Looney Ricks Kiss project wins Business Leadership award Looney Ricks Kiss project wins Business Leadership award By LAURIE JOHNSON The Daily News Architecture trade magazine residential architect has selected Memphis architecture firm Looney Ricks Kiss as one of the winners of its inaugural Business Leadership Awards contest. The firm is one of five selected by residential architect for demonstrating excellence in practice management, marketing, design innovation, community service and financial success. LRK is profiled in the magazines May-June 1999 issue. According to residential architect contest officials, entries were not pitted against each other, but measured according to the industrys highest standards. "(Each has) a clear vision for the firm, a plan to fulfill that vision, sound execution of the plan and work that reflects the vision," said contest judge Bill Manion of O'Neil and Manion Architects. Regarding LRK, contest judges summed up the firms entry by saying, "LRK is a sophisticated firm a real standout." While LRKs practice is highly diversified, encompassing single and multi-family residential, office/commercial, banking/financial, hospitality and healthcare projects, as well as land and community planning and design assignments, contest judges said the firm "has a clear idea of whom they are and what they want to do." Founded in 1983, Looney Ricks Kiss is an architecture, interior design, planning and research firm with offices in Memphis and Nashville, and Princeton, N.J. LRK currently is the largest architectural and commercial interiors firm in Memphis. Its principals include J. Carson Looney, FAIA; Frank Ricks, AIA; Richard Kiss, AIA; and Darrell Russell, AIA. The firms 1998 pretax revenue was $14.1 million, with each employee generating $102,089 in gross revenue. Looney said he and the LRK staff were very pleased with the residential architect award. "LRK is certainly honored to receive this award," he said. "Although LRK focuses on our clients and projects versus awards, it is gratifying to be acknowledged by our peers." According to contest officials, impressive aspects of LRK included the firms practice of holding regular design review sessions with input from all divisions, its employee ownership transition plan, its approach to marketing and its community involvement. The firms review process is now part of LRKs culture, with designers requesting that their projects be reviewed, said Looney in the residential architect profile. Of the firms 138 employees, 33 own LRK stock. The firms ownership structure also provides a pool of owners to buy the stock of retiring partners, Looney said. The firms successes include more than 170 award-winning design and planning projects, including Harbor Town in Memphis and the Idea House in Celebration, Fla. In April, the firms Caruth at Lincoln Park multifamily development in Dallas was awarded the 1999 Pillars of Industry Award for Best Luxury Multifamily Development. The complex, designed by LRKs director of multifamily, includes 338 luxury apartment units ranging in size from 900 square feet to 1,600 square feet. The project is located on a 40-acre site in North Dallas that will eventually include a 150,000-square-foot shopping center, two office towers and a 300-room hotel. The apartment community is designed to appeal to the affluent "renter-by-choice" market the projects developer, Lincoln Property, was targeting, Close said.