Founding Quorum Partners, clockwise from top left are Doug Moon, David Lee, Scott Wilson, Woody Jekel and Bill Blankenship.

Why do we celebrate milestones? The folks at Quorum asked this question as we considered our upcoming 30th anniversary. We decided that it all comes down to gratitude for having survived to reach a significant point in time.

Thirty, No Small Feat

When Quorum’s five founders decided to form the firm in May of 1992, associates called them crazy and said they would never make it. They admit now that they were naïve and determined to prove the naysayers wrong.

With insufficient capital and no clients, the friends pressed on and chose a firm name that would outlast their leadership—Quorum—representing the number of group members required to legally transact business. Having worked at other places that didn’t treat clients or employees ethically or honestly, they were determined to do better.

“We wanted to be able to spend time with our families, take the occasional vacation, grow our business by helping clients succeed so they’ll want to return to us for more work,” says founding Partner, Scott Wilson. “None of this is groundbreaking, but it hadn’t been our experience or our expectation at other firms.”

According to the four surviving founders—sadly, Woody Jekel passed away in 2016—trust in each other and a drive to work hard carried them through those first difficult years. One founder’s relative offered the group a small loan to get started that took two years to pay back, with interest.

“We weren’t five principals managing others, we were working partners, doing everything from bringing in the business to drawing and punching the projects, from start to finish,” adds Doug Moon, President and founding Partner. “We function very similarly today, but with more staff.”

Getting To Thirty

By 1996, the firm transitioned to digital. They started with four Silicon Graphics Indy computers. It turned out to be their ticket to snagging their biggest client to date, Melville.

The retail giant let 22 other design firms go and divided their projects among three firms. Quorum handled work for all five of Melville divisions delivering projects in 18 different states and eventually winning all the national retailer’s work.

“Survival is about the good times and the lean,” adds Bill Blankenship, one of Quorum’s founding Partners. “The post 9-11crash and the housing market crash in 2008, those were scary times!”

The partners cut their own pay for almost a year to avoid letting any staff go.

“Purchasing the 707 W. Vickery Blvd. building in the neighborhood just south of downtown Fort Worth in 1999 saved our skin more than once,” says Bill. “We were able to borrow against the building to carry us through some rough patches.”

The Partners agree that moving to the Near Southside of Fort Worth was a great move. They purchased their second southside location in late 2019.

“The southside community is a creative and tight group,” says David Lee, former Near Southside Inc. board member. “We knew we wanted to stay in the neighborhood and searched two years before finding our current home down the street from our former one.”

Team Thirty

Coincidentally, the firm, including Principals, is made up of 30 architects, designers, technicians, and administrators working together to help a diverse group of clients reach their design goals. Quorum serves municipal, corporate, affordable housing, entertainment as well as retail clients and has an interior design team of three.

The whole staff was involved in deciding how to celebrate the company’s 30th anniversary. Over the course of several months, staff-wide meetings were held to brainstorm ideas. The 30 Acts of Kindness initiative was born from those conversations and unanimously embraced. Starting in 2021 and continuing throughout 2022, through gifts of time, talent and treasure the firm will show our appreciation to clients, community, and collaborators for helping us reach the 30-year milestone.

“The group has been involved in giving back in the communities we serve from early days, and the firm encourages and welcomes that,” says founder David Lee. “This idea of performing 30 Acts to show our gratitude to community was a result of our previous efforts.”

Current Quorum Principals clockwise from far left are Doug Moon, Kim Dowdy-Hickman, David Duman, Scott Wilson, David Lee and Karin Taylor.

Looking Beyond Thirty.

The founders say that adding three new Principals along the way has positively impacted their success and fulfilled their original mission.

“We always envisioned that Quorum would evolve and transform to survive and thrive beyond the tenure of the original five. As the founders age out, new talent emerges to lead the firm into the next thirty years,” states David Lee.

Today, Principals David Duman, Kim Dowdy-Hickman and Karin Taylor each bring unique skills and lead different teams, all critical to the firm’s success. Scott Wilson continues to lead the retail design team and share housing design team responsibilities with David Lee, who splits his time between Fort Worth and the Texas Hill Country. Both David Lee and Doug Moon cut back their schedules to part-time as they ease into retirement. Bill Blankenship retired from Quorum at the end of 2021 and continues to work independently.

The legacy of cultivating new talent and expanding markets continues. We can’t wait to see what the next 30 years holds in store for Quorum.

As Doug Moon says, “Success is not measured by what you have, but by what you leave.”