Meet Sam Lawrence of Narrowpath in North Dallas

Sam, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I spent most of my young life learning just about every part of the construction industry from my father who had worked his way up in his professional career long before a college education mattered as much as it does today. When my dad was away I spent most of my time interested in any type of design I could find; drawing, clothes, structures, cars… anything. My interest in design and my hands-on experience that came from my reluctant assistance to my father, I started my own professional career in these industries at the age of 20. Not really concerned with college, I began as a draftsman after graduating from TSTC and eventually would obtain a bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University in Planning and Urban Development after making stops in mechanical engineering school and architecture at UTA. Within this time I got married and had five children. While attending school, I worked for many establishments that taught me mostly how I would not like my own company to operate, and therefore brought a lot of lessons with me in the forming of Narrowpath.

I began my firm after almost 20 years in the fields of architecture, civil engineering, and construction, finding that my end goal, how I needed to be represented, and how the relationship to the client needed to be in my eyes could not be achievable working for someone else. Late in 2018, I began this company while working at the City of Rowlett as a Planner II. This job was originally taken in an attempt to understand how the public sector worked.

After a long career of working alongside the government via permits and zoning, I needed to know how the sausage was made. I found out quickly I liked it less than the private world I came from and the honesty and organizational issues made it painful. The people that I met there were more than generous and helpful in my exhibition of merging private and public knowledge. The desire to leave and do my own thing was once again pushed to light because of the unwillingness of the client to be handled with a clear window of honesty concerning their projects and with true transparency; without any runaround or backhanded insights.

Narrowpath, LLC started with the idea that greed would not be the idea that drove the company and instead we would be project-focused and fully transparent with our clients. I was never one to mince words and found so many times in the past that the companies I worked for, and government, would rather have me fill the client with happy thoughts and not allow me to let the client know when we had made a mistake or needed more time or effort on the client’s part to complete the project. I found that many times projects were pushed longer and became costly to both the client and the firms because of the companies’ structural disorganization within or an inability for clients to be truly helped and organized upfront, not because the ability was lacking, but just because no one would take time to do it.

Everything was push, push, push and “be a yes man” to the client. I knew deep down that becoming focused on the project instead of the dollar would lead to success. This would mean secured and organized planning, sustainable timelines and if necessary telling the client no and not being afraid to do so if it meant educating the client. I truly believe that people want the truth when it comes to their projects even when it means that they may not like the answer. So, that’s what I did. Within the last year, I’ve had the beginnings of a successful architecture firm built on honesty with my clients and willingness to say I’ve made a mistake and an unwillingness to stop focussing on the success of each and every client’s project.

I’ve been lucky to be very successful in the last year and overcome some incredible hurdles to be where I am currently. I even recently have had to come to the realization that people that I thought were my associates had zero expectations of doing what they said, but still I have to move forward and cannot waste time looking back. I work diligently to be a transparent company and build trusting and honest relationships with my clients. This is key and so necessary to us. Narrowpath is client and project first and personal success and money second. The latter comes with the prior and if you don’t realize that you need to just go work for someone who does. I’m working to find the right fit for a design build concept partnership with Narrowpath as one I was working on previously fell through before it could begin. I learned through the last year that you cannot be easy to trust people to be honest and upfront about how they are handling your clients and their finances even if they say that they are. The proof is in the pudding as they say. Even when you don’t ask me to I don’t hide anything from my clients and no matter how uncomfortable the subject is I will make sure to have that conversation with you if it means our relationship is strong in the end. At Narrowpath we want to find ways to save our clients money and share with them in that success financially, gaining their respect. We know the long term relationships we build with our clients through providing honest and transparent services helps to create financial freedoms for them and many other companies lose focus on this and what’s really important; the project and client.

In this short period of time, Narrowpath has received projects that began with other designers and general contractors that have stolen from the client and taken those projects to successful ends with financial savings. We have begun a trend of thinking on how we can help set the cost of a project with clients and their GC while working with them to make sure they hit goals, work together with consultants to find solutions long before they run out of time and money. In our industry there are alot of people that are willing to cheat and steal from people just to make a few extra dollars but at Narrowpath our hope is to help clients connect with consultants and GC’s that are willing to show the bottom line. We want to find companies and people unafraid to step away from projects that we don’t find match our desired goals and outcomes and instead find those interested in helping the client have a successful project.

