The Place

Alamo Architects began in 1984 as a cooperative venture among four friends. All were contemporaries at the University of Texas at Austin, where they each received their architectural training. After graduation, they and others from their class had set out together as fresh graduates to have the big city experience, moving en masse to New York City. One by one, they found jobs, rented shared apartments, and set their courses in architecture. The galvanizing experience of living and working in New York on young architects’ salaries cemented their relationship as an extended family, a sense of which is still integral to the firm’s character.

When the call came to return to Texas in 1983, Lanford and McGlone left jobs with high profile New York offices to move to San Antonio. By the end of the year, Hightower and Lawrence left Philadelphia, where they had migrated in the meanwhile, to join them. The firm’s first major commission would be the history-making move and subsequent adaptive reuse of the Fairmount Hotel. From that point in time, all four were partners in their own firm, which they named Alamo Architects. Intended as a play on the vernacular, where an iconic landmark lends its name to everyday businesses of every stripe, the name squares nicely with their workmanlike approach to architectural practice.

A certain populism and open-mindedness has always been part of the firm’s personality, which has tended away from the pretentious in favor of a straightforward and problem-solving approach to design. Instead of promoting a house style, their process has been to allow programmatic ideas and architectural expression to emerge through a systematic exploration of purpose, context and culture. Being responsive to the unique requirements of a given problem in this way has always been a priority at the firm.

Considered for some time to be a leading architectural design office, the firm has added people and technology to meet the production and project management demands of larger commercial and institutional projects. The principals now include Jerry Lammers, who was named a principal in 1999, and associate principals Ariel Chavela and Sal Garcia. With a diverse client base providing project work in a wider range of sectors, the office of approximately fifty people is continuing to develop team leaders and individuals to meet increasing challenges of time- and cost-accountability in project management. Departments supporting construction administration and interior design have been developed to become important resources.

This evolution creates varied opportunities for personal and professional growth for practitioners joining the firm. Alamo Architects has, and is constantly seeking, individuals with critical thinking and sophisticated visualization skills to create viable solutions and who possess a highly collaborative, consensus-building style of working. The firm’s principals are involved in every project and are active mentors to staff and associates.

Along with the fundamental goal of keeping the quality of design and project management at exacting professional standards, Alamo Architects stays committed to the spirit of making architecture that rises above expectation and contributes to a unique sense of place. And, in the current climate of heightened sensitivity to environmental issues, we are committed to providing leadership in sustainable building that transcends stereotype. Serving these qualitative goals, the firm finds that its friendly, open-plan work space in their new headquarters enhances a free exchange of design ideas and innovation among the staff and partners, and creates a relaxed sense of accessibility.