What Ford, Powell & Carson does

Ford, Powell & Carson (FPC) is a privately held, full-service architecture and design firm founded in 1939 and headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. The firm operates an integrated portfolio of seven service lines — Architecture, Craft, Historic Preservation, Interior Design, Planning, Build, and Sustainability — with a dedicated historic preservation department that has delivered more than 50 years of specialized work, including preservation of the UNESCO World Heritage San Antonio Missions. Core technical capabilities span BIM documentation and modeling, LEED-certified design, condition assessments, National Register and Section 106 work, and architect-led design-build delivery. The practice is anchored by just over 20 registered design professionals supported by additional administrative and technical staff.

FPC generates revenue through professional services fees billed on a project-by-project basis, typically structured as a percentage of construction cost or fixed fees for defined scopes of work. Go-to-market is relationship-driven enterprise field sales: the firm acquires commissions through direct engagement with government agencies, cultural institutions, educational organizations, religious bodies, and Texas-based high-net-worth individuals, with repeat clients supplying an estimated 95% of historic preservation revenue over the past decade. Distribution is exclusively direct, with no resellers or third-party channels. The firm holds WBE/HUB and SCTRCA SBE WBE certifications supporting public-sector procurement access, and its client base spans GSA, Texas State Preservation Board, San Antonio River Authority, McNay Art Museum, Chinati Foundation, Alamo Colleges, the Archdiocese of San Antonio, and Via Metropolitan Transit, among others.

FPC's strategic positioning combines a regional modernism design philosophy rooted in Texas materials and craft with a long-tenured civic and preservation portfolio (200+ awards across local, state, and national bodies). Geographic reach is concentrated in Texas — San Antonio, Austin, Marfa, Denton, Bellville, and Lockhart — with international co-design collaborations (notably with Jean-Paul Viguier on the McNay Stieren Center) and a partner bench that includes Perkins Eastman, HDR Engineering, and Byrne Construction Services for design-build delivery.

Name

Ford, Powell & Carson

Legal name

Ford, Powell & Carson

Website

https://fpcarch.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1939

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Ford, Powell & Carson is a San Antonio-based architecture, historic preservation, interior design, and planning firm founded in 1939, serving government, cultural, educational, religious, and high-end residential clients across Texas with a WBE/HUB-certified, principal-led delivery model.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Architecture and Design Services

NAICS

Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services (5413), Industrial Design Services (541420)

SIC

Services-Engineering, Accounting, Research, Management (8700)

akta.pro primary industry

Sustainable/Green Building & LEED Consulting (BPAHAKAG)

Keywords

• Architecture design services
• Historic preservation services
• Interior design services
• Master planning services
• Design-build construction

Headquarters

HQ city

San Antonio

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Architecture and Design Services: FPC generates revenue through professional architecture, interior design, planning, and construction administration services on a project-by-project basis. Services are billed through design fees and construction administration, typically as percentage of construction cost or fixed fees for specific scopes.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Ford, Powell & Carson is a Texas architecture and design firm providing professional services across seven integrated disciplines: architecture, craft, historic preservation, interior design, planning, build (design-build), and sustainability. The firm delivers project-based services including schematic design through construction administration, master planning, BIM documentation, LEED certification support, and architect-led design-build delivery for governmental, institutional, cultural, educational, and high-end residential clients.

