Olaf Growald
Debbie Fulwiler’s name isn’t on her Fort Worth architecture firm, Elements of Architecture, but that’s by design. “I wanted something a little more generic that would be longer-lasting,” she says. Plus, it meets her personality, she says. “I’m not a big fanfare person. I’m just trying to make sure I take care of the clients.” Fulwiler, a Texas A&M-educated architect, went to work for Fort Worth’s Gideon Toal firm in 1996 at age 32, and with the firm’s partners, simultaneously started a separate company that focused on telecom projects. She gradually bought out her partners and left Gideon Toal to focus on that company in 2006, becoming sole owner and renaming it Elements of Architecture.
Elements has been boosted through the years by “IDIQ” contracts with governmental entities like the city of Fort Worth that facilitate continuous work over fixed periods. The city recently chose Elements to work on the rehab of the Pioneer Tower at the Will Rogers Memorial Center. Today, Elements also is working on a lake house at Richard Simpson Park in Arlington, facilities for the Fort Worth Police, expansions to the city’s environmental drop-off centers, University of North Texas Coliseum renovation, and an arts and music project for Texas Woman’s University in Denton. In 2008 and 2015, Elements made the Aggie 100 list of the fastest-growing Aggie-led companies worldwide. In 2014, Fulwiler, a member of the Fort Worth chapter of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, moved her company into a two-story, 6,500-square-foot building she built on the Near Southside. Most recently, her husband, Jerry, left a job in commercial real estate to join Elements as its business development director.
I want to be an architect: I think I was in third grade when I decided I wanted to be an architect. I remember one of our class assignments was to build a model. Anything. Just build something. I don’t really remember what I built.
Growing up around this: My dad was a general contractor, so I’ve kind of been around it all my life.
Becoming majority owner, 2004: That was key for us, because we were able to get certified as a woman-owned business. It didn’t really provide us with work, but what it did was open doors for me with larger organizations. What happens is 90 percent of the time, the organizations that are hiring you and have these percentages they have to meet for minority and women-owned firms, it’s a subcontracting goal. Architects always prime the projects, so they don’t count my percentage of the project.
Managing staff: We have eight employees. I think I’ve been up to double that [during telecom boom]. I really found [eight] is a great number. I like to stay very involved in the projects.
Ups and downs: When you talk about the ups and downs, probably the biggest learning experience was when we were going through the downturn with telecom. One of the companies we were working for had filed for bankruptcy. Under the bankruptcy [in 2005], they were allowed to come back to everybody they paid out money to in the last 90 days and ask for that money back. It was $320,000. I had to hire a New York attorney, and I had to fight it. I was able to reduce that down to about $80,000.
Prospecting: By the time something’s hit the news, it’s already gone through some development with the architect. It’s really all about keeping in touch with people.
Growth goals: Of course, I have my revenue goal I want to meet. It’s a steady growth. I feel it’s more important I take growth I can manage. I don’t want to get stuck behind a desk all day and not do what I want to do.