On April 1, 1997, Jim O’Neill began offering the services of a newly formed Interior Architecture Design business. From the beginning, the objective was to provide the service and skills of a large, well-established firm while maintaining personalized attention from a principal. Utilizing knowledge gained from years of association with larger firms, the new firm would offer cutting edge innovation with an unusually focused attention to detail. This descriptor of the firm’s quality of service, “attention to detail”, would soon become its identifying tag line.
The emergence of an Interior Architecture firm with a talent for Corporate Design was ideal for the numerous growing corporate businesses within Houston, each looking for the personal attention that this new firm would provide. The creative success of each project led to frequent referrals and the firm quickly grew.
In 1998, OHA opened a new office, carefully designed by the firm’s three employees, to function as a showcase of their talents. That year a relationship was established with FKP Architects. The two firms began working on 800,000 sq. ft. in the Clinical Care Center of Texas Children’s Hospital, leading OHA into Healthcare Design.
1999 brought the incorporation of five new employees and an additional principal, as well as an office expansion of 2,500 sq. ft. to include a large library and conference rooms. In 2001 the firm was presented with the Business Week/Architectural Record “Architecture is Good Business” design award for their work on the TCH project, the first awarded to a Healthcare project. Though corporate interiors still represented 90% of their work, the TCH success brought an interview and consequently a new project with M. D. Anderson’s Cancer Center for their Ambulatory Care Building’s 800,000 sq. ft. of clinic interiors. Thus the size of the firm and amount of the work continued to grow.
By 2004, the company had grown to 18 employees, and began working outside of Houston on the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital with Smith Group Architects. The firm’s continued success led to a joint venture/merger with the interiors department of FKP Architects in 2005. With this merger, the firm changed names to O’Neill Hill and Associates.
OHA began 2008 with the departure of principal Mollie Hill and decided to begin 2009 as a new firm. In 2009, OHA re-launched the firm as Inventure Design, complete with new logo, website and an infusion of enthusiasm. Inventure Design has retained all of OHA’s associates and will continue to add talent to their high-profile team.
Today, Inventure Design can boast a 70% return rate on our clientele, which includes 10 of Houston’s top 100 financially ranked companies. Our expertise in corporate, healthcare and research can be viewed on our “Projects” pages.