Our practice has evolved to embrace architecture, interior design, and planning because of the way each discipline impacts and adds value to the others. Supported by our open studio environment that inspires collaboration, this dynamic results in projects that enhance the activities going in and around them while contributing to the vitality of their communities.

Our goal is to design great places for people. Our approach to getting there starts with three core ideals: collaboration, value, and service.

Architecture

Establishing A Partnership

When you’re our client, we treat you as our partner, and start by immersing ourselves in your culture to understand the issues you face. This helps us understand not just what you need, but why you need it. Considering your project’s unique challenges, we bring the right people to the table to solve them. At the outset, we establish a “whole project culture” that fosters partnering relationships and attitudes, with an emphasis on making decisions in the best interest of the project. This concept informs the entire design and project delivery process.

Design Solutions That Add Value

You’re at the heart of that decision-making process. Our exploration of ideas is a dialogue between us in which we raise issues, share ideas, learn from each other, and create a context for the best design solution to emerge. We weave together two perspectives – from the inside out, and from the outside in. By understanding the influence and impact that each one has on the other, and seamlessly incorporating aesthetic, technical, and operational components, our design team can develop the right solutions for the right reasons. The result of this process is design that celebrates your vision and identity, enhancing your ability to achieve your over-arching objectives while adding tangible value to your endeavors. The resulting building will do more than meet your needs – it will elevate and inspire all of the activities that go on in and around it.

You Can Count On Us

Our reputation is our most important asset, and how much you enjoy working with us is as important to us as the quality of our work. We choose our internal team members and our consultants not just for their technical expertise and experience, but also for their ability and willingness to participate in the kind of exploratory dialogue that uncovers possibilities and yields optimal solutions. We pride ourselves on being easy to work with, and can be counted on to do what we say we’re going to do, every time.

Services

Contact

Birmingham:   Donald Simpson, AIA | dsimpson@kpsgroup.com
Huntsville:   Kristine Harding, FAIA | kharding@kpsgroup.com

Interior Design

Our award-winning interiors team creates interiors responsive to a wide range of clientele in the corporate, developer, public, institutional, and non-profit sectors.

Expressing Your Unique Vision

Whether you’re moving or ready for a new look, refreshing your interior environment offers you a powerful opportunity to reinforce your culture, mission, vision and values, and brand. By creating spaces unique to your needs and organization, our interior designers help you enhance your operations – whether you’re a bank, a university, or a house of worship. We bring together teams of experts we trust to really listen to you, and to participate in the kind of exploratory dialogue that yields the right solutions for your space. You’ll get a powerhouse team with ingenuity and know-how working on your project, no matter how large or small.

Discover, Create, Execute

Our design process is characterized by three phases: Discover, Create, and Execute. Our creative and enthusiastic team of interior designers will engage your representatives in a lively dialogue, create options and opportunities for discussion, test options against your goals and objectives, and refine design alternatives into a single shared vision for the project. This process results in a design that’s functionally and aesthetically tailored to your unique needs and requirements.

Our designers are known for their ability to draw out organizational needs and aspirations and, through a carefully orchestrated process, bring all stakeholders to consensus around a shared project vision that is both qualitative and quantitative – a vision in which all feel ownership. We help you pinpoint where you are now, forecast where you want to be, and understand how to express and support your mission and vision through design image. Then, we work with you to balance that vision against the pragmatic aspects of workflow analysis and functional adjacencies, staffing, organizational goals and objectives, and budget.

Rooted in collaboration, our process results in interior environments that are uniquely tailored to your mission and desired image, while optimizing the way you operate and the resources you have to work with.

Services

Contact

Donna Dowling, NCIDQ | ddowling@kpsgroup.com

Planning & Urban Design

We offer an extraordinary range of planning services, ranging from site planning to campus planning to comprehensive planning for towns and cities. Both our planners and our plans have received numerous awards and accolades from professional organizations as well as community and user groups. Our team members have led and founded urban design and planning initiatives nationwide for such organizations as the Urban Land Institute, the Alabama Community Design Program, Main Street Alabama, Your Town Alabama, and the National and Regional Urban Planning and Design Committees of the American Institute of Architects.

