “And, we can offer unique development solutions because we have the architecture, construction and technology [capabilities].”

Del Monte says the company wrote its own building information modeling (BIM) software that allows users to start modeling a project at the beginning phases and have access to the cost of the project at the very start.

“It has a live cost database associated with the design of the building at the very initial stages,” del Monte explains. “This system has been in development for over a decade and there has been a team of software engineers working on this.” She adds that the company recently added energy modeling, which allows users to determine the energy usage of the project at an early stage.

Green building has been a strong focus of The Beck Group, del Monte says, noting that her expertise is in sustainable design and construction. The company employs more than 100 LEED-accredited professionals.

Stands for Quality
Looking forward to the company’s 100th anniversary in 2012, del Monte says she hopes for more growth. “The Beck name has been in continuous use for all these years,” she says. This milestone, she adds, means two things for The Beck Group.

“First, [it says] that we are a well-established company, well-known and well-respected,” del Monte continues. “The Beck name stands for a certain level of quality that our clients come to expect. [Second], it gives us the platform for innovation. We certainly do things that other companies don’t do.

“We’ve tried a lot of different things and continue to innovate because of our status and [we] still maintain our core competencies,” she adds. “Our management – third-generation owner and CEO Peter Beck – is not content to sit around and wait. He’s always looking for ways [to innovate].”

Reputation is more than just being the leading contractor, del Monte asserts. “In the future, I would like to see people realize that Beck is the source of innovative solutions to their problems, and not just seen as a top architect or top contractor,” she stresses. “I’d like to be seen as a source of technology and sustainable solutions.”