The aesthetic, form, and function of the built environment that serves as the backdrop of our lives is greatly influenced by the visionaries behind their concept and design. For BOKA Powell, a Texas-based architectural design firm, the concept narrative and story behind the inspiration are just as important as the projects themselves. As storytellers, BOKA Powell’s team has the unique ability to help clients realize their dreams, doing so by bringing spaces to life in a way that is authentic, relevant, and empowering.
“This idea of always having a concept around all our projects is one thing that builds the heart and soul of any process that we have,” said Principal and Partner Andrew Bennett of an approach that is meant to inspire.
Bridging concept and reality
Hospitality projects are some of the most inspirational in BOKA Powell’s portfolio. As a Hyatt and Marriott-approved firm, its reputation is as impressive as the projects it wins—Bowie House, in particular, has become world-renowned in only a short period of time.
The luxury urban retreat is part of the Auberge Resorts Collection and has the hospitality sector on its knees with its immersive Western flavor and chic delivery. Described as “an all-new Western frontier in the heart of Fort Worth’s cultural epicenter,” it was completed late-2023 and continues to garner praise from visitors and afficionados alike.
Referred to by the firm as “the gift that keeps on giving,” Bowie House received numerous awards and nominations in its first year of operation, including two Michelin keys (the only North Texas hotel to achieve this), a nod as one of Time Magazine’s World’s Greatest Places, and being named Texas’ Best Hotel Spa by World Spa Magazine and amongst the Top Fifteen Hotels in Texas by Condé Nast.
“It’s so wonderful that developers and hoteliers are also paying attention, and they’re paying attention to us,” says Senior Associate and Senior Interiors Project Manager Kaky Gowan—especially in the red-hot Dallas-Fort Worth market. The project has even attracted big names like Producer/Director/Writer Taylor Sheridan of Bosque Ranch Production, Inc., a Fort Worth native who is revered for his storytelling ability on shows like Yellowstone, 1883, 1923, and Landman, among others.
Like Sheridan, a significant aspect of BOKA Powell’s storytelling is its visionary ability to harness the past, integrate it with the present, and create something that will last long into the future. This was the case with Bowie House, and it stands to be the same with Caravan Court, a highly anticipated project for Valencia Hotel Group that is slated for completion in 2026.
Caravan Court is likely to gain the same level of praise as it encapsulates a strong sense of the city of Arlington’s history, with modern luxury that transports visitors through the integration of the mid-century aesthetics of the classic motor court hotel with the services, amenities, and luxury standards of the present.
Empowering design and people
Beyond the designs themselves, BOKA Powell’s consultative approach and interpersonal aptitude is essential to its ability to keep people and projects energized through long timelines, financing issues, and managing the competing priorities and interests of project stakeholders. The goal is to keep the work serious but the energy high and lighthearted through every project.
“You not only have to get approval from your owner and the operator, but you also have to get brand approval—it’s like three different silos and they don’t always agree, and you have to have a really great person on your team that can steer the boat,” explains Gowan of the role relationship building plays in the firm’s success.
Fort Worth City Hall was a particularly unique project for BOKA Powell in this regard as it began in 2021 and just recently celebrated its ribbon cutting as a Class A office space that has redefined how public offices look and function. The team at BOKA Powell, led by Principal and Senior Project Manager Mark Dabney, flawlessly engaged with the input received from the client, building occupants, and the public, reconciling the various stakeholders’ visions to find a harmonious concept narrative and design that elevated the space beyond imagination.
“One of our vision statement items is listening intently, and you really have to do that on a project like this because there are so many eyes on it and so many people want to express their opinions and have them integrated. You have to document, and you have to respond, and it’s another layer that typically we don’t do on an office building or hotel project,” Dabney explains.
The ability to listen, hear, understand, and execute is a testament to the firm’s commitment to placing people at the heart of its process, creating spaces and places that they can call home away from home.
“There was a lot of discussion about the city hall as the ‘living room’ and then there’s a nearly four-acre park that surrounds the northwest base of the building. So that becomes the ‘great lawn’ or the front porch to that living room where people can gather, exchange ideas, debate different things. It was a very multifaceted design challenge for our firm,” says Dabney.
With the partnership of Brinkley Sargent Wiginton (BSW), the designers of the Council Chamber addition, BOKA Powell got to work drafting a narrative that would inform the design and elevate the user experience, accommodating 23 different departments and 1,000 employees delivering civic services to the public. The goal was to create an open and inviting space that promoted civil engagement, empowered the delivery of services and interdisciplinary collaboration, and incorporated transparency, sustainability, and adaptability for the long term, while maintaining a Class A look and feel—no short order.
“It’s a workplace that city employees want to be in and that was very important to the design of this building,” says Dabney. “The old city hall is an older building and shows it, and it’s also a very brutalist building and not very welcoming. It’s cold and it’s just not a place you want to be, so that was very important to the city,” he says of the stark contrast from the previous building.
The design team weaved the Western history of the city with its modern, contemporary culture through the careful selection of materials, colors, textures, and other design elements that pay homage to the city’s evolution. From trail drives to the economic contributions of the railroad and aviation industries, the juxtaposition of those themes throughout the space creates an artistic element that is complementary to its function as a workplace and as a public forum.
“We started looking at those things and the whole idea of a pioneering movement: how do you move through a building and how do finishes and textures move throughout the spaces? All of those themes were ultimately integrated into our design concept, weaving these concepts into patterns and textures, furniture and wall coverings, carpeting and those sorts of things,” to elevate the space to create a dynamic user experience.
Dynamic workplaces for dynamic communities
Fort Worth City Hall is just one example of a corporate office space that is investing in its capacities as a workplace, particularly in the post-pandemic period when the push to return to in-person work is greater than ever before. As people continue to return to the office—or show resistance in the face of this push—a greater number of employers are realizing that their office spaces must be enticing, inspiring, and offer some of the comforts of home, which BOKA Powell achieves through amenitization in design.
As Bennett explains of this trend in the corporate office market, “It’s much more amenitized. People only want to be officing in a place that is walkable, where you have a lot of amenities like cafés, fitness centers, wellness centers, things like that. Most of our current planning efforts have all of these mixed-use components and many more, which is exciting.”
Executing this caliber of project not only attracts new clients, but also new talent, which remains a goal of the firm. For Gowan, “That’s what motivates me from day to day—creating a place that has cool projects and cool people.”
From private member clubs to exciting mixed-use buildings, and of course office and hospitality spaces, BOKA Powell can—and will—reshape the markets it serves through its visionary approach to projects while strengthening its relationships. The firm achieves this thanks to its ability to communicate clients’ stories through artful, thoughtful, and exquisite design for a built environment that enriches the surrounding community.
