Well built: Praful Kulkarni's GKK Corp. combines architecture with construction management, leading to quick turnaround on projects.

THE buildings designed and built by GKK Corp. dot the Los Angeles landscape and are likely to stand for many ears But the company's founder, president and chief executive, Praful Kulkarni fondly remembers another tribute.

"Bill Clinton thanked me personally for the work we did on the school in Compton named in his honor," said Kulkarni as he recalled last year's meeting. "He thanked me in person, then in his speech at the dedication he once again thanked us and made a point of saying we did a good job. I got goose bumps."

Not bad for an Indian immigrant who said he did not own a pair of shoes until he was 11 years old.

The former president expressed pride in seeing his name affixed to the first elementary school built in Compton in 35 years. But the triumph for GKK, which oversaw construction of the William Jefferson Clinton Elementary School, Was that construction took only seven months. Likewise, the Colin Powell Academy for Success in Long Beach, designed and built by GKK, was finished in eight months.

In both cases, Kulkarni said, the time from groundbreaking to ribbon cutting was expected to take well over a year.

Kulkarni has opted to do something almost unheard of in the world of architecture and design: establish a division devoted to construction management.

"It's either, 'I want to be an architect' or 'I want to go into construction design,'" Kulkarni said in the 100-year-old Pasadena livery stable the firm renovated for its newest office. "I wanted to be a master builder. I wanted to take a project from Day One: design it, manage the construction, be a true master builder."

Odd mix

Mixing the conceptual and practical is often a source of conflict between architects and those who implement their plans.

"Usually technical people don't make the best managers," said Sid Ono, a senior administrator for the Corona Regional Medical Center in Riverside County. "You might have someone who can put something down on paper but when you go to build it becomes impractical. It's on the rare side to have one company do both."

Ono, who has retained GKK for several earthquake-retrofitting projects and for the design and construction supervision of a 10,000-square-foot annex to the medical center, said that having everything in-house makes for a more efficient construction process. "You don't have the architect blaming the construction crew or vice versa," he said

In the past four years, revenues have increased from $8 million to $18.5 million on the strength of a number of high profile projects, including those stemming from ongoing relationships with the school districts in Los Angeles, Compton and Long Beach.

The company is designing the student center at Chaffey College in Upland and the Research Education Institute for Harbor UCLA Medical Center in Torrance. For the latter project, Kulkarni noted that GKK was brought in after a previous architect went over budget by 40 percent. "We were able to meet their budget," he said.

Starting the business in 1991 capped a journey that led Kulkarni from Peth, India, outside Bombay.

A strong academic background and a talent lot drawing helped him land a full scholarship at the Indian Institute of Technology, a school that selects only 1 percent of its applicants. Later, he studied in the United States on a Rockefeller Foundation scholarship.

His inability to find work after returning to India in 1976 brought him back to the United States, where he began work for a number of firms in Illinois and Ohio before settling into Southern California in the late '80s.

Kulkarni started the firm in 1991, backed by two investors whom he bought out within five years. Besides expanding throughout California, he wanted to establish operations in India--both to secure work in that country as well as tap into less expensive labor for its projects in the U.S.

Outsourcing architectural work to India is increasingly common, even for relatively small firms, says Michael F. Corbett, a LaGrangeville, N.Y., human resources consultant.

"The advantage, of course, is the cost savings, but the risk is that there can be a problem with communications," he said. "It's rare that even a large architectural firm will have its own office in India but keep in mind that labor costs can be as little as one-tenth what they are in the U.S. It's hard to ignore that type of cost saving."

The firm's structure, both in its offerings and geographic diversity, reflects Kulkarni's broader view, according to Charlie Merrick, director of the firm's GKKWorks construction services group.

"'He is an architect by training but he is a businessman at heart," said Merrick. "People tend to go into what they know best, but there is a real opportunity lot horizontal growth in this field."

While the ideal is to do both design and construction management work, rules governing state-financed work often keep the two sides apart. (On the Clinton school project, the company was responsible only for construction management.)

Kulkarni would like that to change, noting, "I think they agree that we are what the industry is missing."

PROFILE

GKK Corp.

Year Founded: 1991

Revenues in 2002: $14 million

Revenues in 2003: $18.5 million

Employees in 2002:75

Revenues in 2003: 110

Goal: To provide more architectural services and construction design primarily for "technical projects" including schools, hospitals

Driving Force: Completing projects that satisfy clients" vision as opposed to making a statement about the architect