By
Linda Jarrett
When Gundaker Commercial Group decided to build their new corporate
headquarters in Chesterfield, they selected HDA Architects as
their designer of choice.
Good choice.
For the last 21 years, HDA has been designing some of the largest
commercial projects in the St. Louis area.
In particular, they seem to have an affinity for the Highway
40 corridor where Principal Mark Duitsman has designed over
18 buildings, including Maryville Center, Timberlake Corpo-rate
Center and One Chesterfield Place.
Mark and Jack Holleran joined forces in 1986 when Holleran was
running an office for a prominent architect and Duitsman was
the “go-to guy for design,” according to Patrick Holleran, marketing
associate.
“They worked together for 10 years on several significant projects
before they started their own business,” Pat says. “Mark stood
out above everyone else.”
Pat says his father and Mark were traveling to Minnesota every
two weeks to handle a project, and they realized that, in the
midst of all this traveling, they should just start their own
company.
A REASON TO MOVE
In 1988, Gundaker purchased 38 acres in Chesterfield Valley
for a mixed-use development. Those developments included Chesterfield
Towne Centre, an 80,000-square-foot retail center, and Chesterfield
Business Park, two 9,000-square-foot single story office buildings.
Towne Centre II and Tower Center.
Realizing there were 4.25 acres left, they decided that the
best use for the remaining acreage was a new corporate headquarters,
and they tapped HDA for the design.
Gundaker broke ground on their three-story, 57,000-square-foot
facility at Chesterfield Business Parkway and Long Road in June
2005. In July 2006, they moved their 126 employees to the third
floor with its expansive views of Chesterfield Valley.
They occupy 12,800 square feet, quite a leap from the 7,000
square feet at their former Dorsett Road location.
Their first tenant, Premier Bank, occupies 4,300 square feet
on the first floor, and Regus/HQ, a national company that provides
executive office suite serves, leases the entire second floor.
Merri Cross, director of corporate marketing and communications,
says that 17,000 square feet remains for leasing.
Mike Hejna, president and CEO of GCG says a number of reasons
prompted their move from their Dorsett Road location.
“First,” he says, “We had near exponential growth that required
additional facilities. We had been in the former location 18
years, and we were way below our need for facilities. Plus,
we were the developer of this multi-use project, and we were
in need of office space, so the two worked hand in hand.”
THE GUNDAKER STORY
GCG is in seven states plus Puerto Rico, Cross says. “We’re
in the top five for redevelopment in St. Louis and the second
largest brokerage firm in St. Louis. We have almost two million
square feet of commercial properties and over 2,000 units either
under management or in various development stages.”
GCG was created when Gordon Gundaker spun the group off from
the Gordon Gundaker Real Estate Company in 1996. In 2005, GCG
produced revenues of $78 million with $96 million projected
in 2006 according to Cross.
Pat says that the Gundaker project was special in itself, because
it was really Gundaker’s first out-of-the-ground headquarters.
“They had been in their other building for 18 years. They wanted
to make a statement in the Valley with all the new construction.”
THE PARTICULARS
HDA was ready to create a headquarters that would address Gundaker’s
needs.
“Our designs meet their goals of esthetics and budgeting,” Jack
says. “We have to be very sensitive to the performance and how
factors work in the market place. We’ve been very successful
in doing that in Maryville Centre and Timberlake Center.”
“This building sits on columns that go all the way around and
they are featured in the lower first two stories of the building,”
Mark says. “We took the colonnade from the outside and brought
it into the interior to create gateways to individual tenants.”
These columns on the outside transfer to the inside lobby, creating
focal points and breaking up the linear line of the lobby, which
runs completely through the building.
This colonnade element brought in the drive-through feature
of the building, Mark says. “Instead of having it added on to
the building, you actually drive through a portion of the building,
so this was a big component of the design.”
The building also blends, as HDA planned, with its surrounding
developments, keeping the same classic brick façade that defines
their other developments in the area. The gray reflective glass
adds another distinctive feature.
“They wanted this building to be a part of the campus feel in
terms of buildings that they had developed,” Mark says. “In
terms of building materials such as the masonry, the brick is
compatible with the brick that has been used, and we integrated
a cast stone product that not only tops the building, the parapet,
it becomes the path for the columns so that each column is wrapped
with the same stone.”
Duitman’s trademark medallions also encircle the perimeter of
the building “It’s like an accent, a detail that features the
building itself,” Duitsman says.
HDA has built their reputation on timeless designs such as Magna
Place at Brentwood Boulevard and Highway 40.
“You would never know Magna Place is 20 years old,” Pat says.
“A lot has to do with materials, color pallets and types of
glass.”
Although HDA started with distribution centers, they have diversified
into office and retail buildings. Some of their local developments
include Fifth Third Banks in Clayton and Kirkwood, Westar I
and II in O’Fallon, Mo., and Bommarito Mazda and Bommarito Suzuki
in Ellisville, Mo.
They have designed over 75 million square feet nationwide with
a construction cost exceeding $2.5 billion and are listed among
the top 15 architecture firms in St. Louis by size. They are
registered in 34 states and are currently working in 10 states.
They have also won over 10 prestigious design awards.
“We’ve been doing office buildings since 1986,” Jack says. “Office
markets come and go with the economy. The challenge today is
to keep up with the work load.”
