Interview with Tom Roof, Principal Architect at the Lake of the Ozarks' Only Fully Integrated Architect-Led Design-Build Firm

We recently sat down with Tom Roof, AIA, principal architect and founder of TXR Architects + Constructors (TXR AC), the Lake of the Ozarks' only fully integrated architect-led design-build firm. Tom spent over 20 years running a traditional architecture practice before partnering with builder Rocky Corpe in 2011 to found TXR AC, pairing architectural oversight with in-house construction so the same team designs and builds every project.

Q: TXR AC works on custom homes and commercial builds in a single regional market. What made you believe an integrated, single-team model was worth building the company around?

Tom: I spent 20 years watching the same problem repeat itself. An architect finishes the drawings, hands them off, and the relationship largely ends there. Any gap between design intent and what actually gets built becomes the contractor's problem to interpret and the owner's problem to pay for. Partnering with Rocky in 2011 let us close that gap by keeping architectural oversight in the room through construction instead of walking away once permits are pulled.

Q: TXR AC works on projects of different sizes and levels of complexity. Does the same logic still apply as a project gets larger and involves more teams?

Tom: The scale changes, but the fundamental challenge doesn't. Whether it's a lakefront home or a much larger and more complex project, problems often show up at the point where design intent is handed to another team to execute. That's where something can get lost in the handoff.

Larger projects naturally have more disciplines, more people, and more sequencing to manage. But the principle is the same: the people who made the design decisions should remain accountable as those decisions move into the field. Design shouldn't be treated as finished the moment it's approved. The bigger and more complex the project, the more important it is to maintain that connection between design intent and what actually gets built.

Q: What would you tell a larger, multidisciplinary firm about keeping that same accountability as project complexity grows?

Tom: Don't let scale become an excuse to separate the people who designed something from the people building it. The instinct on big projects is to hand off cleanly between phases because there's more to manage. That's exactly backwards. The bigger and more complex the project, the more it needs someone who understands the original intent still in the room when field decisions get made. We've built our whole firm around keeping that person in the room. It's the same reason our projects come in without the finger-pointing that happens when a design team and a construction team have never had to answer to each other.

TXR Architects + Constructors is the Lake of the Ozarks' only fully integrated architect-led design-build firm, serving custom home, renovation, and commercial clients across Lake of the Ozarks and Mid-Missouri. Learn more at txrac.com.