Small Business Today Magazine APR 2014 MONTGOMERY ROTH | Page 10

The Montgomery Roth Design Team always provides quality assurance for their growing family of satisfied clients!

Immediately following the evacuation,
New Orleans area hotels began to fill up
again housing the National Guard, disaster
management teams, insurance company
underwriters, and even returning residents.
Montgomery Roth’s previous clients, like
Harrah’s Casino, Sheraton, and Hilton,
looked to them again for design assistance.
“Having guest damage and flood damage,
they called on us to help them with the
necessary renovations. Basically, we were
one of the few firms actually working in
New Orleans immediately following the
storm. There was a mutual benefit; we
were trying to rebuild and so were they,”
recalled Lisa. For four months, the New
Orleans team worked out of Lisa’s home
which had the least amount of flood damage while Lisa established and worked
with a team in Houston to continue to
meet other clients’ needs. Along the way,
new working relationships were created
with the likes of Starwood Hotels, Hilton
Hotels, and Pinnacle Entertainment.
After experiencing Houston’s incredible
business environment, John and Lisa knew
that making Montgomery Roth’s Houston office a permanent one would be a
good decision for the success of their firm.
“Houston is a great city. It is a city that really welcomes people. Obviously, there are
challenges when you have a lot of people
coming here, many without any money or
resources. All in all,” said Lisa, “we found
that everyone we worked with was very
supportive, very informative, and really

wanted to see people land on their feet.
The business community was amazing, and
we were met with supportive, caring, and
extremely helpful Houstonians at every
turn.”

of connecting with local architectural and
interior design firms when working nationally and internationally so that they are always on top of local regulatory codes and
policies.

Briefly subletting in a downtown high
rise tower, Montgomery Roth then moved
into a self-designed new build-out in the
Galleria area of Houston where they still
reside today. Due to Houston’s incredible business development, the office has
grown three times the size they were in
New Orleans before the Katrina devastation. Months following the storm, a new
location for the New Orleans office was
found in the Texaco Building in downtown
New Orleans. John and Lisa made a commitment to reestablish business there and
go back to give support to the ones who
helped them.

John and Lisa act independently in their
roles with the company. They have different client groups with varying desires, approaches, and building types. One thing
that always remains constant is their commitment to excellence in both design and
functionality. Lisa explained, “We always
meet interesting people who are very
challenging, creative, and intense. They are
very aware that the quality of the design
and how well it’s thought out is not only
from an esthetic perspective. How well
the design functions and how it can be
maintained is critical to the success of all of
our projects. So t \