ST. CLAIRSVILLE – Brad Breisch and Tim Crowley had more than 10 years experience working together at a local architectural firm when they decided to set out on their own.

During that time, the two gained valuable experience in different aspects of the business.

Breisch concentrated his efforts in the residential design, both in home additions and custom homes. A 1999 graduate of Kent State University, he has more than 15 years experience.

Crowley, meanwhile, centered his focus for more than 20 years in commercial architecture. He became a skilled project manager for various jobs and is equally at home out in the field as he is behind the design desk.

Together, they set out to take those experiences and forge a new path, offering the design-build approach as the cornerstone of Breisch & Crowley LLC in St. Clairsville. On their own for more than a year, the two recently moved into the front portion of Design Studio in St. Clairsville at 201 E. Main St.

“They took us under their wing and helped us get started,” Crowley said of Chris Hudson and his staff at Design Studio. “It’s a symbiotic relationship. They help us. We help them. We’ve had clients come in and, while they are here, make all their selections for flooring, kitchen cabinets, furniture.”

While what in essence is one-stop shopping for customers with the two businesses, it’s B&C’s design-build approach which makes the firm stand out.

It’s an approach aimed at keeping costs, down, the project moving and insuring the clients get exactly what they want at the price they are looking to spend.

In the traditional approach, known as design-bid-build, designers like Breisch & Crowley may conceptualize a design in 100s of pages of drawings and diagrams, then bid the project out to several different contractors.

This process isn’t cheap and if the project happened to come in over budget, the client is upset and a redesign must be done, costing more time and money.

With the design-build approach, Breisch & Crowley create a still detailed set of specs, however it is a more limited set of drawings, just enough so that the contractor knows what to build and price.

The end result is the client spends far less money out of pocket until they get to the decision point of whether to move forward or not.

“We want to get the contractor on board as early as possible and work as a team toward a common goal,” Breisch said. “It’s different than the design-bid-build approach.

“We want the clients to get what they want and have the contractor to have their input early on the process as well.”

Breisch explained the end goal is create a realistic project for the homeowner or client.

B&C’s services don’t end with the design phase of the project.

For residential customers, they work with the customers to find the builder if they don’t have one in mind. They assist with the project budget and help with bringing the project to the bank for loan approval.

For commercial jobs, they also present material for marketing the job, 3-D drawings and presentations drawings and will go to present the job at committee meetings.

“Our goal here to stress the team effort,” Crowley said. “It’s not we’re responsible for this, the contractor is responsible for that. We’re all responsible for each other in making this project a reality.”

“We stress that up front through designs, doing budgets, getting the contractor involved early … it’s our whole concept of design.”

B&C also help design and coordinate LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) projects which are environmentally responsible green projects. An example of such a project is the new chancery that is part of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston’s Cathedral Campus Improvement Project.

This is Crowley’s area of expertise as he has $30,634,722 of experience in overseeing past and current LEED projects.

For more information, stop by B&C’s office or call Breisch at (304) 639-8482 or Crowley at (740) 296-1242. They are also available online through their web site at www.bcdesignbuild.com

Hughes may be reached at mhughes@timesleaderonline.com