City, Community, & Urban Planning

Throughout our history, we’ve pursued a unique commitment to Alabama’s communities, supporting public and private efforts to revive neighborhoods and downtowns. We have more than 30 years of city & community planning and urban & environmental design experience in both the public and private sectors. The recommendations that emerge from our planning processes are realistic and can be implemented because we support our traditional planning skills and experience with urban design and architecture.

When you work with KPS, your plan is powered by a public planning process that has been used by more than three dozen communities. Refined over many years and tailored to your community, it’s designed to bring out the best in people throughout the process.  From some of Alabama’s largest cities to its smallest towns, we’ve worked side-by-side with community leaders to produce citywide master plans, urban design and specific plans for neighborhoods and districts, and development management systems. Our ability to craft and facilitate interactive strategic and physical planning processes specifically tailored to your city ensures the engagement and participation of public and private stakeholders, and motivates local support for your plan implementation.

Campus Master Planning

We are the only Alabama firm that specializes in campus planning, and have over 25 years of campus planning experience for both public and private universities throughout the southeast region. Because we practice both urban design and architecture, we study the aesthetic issues that accompany each master planning initiative and produce plans that are both 3-dimensional and visual, with examples of how various aesthetics can work together.

When you engage KPS to create or update your campus plan, we’ll collaborate with your campus leadership to produce the kind of campus master plan and sub-plans for targeted campus functions and systems that will help you succeed in achieving your vision as your campus grows and evolves. We’ve developed an effective and adaptable toolkit for soliciting open and productive dialogue in support of campus planning and design goals. Because every campus community is, one of the first things we’ll do is collaborate with you to develop an engagement program to reach your stakeholders in the way they feel most comfortable being engaged. As well, our extensive experience in city and community planning is useful in navigating town-and-gown issues at these important seams.

Services

• Comprehensive Planning
• Land Use Planning
• Master Planning
• Site Selection & Evaluation
• Urban Design
• Industrial Park Planning
• Campus Planning
• Design Guidelines
• Downtown Revitalization
• Neighborhood Revitalization
• Visioning & Strategic Planning

Contact

Jason Fondren, AICP | jfondren@kpsgroup.com

Building Consulting

A core focus of our practice for 50 years has been the renovation of existing buildings. Each renovation starts with a comprehensive evaluation of all building systems:  the integrity of roof and skin, HVAC, structural, etc. Our comprehensive consulting services range from simple observation and diagnosis, to remediation option and cost comparisons, to construction oversight.

Building Evaluation & Remediation Consulting

We capitalize on the experience gained on hundreds of these building renovations across the South to provide a comprehensive array of technical services delivered by licensed professionals. Each of our specialists has over 20 years of experience, understands how all of the parts of buildings work together, and is expert at managing projects and other consultants. As licensed architects, we can prepare plans and specifications, and secure local agency approvals. And, because we’re independent of those who may actually build or make repairs, we have the objectivity and skill to provide a scope of work you can use to secure accurate and competitive pricing.

Historic Preservation Technology & Consulting

We’re passionate about historic buildings. With deep experience in historic preservation and adaptive re-use, we’ve become one of the leading historic building architects in the Southeast through a series of projects ranging from hotels and office complexes to landmark public buildings. Many have been recognized awards from preservation groups, and most are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

In addition to having completed numerous historic renovation and preservation projects, our team members have distinguished themselves as acknowledged historic preservation experts. They’re known statewide for their expertise and achievements in the field of preservation design, and for their leadership of organizations like the Alabama Historical Commission, the National Trust of Historic Preservation, the Huntsville Historic Preservation Commission, the Alabama National Historic Register Review Board, and the National Alliance of Preservation Commission.

We’ve worked with the Alabama Historical Commission for more than 40 years, and we know the proper submittals and construction techniques they’re looking for in their review processes. This understanding assures that your project schedule isn’t impacted by the need to re-submit documents due to inadequate information. We’ve worked closely with many owners and developers to obtain grant monies and tax credits that can offset project cost. We understand the available programs and can help you navigate their complex requirements.

Services

• Overall Facility Assessments
• Building Enclosure Consulting
• Roof Consulting
• Preservation Technology
• Project Manuals & Specifications
• Plan Review, Q/A, Bidding
• Construction Administration & QC
• Sustainability & LEED

Contact

Donald Simpson, AIA | dsimpson@kpsgroup.com