Chronology

1982 Larry Good, Stan Haas, and Duncan Fulton break away from Parkey & Partners Architects to establish a new practice: Good Haas & Fulton (GH&F). They initially work out of their own private residences. They show up unannounced at P&PA coworker Karen Quick’s door to ask her to join the firm as its receptionist. She agrees under the condition that she doesn’t handle the accounting.

1982 GH&F occupies its first office space at 311 Market Street in the West End district of Downtown Dallas starting out with 7 employees. The exposed steel and heavy timber framing of the floor above the mezzanine level leaves the firm’s tallest employees with multiple headaches. Only classical music is allowed from the stereo system.

1982 Retail strip shopping centers provide the firm with its first opportunities for “place making.” Many of these designs have survived decades of shifting design paradigms and can still be found in their original form throughout the Metroplex.

1983 The firm wins its first ever design award for Denton Town Center.

1983 Karen Quick fires the temporary bookkeeper and handles all the accounting.

1983 Duncan Fulton hires an intern to manage the print shop and the night before his first day, the intern calls and informs Duncan he can’t come in to work because he doesn’t own any slacks.

1983 The firm hires designer David Farrell away from The Oglesby Group.

1984 Stan Haas wraps his BMW around a tree at a company retreat at Tanglewood on Lake Texoma, and survives. The BMW is recycled for scrap.

1984 Joe Patti joins the firm and instantly claims the title of “most experienced Architect.” Joe refines the standards for contract documents and introduces specifications.

1985 D Magazine identifies GH&F in article titled “These are the best Architects in Dallas.” Larry Good, Stan Haas, and Duncan Fulton stand alongside the likes of Bill Booziotis, Bud Oglesby and James Pratt in an iconic photo.

1985 GH&F moves into its second office space — 300 LTV Center (now Trammell Crow Center)—in an attempt to look like the clients that the firm wanted to work for. It is the most expensive office space in town, which doesn’t work out well since a recession was just around the corner.

1985 David Farrell becomes a principal.

1985 The firm grows rapidly to 31 employees.

1986 Larry Good becomes the president of AIA Dallas. During his tenure he collaborates with the Greater Dallas Planning Council to produce “Visions for Dallas” and loses the famous AIA Stetson signed by several dead Presidents.

1986 Tammy Chambless wins the firm’s holiday design competition with a series of representations of the mythical town Ampersand, a project which celebrates the symbol appearing in the firm’s abbreviation GH&F.

1986 Oil prices collapse, banks fail, the real estate market goes to pot and over the course of 3 years, the firm shrinks to 14 employees rattling around in 7500SF in Trammell Crow Center.

1987 The firm adds a fax machine and computer aided drafting.

1987 GH&F wins AIA Dallas Firm of the Year.

1988 Allen Doctors Building is GFF’s 10th AIA/TxA Design award

1989 Stan Haas resigns from GH&F, an event that Larry Good would later describe as the “worst day of his professional career.” David Farrell is elevated to Design Director and the firm is re-branded as Good Fulton & Farrell (GFF).

1989 Joe Patti becomes GFF’s fourth principal.

1989 A chance encounter at breakfast introduces Larry Good to a new client — upstart electronics retailer Circuit City. GFF follows through with more than 400 project engagements over 17 years for the brand. The arrangement sustains the firm through two economic downturns and pays for all the computers. Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

1990 GFF moves its office to the Centrum. This location becomes beloved by firm employees and is known for its iconic glazed garage doors on each principal’s office. The problem is that whenever a garage door is lowered, everyone knows that somebody is in trouble!

1992 Duncan Fulton becomes the president of AIA Dallas.

1993 Bryce Weigand joins GFF as the fifth Principal and becomes an AIA Fellow.

1994 Duncan becomes an AIA Fellow.

1995 GFF creates a studio system with four small “firms within the firm”.

1996 Bryce Weigand becomes the president of AIA Dallas.

1995 The FBI visits GFF after an intern (and relative of a client) is apprehended making false IDs at a local photo printing shop. This young man goes on to become the firm’s client for the tallest high-rise office building the firm has ever done.

1996 The Centennial Master Plan for SMU kicks off a $300 Million capital campaign and a 30-year relationship with GFF.

1996 GFF is hired to design the Crate & Barrel Home Store at McKinney and Knox, the first of many C&B projects and a relationship that continues today. Crate eventually lures John Moebes away from GFF to be their Director of Construction.

1996 The infamous firm-wide retreat at Lakeway Resort. One employee is too embarrassed to return to work afterwards.

1997 Needing temporary help at the reception desk, GFF hires Allison Johnson. Allison Hubbard is now a Principal and Chief Operating Officer of GFF.

1998 Perot Museum project begins (officially).

1998 Eighty-three MPH winds rip the entire roof structure from Scott Sower’s “Heritage Commons” project, the brand new headquarters for Ross Perot Jr’s Alliance (later Hillwood) Development Company.

2000 GFF is hired to design the Container Stores in Clarendon Virginia, Walnut Creek California and Columbus Ohio. Today, GFF continues to work on Container Store projects across the United States.

2000 GFF moves its offices to 2808 Fairmount Street, its current location.

2000 Jeff Good becomes the firm’s sixth Principal.

2000 The renovation of Perkins Chapel at SMU is GFF’s first Preservation Achievement Award.

2001 GFF Interiors is formed with Emily Lasko and Traci Webster in charge.

2001 GFF collaborates with Santiago Calatrava on the Wave fountain at SMU.

2002 GFF completes its first international project in Manaus, Brazil for Nokia.

2002 When stressed over too much work, interior designer Jim Looney connects GFF with one of his most important clients — upstart luxury auto dealer Ken Schnitzer of Park Place Motors. GFF designs the Lemmon Avenue Mercedes/Porsche Dealership and Park Place goes on to become one of the largest clients in the history of the firm.

