Dallas Leadership Center Earns Platinum at the ASA North Texas Awards

Jun 12, 2026
dallas leadership foundation headquarters

A new East Dallas headquarters for the Dallas Leadership Foundation, delivered in 11 months on a tight corner lot.

The Dallas Leadership Center took home a Platinum award in the Building 3 category ($5M–$10M) at the 2026 ASA North Texas Awards. The recognition reflects the work of the full project team and the partnership behind it.

A new home for the Dallas Leadership Foundation

The Dallas Leadership Center is the new headquarters for the Dallas Leadership Foundation, a nonprofit focused on developing local leaders and strengthening under-resourced communities. The three-story, 14,335 SF building in East Dallas brings the organization’s training, mentoring, and community programs under one roof, with flexible meeting spaces, a ground-level patio, and a rooftop terrace.

At the center of the building is the monument stair: precast concrete treads, perforated metal railings, a stainless steel handrail, and embedded lighting. It anchors the space and sets the tone for the rest of the facility.

Solving problems on a constrained site

The project sat on a tight corner at two active intersections, surrounded by homes and businesses. That left little room for laydown, parking, or error.

The biggest challenge came underground. During pier drilling operations, excessive groundwater conditions caused several piers to cave in, requiring an immediate reassessment of the foundation design. The original plan called for belled piers, but field conditions made that approach unworkable. The project team collaborated closely with the design team to redesign the piers and implement a calculated alternative, an adjustment that minimized impacts to both budget and schedule while maintaining structural integrity and allowing construction to move forward without delay.

The revised approach used a slurry pier method, pumping slurry into the redesigned piers to stabilize the excavations during installation. The technique responded to unforeseen subsurface conditions and ensured proper placement and long-term structural performance, providing a durable foundation designed to perform reliably for the life of the building.

Superintendent Juan Garza and Project Manager Matt Curry represent the project team at the ASA North Texas Awards.

Working in an older area of Dallas added another layer of complexity: buried, undocumented utilities. The team encountered several unknown lines that required verification, relocation, and coordination among multiple utility owners. Addressing these conditions demanded close collaboration with city agencies, consultants, and trade partners, along with carefully managed shutdowns and real-time decision-making to minimize cost and schedule impacts.

On time, under budget, incident-free

From the outset, RO committed to an 11-month delivery, and the team met that commitment. The building was completed on time, under budget, and incident-free, a result that reflects both technical expertise and a strong culture of safety, accountability, and teamwork.

A first-time partnership

The Dallas Leadership Center was Rogers-O’Brien’s first project with the Dallas Leadership Foundation, built alongside Echelon Leadership LLC and Omniplan. Those relationships run deep: this marked our 23rd project with Omniplan and 5th with Echelon Leadership.

Project team: Josh Langley, Matt Curry, Denis Curtin, Eduardo Lopez, Bryan Cerney, Juan Garza, Chad Smith, Edward Yanez