Product overview

Ford, Powell & Carson is a full-service architecture and design firm offering an integrated portfolio of seven core service areas: Architecture, Craft, Historic Preservation, Interior Design, Planning, Build, and Sustainability. Founded in 1939, the firm operates as a single unified offering where these services are interconnected—architecture projects incorporate craft details and sustainability strategies; historic preservation projects include interior design and planning components; and the Build service integrates architecture and interior design under one roof. The firm serves diverse market sectors including residential, commercial, cultural, governmental, educational, and hospitality, with projects ranging from private ranches to major civic landmarks across Texas.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Architecture Services Full architectural services including schematic design through construction administration, project management, specification writing, BIM documentation, and site planning for residential, commercial, cultural, governmental, and educational projects.
• Craft Services Incorporation of texture, regional materials, hand-made elements, and unique architectural details, including custom hardware, custom furniture, and fabricated materials that define the firm's regional modernism approach.
• Historic Preservation Services Dedicated preservation department offering state and local historic permits, National Register nominations, historic structure reports, condition assessments, maintenance plans, historic tax credits, and Section 106 reviews for historic buildings and sites.
• Interior Design Services Full-service interior design for residential and commercial projects including space planning, finishes selection, custom millwork, lighting design, furniture design, wayfinding, art curation, and FF&E procurement.
• Planning Services Master planning for college campuses, parks, waterfronts, museum complexes, visitor centers, corporate headquarters, government facilities, and historic complexes, including site analysis, public engagement, and design guidelines.
• Build (Design-Build) Services Architect-led design-build services providing seamless project delivery from design through construction, with architects, interior designers, and general contractors working under one roof.
• Sustainability Services Sustainable architecture incorporating green building strategies including rainwater harvesting, greywater recycling, solar integration, geothermal systems, and LEED certification for historic and new construction projects.

Quantifiable outcome

• In the past decade, 95% of historic preservation projects are from repeat clients
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers12 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• HDR EngineeringcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2014FPC began the San Pedro Creek Culture Park project in 2014 as Deputy Project Manager in collaboration with HDR Engineering. In 2019, FPC assumed the role of Lead Design Architect for the final four phases of this transformational flood control and cultural park project.
• Jean-Paul Viguier (Paris)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2007FPC collaborated with French architect Jean-Paul Viguier and the Paratus Group in New York to create the Stieren Center for Exhibitions addition to the McNay Art Museum, a 45,000 square foot pavilion for traveling exhibitions.
• Byrne Construction ServicescoreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerFPC teamed with Byrne Construction Services as a Design-Build partnership for the Plaza de Armas historic rehabilitation project for the City of San Antonio, involving four historic buildings combined into an office complex with television studios.
• Perkins EastmancoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFPC partnered with Perkins Eastman on the Westside Multimodal Transit Center (VIA Centro Plaza) for Via Metropolitan Transit, designed to serve as the exchange point for all bus transfers in downtown San Antonio.
• El Guapo FabricationminorOthersPartnered with El Guapo Fabrication on the Harthan Hall & Coates Science Hall project at TMI Episcopal, where custom light fixtures were crafted from repurposed locker doors salvaged from the original building.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Marmon Mok Architecture: Long-established San Antonio architecture firm serving governmental, educational, and cultural clients with a similar institutional bent and overlapping Texas client base.
• Overland Partners: San Antonio architecture and historic preservation practice of similar scale, with comparable cultural, civic, and adaptive-reuse expertise and a shared Texas regional focus.
• Alamo Architects: San Antonio-based architecture practice of comparable size with shared institutional, educational, and civic clients in the same Texas market.
• Lake|Flato Architects: San Antonio-based architecture firm with comparable regional modernism philosophy, similar size, and overlapping cultural/institutional and residential portfolios. Most direct stylistic and geographic peer to FPC.
• Muñoz & Company: San Antonio architecture, planning, and interior design firm with overlapping service mix and a parallel regional modernism portfolio across Texas.

Broad incumbents

• SmithGroup: National architecture, engineering, and planning firm with a strong higher-education and cultural-institution practice that overlaps with FPC's education and museum segments at a larger scale.
• Perkins Eastman: Large architecture practice that has collaborated with FPC (VIA Centro Plaza transit center) and competes for transit, civic, and senior-living commissions at a national scale.
• HKS Architects: Dallas-based global architecture firm with a Texas civic, cultural, and sports portfolio that competes for larger-scale public commissions where FPC is structurally excluded.
• Gensler: Global architecture and interior design powerhouse whose workplace, cultural, and government practices compete with FPC on large commercial interiors and civic commissions, particularly where integrated design-build is required.

Regional players

• Page (formerly Page Southerland Page): Texas-headquartered architecture, engineering, and interiors firm that competes for the same governmental, educational, and healthcare commissions across Texas but at meaningfully larger scale.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/fpcarch
• Facebookfacebook.com/fpcarch

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Ford, Powell & Carson