WHO WE ARE
Want to know more about Design Lab? Well, we're still a small company at this point and as such, talking strictly about the company would prove to be a short story. So instead of giving you a dog and pony show to make it sound like we are a national design firm, we'll tell you about how we got started. And that means we have to tell you about Dennis....
Dennis O'Roark (aka Design Lab founder) is a young gray-beard in the world of architecture. He is probably closer to the start of his career than then end of it, and far, far,.....far.....from retirement. Yet his thinning hair and faded beard will tell you that he has seen a thing or two in his career.
After graduating from Virginia Tech in 1995, Dennis started his career in northern Virginia (others would say Washington, DC area). Retail spaces, restaurants and the occasional entertainment venue (not Chuck E Cheese but close) were his first staple projects. He also mixed in a fire station and a few residential additions. Dennis learned how to get dirty and knock out smaller projects in quick fashion. He likes to point out that many of these projects were done without the use of email, which hadn't quite taken over the workplace yet (the fax machine still made him beg for mercy, though). After a few years, Dennis set his sights westward.....
.....and found himself in Dallas, Texas for a short time. Dallas was fun and Dennis even bought a pair of Wranglers to fit in. Projects there were multi-family residential and senior living centers. Dallas might have been a long term proposition but a notable firm in Kansas City soon came calling. This firm specialized in sports architecture...you know - stadiums, arenas and such. Initially hesitant to the idea of relocating once again, he couldn't say no to the idea of designing sports facilities (it turns out that Dennis is a huge baseball fan). So Dennis loaded the old Wilbert Harrison tune "Kansas City" into his portable disc player, plugged his CD adapter into his car's tape deck and headed north.....
.....for the City of Fountains. That was 1998 and Dennis has been in KC ever since. What started with sports facilities gave way to commercial projects and a huge rental car facility and then....healthcare projects. A whole lot of healthcare projects. In his free time, Dennis made it to quite a few Royals games, which is saying something for the late '90's and early 2000's (did we mention his love of baseball?). During this time, Dennis learned to manage projects by himself....then learned how to manage project teams....and then....learned how to manage the people that managed the project teams. His knowledge-seeking soon turned to contracts and design fees. He studied business books, magazines, blogs and such. Then the Royals made it to the World Series. This made Dennis think that anything is possible. The next year, the Royals actually won it. After that, Dennis knew that anything is possible. Soon, a friend came calling about a custom house project. And what a project it was. Modern and unique, it was apparently worthy of being published. That led to another project, and then another. And those were followed by a few more. And then.....
.....Dennis decided to take a leap of faith and head out on his own. Thus, Design Lab was born. Dennis now leads his practice in both the commercial and residential arenas and is focused on building a culture of quality design centered in the Kansas City community and surrounding region.