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Chris Huckabee
Chris Huckabee is the founder and executive officer of MOREgroup, a family of brands that touches all aspects of social infrastructure — from health care, education, and public architecture to the engineering systems that support them all.
MOREgroup was formed through the combination of Huckabee, Rachlin Partners, TSK, Innovative Engineering Group, and E4H Environments for Health Architecture.
“Our firm has a long-standing tradition of taking on pro bono projects — partnering with organizations that need our expertise and providing our services at no cost,” Huckabee says. “It’s woven into our history and values.”
Certainly, the most notable recently was the architectural work done pro bono for Legacy Elementary School, the building constructed to replace Robb Elementary in Uvalde, site of a tragic mass shooting in 2022.
Huckabee is a member of the Fort Worth Inc. The 500, the most influential citizens in Fort Worth.
“While the Uvalde project was rooted in that same commitment [to pro bono projects], it became the largest and most ambitious pro bono effort we’ve ever undertaken. Given the profound loss this community experienced, we felt a deep responsibility to use our skills to help create a place of healing, hope, and renewed safety for Uvalde’s children.”
Huckabee earned a bachelor’s in architecture from Texas Tech in 1991. He was appointed to the Texas Tech System Board of Regents by Gov. Greg Abbott in 2015. He was named chairman in 2019. His term on the board expired in 2021.
He is a registered architect in Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arkansas and Georgia. Huckabee also holds National Council of Architectural Registration Boards Certification.
Legacy Elementary School opened in October.
Huckabee and his team knew the design for Uvalde’s new school could not follow the usual playbook. Instead, they embraced what he described to be as “Trauma-Informed Design” — an approach rooted in listening, empathy, and trust-building.
It meant engaging a broader spectrum of voices than ever before, from families of victims and survivors to community members whose lives had been irrevocably altered. Every step was shaped by a commitment to ensuring that every voice was heard, Huckabee says.
It was about contributing to Uvalde’s collective healing. A building of renewal and remembrance.
“There has never been a more emotional project in our firm’s history,” Huckabee says. “The weight of what happened in Uvalde touched every member of our team. Many of us are parents ourselves, and all of us are deeply passionate about creating safe, inspiring places for children to learn. That made this work not just professional, but deeply personal.”