ATI Architects & Engineers: Principal in charge Bruce Gillings
Bruce Gillings is Principal in charge of ATI Architects & Engineers for Southern California’s firms and has held the position for the last eight and a half years. ATI is recognized as being one of the largest, most active full service Architectural and Engineering firms in all of California and is forever expanding its design portfolio to further assist their clients growing needs. Gillings, 63, oversees everything ATI does for and within Southern California. His experience throughout Southern California has been centered around the construction and design of cold and food storage, food processing, bottling facilities, and the luxury of fabricating a few movie sets.
Bruce deals directly and frequently with office management, logistics, warehousing, administration, reviewing and writing contracts, business development, review of designs, management of projects, social media networking/marketing, and last but not least finances. Bruce has over thirty-five years of experience in architecture, including twenty-four years owning his own firm. Beyond business, Bruce is a sociable person and easy to talk to. He is well dressed, clean cut, extremely motivated and if you’re within his inner circle, he’s the person to never let you fail.
Bruce’s long time receptionist, Ashley Turnham, 27, has worked for Bruce at ATI for over two years, learning from his every move. “Working for Bruce was quite the learning experience,” said Ashley. “Watching him day-to-day, seeing all his meetings and the amount of time he puts into his work, really drove me to want to be just as motivated.”
In 1971 Gillings attended The University of California Berkeley, universally known for being one of the top public universities in the world. At Cal Berkeley is where he would finish a bachelor’s degree in Architectural design in 1975. Upon graduating, Bruce headed straight for the industry. He immediately started working for a number of different firms, and over time grew himself into a professional, adding credibility to his resume. After acquiring hands on experience, he became employed by a hard working entrepreneur who had founded a successful architectural firm. Working for this inspiring individual for years warranted him to do something with his life as well.
In December 1984, Bruce changed his life forever. He founded his own architectural firm “Gillings & Associates, GGM Architects “, which he sold to ATI Architects & Engineers — the company he would take over — in 2008 after nearly twenty-four successful years of service. Since taking over ATI Southern California, Bruce and his team have grown the company in its entirety significantly.
Rick Mays, the Senior Mechanical Designer, said “Working for Bruce at ATI has been a real opportunity. It’s a dream to be able to have in-house direct communications with his engineers. What Bruce is doing here is a great step for the design process worldwide, not just for ATI.”
For Bruce, the biggest obstacles he has been faced with while working in the design industry are the excessive government regulations on the production of the many different projects that they do, a great shortage of skilled employees to do the work, legal exposure when error occurs, being original, and finally the extremely high expectations that most of his clients carry about his work. Although it is very stressful, being the principal in charge comes with its perks and rewards. These rewards and perks include: being paid a substantial salary to have fun, and doing the things he loves the most. The things he loves most include: designing, the ability to be creative, and having the freedom to decide how to handle things; contributing to the infrastructure of America; being his own boss; the respect and notoriety received for doing professional work, and finally the fascinating people he meets daily.
Bruce’s advice for students wanting to work in the industry is to obtain a broad range of skills, to say the least, and to understand all aspects of creation. He doesn’t want you to just focus on design. He expresses that students should learn how things are constructed before entering the workplace and that they should take on as many internships as possible to have the opportunity of obtaining a mentor. This is a huge key to success. Although he currently doesn’t work with international clients, he has plenty of times in the past. So, he had some tips as to how people wanting to deal in international business should conduct themselves. Bruce said “when dealing with an international company, make sure you know the culture and know what the business is all about before trying to conduct business in the market; once you start dipping into international business there is no going back on credibility when you screw up”.
Though there are plenty of ways in which ATI advertises, Bruce expresses that social media is the predominant way in which the company generates buzz about what they can offer. Every platform in social media like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram are utilized. These platforms are being used in many different business oriented ways; business development, expressing the companies image and values, driving sales, networking, recruiting, showcasing work, and showcasing employees.
Since taking over his current firm, Bruce has worked with hundreds of well known clients. His biggest project to date he has worked on was when he was put in charge of building a 1.7 million square foot Ikea warehouse; the largest building of its kind when built. Also, Bruce and ATI San Francisco are teaming up and have started working on a 65-million-dollar project in the port of Oakland California. This is the site that will soon be a facility that imports and exports food goods. High profile accounts like these are not easily obtained. It is important to first be a member of a trade association, but yet you must also have plenty of credible work to show behind the company’s name to obtain them.
With its current growth rate, within five short years, Bruce envisions the firm doubling or even tripling in size. He sees the firm accepting clients nationally, and producing zero net projects. He see’s the company taking on even bigger clients and projects like football stadiums or high profile hotels. He may even see them advance into high profile luxury homes. Also, since regulations on building materials are becoming stricter by the year, Bruce see’s the firm becoming almost completely eco-friendly. As for where he see’s himself in five years aside from the company, Bruce said, “I will most definitely be retired sitting somewhere off the coast of Costa Rica with my wife and my boat, one of my biggest dreams”.
Sources:
Bruce Gillings: Principal in Charge, ATI Architects & Engineers Southern California
Rick Mays: Senior Mechanical Designer, ATI Architects & Engineers Costa Mesa
Ashley Turnham: Former Receptionist, ATI Architects & Engineers Costa Mesa