2002 Bryce becomes the President of the Texas Society of Architects (TXA).

2003 GFF Planning is formed with Brian Moore in charge.

2003 Despite her distaste for accounting, Karen Quick becomes CFO and the firm’s seventh Principal.

2005 Larry Good meets a brash young architect who he thinks might have a future here and offers Evan Beattie a position in GFF Planning. Evan later informs Larry that he wants his job. Evan eventually succeeds.

2006 Karen Quick begins teaching accounting courses.

2006 Bryce Weigand presents the first session of GFF University. GFFU becomes a regular part of ongoing staff training opportunities, with more than a dozen sessions each year.

2006 GFF is engaged to be the Master Architect for Cypress Equities’ ambitious W7th project spanning five city blocks in downtown Fort Worth and across the street from Tadao Ando’s new Modern.

2006 GFF institutes a monthly State of the Firm meeting, sharing updates on marketing, design, financials and recognitions with the entire staff. The word “kudos” is banned by 2008.

2007 Cypress Equities hatches a plan to develop retail districts for AAFES on army bases around the country and invites GFF to be on the team. Cypress drops the project b/c they felt there were bigger more profitable things on the horizon. The 2008 recession proves that prediction wrong.

2007 The firm introduces the “Six Pack” – six new principals: Tammy Chambless, Lawrence Cosby, Brian Kuper, Rick Myers, Jon Rollins, and Scott Sower.

2008 The economy collapses in the Great Recession. Over the next six months GFF parts way with 30% of its staff.

2008 GFF begins collaborating with Morphosis on the Perot Museum of Natural History. The museum later wins an AIA Merit Award.

2009 GFF wins the commission for the Master Plan and first buildings at the new Texas A&M/Central Texas campus in Killeen, TX.

2010 GFF connects AAFES to another developer and executes projects on 6 different bases. AAFES turns out to be one of the largest and most profitable clients during the recession.

2010 GFF collaborates with Foster & Partners on the underground parking garage at the AT&T Performing Arts Center.

2011 The rehabilitation of Old Parkland for Crow Holdings is GFF’s 30th AIA/TxA Design Award.

2011 The Church Works Studio is created with new Principal Stephen Pickard at the helm.

2012 Tyler Cini curates the first annual On My Own Time, where GFFers display their artwork in a gallery setting. OMOT goes on to become an annual event.

2013 In preparation for the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination, GFF completes a two-phase renovation of Dealey Plaza, returning the space to its 1963 appearance. The project wins the Gail Thoma Patterson Award from Preservation Dallas. Conspiracy theorists remain, however.

2013 GFF ranked #1 firm for business in the national “Architect 50” survey.

2013 Principals Lawrence Cosby and Traci Webster marry. Neither one takes any time off. Both retire shortly thereafter, Lawrence in 2018 and Traci in 2020.

2014 David Farrell leaves Good Fulton & Farrell and the practice is re-branded as GFF, Inc.

2014 Allison Hubbard becomes a Principal.

2014 GFF is listed as one of Dallas Business Journal’s Best Places to Work.

2014 GFF Fort Worth opens, expanding the firm’s reach to the west.

2015 GFF is one of six firms invited to submit a design for a new Dallas Holocaust Museum. Though GFF’s design is not selected, the submission wins two unbuilt design awards from AIA Dallas. The selected scheme wins only one.

2015 Karen Quick retires.

2016 GFF Landscape is established with Mark Bowles in charge.

2016 Brian Moore and Maria Gomez become Principals.

2016 Jeff Good retires to the Pacific Northwest.

2017 GFF begins collaborating with Robert A. M. Stern Architects on the Cox School of Business at SMU. The Cox project will serve as the flagship project for another $300 Million capital campaign for SMU.

2017 Tammy Chambless retires.

2018 GFF Austin opens in downtown Austin with Jim West at the helm.

2018 Larry Good retires to Santa Fe. Evan Beattie is named President of GFF. Larry spends his time in New Mexico writing books about architecture, hiking in the mountains, and hosting the friends that he made being an architect over the course of 46 years in the profession.

2019 GFF receives the 2019 AIA Dallas Firm Award.

2019 Jim West becomes a Principal.

2020 Maria Gomez becomes president of AIA Dallas.

2020 Duncan Fulton retires, and Evan Beattie is named President/CEO.

2020 The COVID-19 Pandemic hits Texas and the rest of the world. GFF Employees all regret not investing in Zoom, but find that working from home has its advantages.

2020 Despite the pandemic, GFF creates the Summer Fellows program to provide remote learning opportunities for interns and new graduate hires.

2021 The Summer Fellows program continues through the pandemic, with GFF’s new grads participating in the international HOME competition.

2021 GFF receives a D Magazine Non-Profit and Corporate Citizenship Award.

2021 Allison Hubbard is recognized with a Dallas Business Journal Women in Business Award.

2021 GFF is recognized by the Dallas Business Journal for its Most Inspiring Leaders Award. Evan Beattie is interviewed by DBJ.

2022 Rick Meyers leaves GFF, and his blue State of the Firm sport coat is memorialized.

2022 Stephen Pickard earns an “F”, elevated to Fellowship in the AIA.