That is how corrupted the idea of construction and design has become in our industry. It’s hard enough to break into this field without also trying to remember who you told what to try and make them happy instead of just being honest. I don’t know how anyone goes through everyday looking over their shoulder trying to cover up their previous lie especially when handling other people’s futures. Narrowpath and I believe that all you need to be is honest, focused on the correct ideas, and care about people to make projects successful. In all of this history and knowledge I just want to provide protection to the client and, although cliche, piece of mind in their projects goals and outcomes. When we say we will do something the first time, then we do what we say and make sure it’s in the best interests of the project and client; not ONLY in the best interest of my company. This mindset and direction I know will keep us successful and a cohesive business model.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Most of my struggles have been figuring out how to get to this point. I worked with so many companies where I had to do or say to clients things that just did not align with my beliefs in proper business. I also had to work for people that would say one thing to me and do the other in their leadership roles to the people that worked for them only to appease some financial means. I have been very blessed this past year and have been quite lucky. I can’t take credit for anything really myself other than my own work. I truly work with wonderful clients who I absolutely care for and the times when I have failed them I am so disgusted with myself and my performance that I get physically ill. That seems like a stretch but I care about those people that much. However, no client has left me and anything I have failed at I have always learned from and turned it into something positive for my businesses. Being a young company we are always learning, creating and understanding better ways to do pretty much anything from how to design, how to lead our employees, or even how to write contracts better with the new type of ideas that we are bringing to Architecture, Design, Consulting, and even Construction methods in the area.

Most of the bumps along the way have been understanding how to get this new idea of business across to our clients. Many other roadblocks have been learning who to trust, who not to, and who is going to use you for their own gain. So many people have been very scarred from the corruption that is general contracting and design consultants. The first look you get is a raised eyebrow when you tell people that you are trying to be transparent with them and hand them something that they are not used to seeing in a contractual document. Also, as a Architecture firm, we are growing internally, looking for office space, weeding out those who try to harm our company, protect our clients from those who don’t hold the same interests as we do, and building new ideas when something we have tried to do doesn’t quite work like we thought; which interestingly enough when you are straight forward with some they will try and manipulate that for their own success either internally or externally to your business.

Finding people to understand our mindset as a company making sure they have what it takes to really work hard and with a true commitment to our branding is something just as difficult as finding new clients or building a promising portfolio. It’s so very cliche but also blatantly visible that you are only as good as your weakest link. With that idea in mind, we are always improving and educating that link whether it’s the employee or the client. Doing this smooths out that bumpy country road most of us grew up on into a nice smooth concrete highway of success.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Narrowpath – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
My architecture firm is small and we like it that way. We fluctuate from 2-4 people and don’t really need more than that right now to stay on top of our clients’ work. Staying busy keeps us sharp but we know that overwork leads to mistakes and being project-focused gives us the ability to turn down work if it doesn’t fit within our projected environment. As an Architecture firm that can work with design-build platforms or traditional design-bid-build setups we are set apart in our versatility from other companies. We feel as though through Design-Build we are able to take something that in many areas of design is meant for larger fast-tracked projects and scaling it to projects where the same needs and financial attention can be met like tenant finish outs, residential builds and new commercial construction. Narrowpath specializes in custom residential home design, commercial construction, tenant finish outs, and land development. We also work with developers and are able to work through zoning issues that many clients take to planning firms or civil engineers. Due to Narrowpath having an extensive network of external consultants for all fields of design we are able to contract those companies under our design-build umbrella keeping all the varied elements of design work under one roof.

By doing this we minimize the relentless back and forth ego match that occurs most of the time and keep the line of communication open and consistant. No one blaming the other when mistakes are made or when something is missing. Narrowpath can work seamlessly with honest and transparent general contractors who hold the clients interest above their own and work to resolve most issues at the beginning of design stages. When we say we are value-engineering your project, you can bet we are working to figure out how to save our clients money and not how to pad our pockets or make additional percentages on change orders for the general contractor. Just the opposite. Narrowpath is watching out and making sure that the general contractor is not going to screw you over and will 100% make you aware if something doesn’t line up. We understand estimating, project valuation, have a keen sense of design, and also have the ability to determine where to cut back and where to spend all help to keep our goals aligned with our client. In turn, it keeps our relationships intact and future projects in focus.