In Celebration of My 25 Years at BDG

25 years ago I decided to be a “professional” interior designer here in San Antonio Texas. I have a long list of people to thank for the opportunities that blossomed into success and allowed me to build this design firm. There are so many “stories” and so many people dear to my heart; I have decided to devote my next 25 blogs to 25 of these people.  But,today,I want to put some historical perspective together, especially if you are a young, aspiring design-er types reading these dialogues.

Back in 1985, an entrepreneur would only be taken seriously if one had an “official” office-working from  a home office immediately pegged you as not being serious about your work. I was lucky to have met a talented contractor who helped introduce me to a couple of young, female architects who were inclusive enough to make room for me in their building.  We were all way ahead of the curve in our desires to run sophisticated business models; we just lacked the clients. This was a particularly tough economic time for Texas, and I was lucky to be able to pay my share of the rent for this renovated space in a somewhat marginal part of town.

A few years later, I met master contractor and a prolific San Antonio architect, on my first really big, custom-designed new home up in the hills just outside the city.  Since I had been doing mostly health care related work, I had met some doctors who wanted me to work on their homes. By then, I had enough business to move to a little larger office, but needed to be close to home and school, so I could meet the challenges of being a working Mother with a spouse who spent his business week in Mexico. The 2^nd floor of Broadway Bank was my next office space for a few lean years.

The Texas economy got a little stronger, and I started getting some nice referrals from both the contractor and the architect, so I was able to lease an office on the ground floor of a nice building on Sunset Road. The street name appealed to me as did the location. It was mid way between downtown and the newer, rapidly growing areas of our city. My professional life really grew there-I had the room to host a few small events, take in a partner/designer, and increase our resource area.  Word got around that we knew how to build, we were great at project management, and there was a high sense of style hovering around the staff.

In 2002, something happened that I had never even considered a possibility for me or for my professional life…………I was able to build a beautiful office building in partnership with a young architect I had just started working with on some amazing projects-right across the street from my lease space on Sunset Road!! It was a dream come true, and I loved being in that space-Good Thing! Since I was working 80-100 hour weeks routinely at that point.

As BDG started to grow with the addition of an associate, more designers, & additional support staff, I gave up my office to my new associate and started working out of my car, and on a laptop. We were forced to lease a space down the road to house our exploding resource room. All of a sudden, we were popping at the seams-the economy was brisk and a lot of new, very extravagant construction projects were at our crowded doorway. When a trusted client told me I needed to address the overcrowded office situation, or I would lose valuable personnel, I started looking for another building to move us into.  It would mean leaving the space I had designed and retrofitting an older building, but we were focused on the growth of BDG, and the main goal was to be able to provide a nice, but spacious workplace.

25 Years, 5 moves, and countless stories to tell…….but, it is the people who have crossed my path that have made all the difference for me.  Stay tuned….