Three Locations, One Family
November 13, 2024
In the days before cars, airplanes, and trains, it wasn’t unusual for people to never venture more than a few miles from where they were born. Families stayed in the same place, often living within feet of each other, but when new forms of transportation cut down the time to travel not just across the country but around the world, families began to spread out. At first, they remained connected by letters and postcards, then phone calls, and now real-time video chats. But no matter how many miles separated them, they remained a family.
Twenty-three years ago, the MKEC family spread its wings and started a second office in Overland Park, Kansas. Three years later, our family branched again with an office in Oklahoma City. Despite the distance, our team never missed a beat, continuing to work together seamlessly as we increased our opportunities in new markets while still collaborating on projects no matter where our people, or the projects, were located.
As our Oklahoma City office hits the 20-year mark, we wanted to take a look back at how we became a family in three places and celebrate the things that make MKEC special, regardless of the office.
Kansas City, Here We Come
From our founding in 1982 to 2001, MKEC’s only office was in Wichita. However, an opportunity arose to work on design for cell phone tower sites in Kansas City, which necessitated a presence closer to the work.
“We started off doing the civil engineering for various cell phone towers,” said Brian Hill, civil engineer and MKEC’s Overland Park office manager. “And then 9/11 happened, and all the telecommunication providers—AT&T, Verizon—just stopped building towers and basically stopped all their operations for developments.”
MKEC’s Kansas City office then pivoted to doing residential and commercial development work.
“The recession hit, and a lot of that development work dried up,” Hill said. “We had the opportunity to get into the K-12 education market in 2006, so that was really good timing. K-12 districts and bond issues were still successful in building schools during the downtime when a lot of the private development was struggling. Since 2006, we’ve done over 450 K-12 school projects. Today, we’ve added more talent and other disciplines, such as survey, landscape architecture, power delivery, structural, and instrumentation and controls.”
You’re Doin’ Fine, Oklahoma
The Oklahoma City office has a similar origin story. A client from Oklahoma City with ties to the Wichita area came to MKEC’s Wichita office looking for help with land planning and engineering.
“He liked the fact that we could do planning and engineering in one group,” said Doug Klassen, civil engineer and MKEC’s Oklahoma City office manager. “He was ready to move on from a local engineer and land planner. He was looking for the right solution on how to move forward.”
Klassen and some others began making trips to Oklahoma City to work with the client.
“About the second or third time we were here, our client said, ‘Hey, my banker has been talking. He has another client that is also looking for someone to do what you guys do,’” Klassen said. “So, we brought that client in, showed them some of our projects, and they engaged with us to begin working with them. Pretty soon, we’re out at the project, and one of them was involved in a large church project here. He brought us in to be involved in that, and all of a sudden, I was in Oklahoma City about once a week.”
After evaluating the market opportunities, MKEC decided to start an office in Oklahoma City, and because Klassen was involved with the Oklahoma City projects, he seemed the natural choice to lead it.
“It was a good opportunity to have a little change for my wife and I, so we moved here in 2004 to start the office,” Klassen said.
Since then, the Oklahoma City office’s focus has evolved.
“With the addition of some talented personnel at the end of 2011, we focused on further developing our transportation department,” Klassen said. “Now, the bulk of what’s done out of Oklahoma City is transportation: DOT, turnpike, along with county road and bridge work.”
“With the addition of some talented personnel at the end of 2011, we focused on further developing our transportation department. Now, the bulk of what’s done out of Oklahoma City today is transportation.”
Doug Klassen, civil engineer and Oklahoma City office manager
One Company, Multiple Locations
Despite being spread across three locations, from the beginning, MKEC put a priority on remaining a seamless whole, which all started in 1982.
Keeping the culture consistent across offices was important even before instant digital communication tools were available. Similar office furniture and design styling throughout all three offices helps to keep the offices feeling the same no matter where employees are located.
One tool that has enhanced the cohesiveness of the entire MKEC family is the use of Microsoft Teams.
“I think back to right before COVID, and we weren’t really using Teams in any capacity,” Hill said. “We had email, voicemail, cell phones and texts. And I look back on that now, and think, ‘How did we operate without Teams?’ It’s been valuable for the way we do business.”
“That’s accelerated, even post-COVID, with our ability to really interact better, coordinate better, and have talent in three locations. We can really integrate our staff together across all three offices.”
“With our ability to interact better, coordinate better, and have talent in three locations. We can integrate our staff together across all three offices.”
Brian Hill, civil engineer and Overland Park office manager
Enhanced Opportunities
Having multiple offices provides opportunities for everyone at MKEC. It makes it easier to find new talent, keep existing employees, and opens up new avenues for business.
Brian Hochstein, landscape architect and project manager, has personal experience of transferring to a new office that was a better fit for his family.
“My first year with MKEC was in Wichita, and then I moved to Kansas City,” Hochstein said. “At that time, our development group had a huge need, and I didn’t have kids, so I was traveling to Kansas City every week for the company. Suddenly, it had been seven out of eight weeks.”
“My wife and I are from northeast Nebraska, so by moving to Kansas City, it saved three hours of drive time to visit my parents or family. Everybody’s still up there, so it really did make an impact on my life decisions. Every office has its own niche, but over time, the core things I experienced my first year in Wichita are still going on 20 years later in Kansas City. That opportunity was great for my family, and I think that’s really important when people are considering a job’s flexibility.”
More recent hires have also appreciated the option of having three offices in different locations.
“We have several people who started in our Wichita office that had the desire to be in Kansas City,” Klassen said. “They have moved to Kansas City, and now they’re working in that office. Some of them are working on local projects; others are still doing work that comes out of Wichita and Oklahoma City.”
Multiple offices also create opportunities for new types of business. In Kansas City, the pivot to K-12 schools has created a new avenue of business for MKEC, and Oklahoma City opened up access for MKEC to be involved in transportation work in both Oklahoma and Kansas.
“When I joined MKEC, we had a few people that I think were primarily doing city work and urban transportation work,” said Greg Sparks, transportation manager in MKEC’s Oklahoma City office. “We developed a strong relationship with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation and through dozens of successful projects over the years, we were able to build a resume that we presented to the Kansas Department of Transportation around 2018 and 2019. Since then, we’ve worked hard on earning their trust and we’ve now received multiple design projects and survey projects as well. Our survey team has been a key part of that growth.”
As our three offices step into the future, we know that we will continue to leverage future innovations that will only make it easier for all of us to work seamlessly together, create new business opportunities, and continue to celebrate our MKEC family’s successes.