By Dana Todd

The Boudreaux Group, a Columbia-based architecture firm, is in the final quarter of its year-long celebration of 40 years in business. Firm principals Heather Mitchell, president, and Randy Huth, vice president, say company employees are celebrating by performing 40 acts of community service in the Columbia area.

“We are giving back and giving thanks,” says Mitchell.

Over the past few months, The Boudreaux Group’s employees have:

• Walked to defeat ALS

• Led the cherub choir at Shandon United Methodist Church

• Packaged boxes to send to service members deployed in Afghanistan

• Supported Historic Columbia Foundation’s trunk-or-treat event

• Taught an architecture merit badge class for a local Boy Scout troop

• Volunteered at Pawmetto Lifeline

• Packaged shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child

• Helped build a Habitat for Humanity house

• Participated in a Columbia Museum of Art fundraiser for Richland County’s First Steps program.

“The Boudreaux Group 40 Acts of Service was designed to allow our employees the opportunity to give back to their community in any way that speaks to their individual interests and passions,” says the firm’s marketing director, Jenny Grounds. “From puppies to leading the church choir, our service projects take on many shapes.”

“Celebrating 40 years in business with service to others is a powerful way to give back to the community that has embraced us for the past four decades and to live out our mission of cultivating relationships, designing inspiring places, and enhancing communities,” says Mitchell.

The Boudreaux Group is in its second generation of ownership. Founder John Boudreaux retired at the end of 2012 after transitioning ownership to the new team beginning in the early 2000s. The firm’s architects design buildings in four focus areas: corporations, local government, higher education, and its largest market of faith-based organizations. All of the company’s projects are designed as sustainably as possible. Although South Carolina projects make up the firm’s core target market, architects also design projects in North Carolina and Georgia.

For those unfamiliar with the local architectural scene, taking a look around at some Midlands locations will show the hand of The Boudreaux Group’s architects and designers. Some of the firm’s projects recently completed or nearing completion, include:

• Richland County Library’s Main, Cooper, Northeast, Southeast, and North Main branches

• Richland County’s Decker Center, which includes the sheriff’s regional headquarters

• New USC School of Law

• Seibels’ downtown building renovation

• Expanded offices for AFLAC.

Currently, the firm has been hired to design Nature’s Theater at Saluda Shoals Park and transform a building in the Vista for the Girl Scouts of South Carolina Mountains to Midlands Urban Leadership Center.

With a focus on problem solving for their clients, Boudreaux Group leaders say they are flexible to meet clients’ needs with attention to the extra details.

“We also design in context of our clients’ neighbors,” says Huth.

The Boudreaux Group currently is designing new office space for its firm, an adaptive reuse of the historic building at 1519 Sumter Street. Mitchell says they expect to move in by the summer and will capitalize on the ability to design wide open spaces and add contemporary elements to the new offices.

“It’s so much about the team,” says Mitchell. “We stand on the shoulders of those who’ve come before us, and we recognize the talent we’ve had and continue to have the privilege to work with. We look forward to the next 40 years as we continue to grow and are honored to have served the Columbia community and the surrounding region since 1976.”