30 Years of Architectural & Construction Excellence
Restoration and preservation are the key reasons US-BES was established. We wanted to respond to the critical demand for structural investigations and inspections and create repair design solutions to help restore America’s infrastructure stock. We are a one-stop shop and collaborate with designers and engineers to create the optimum design solutions for our clients.
With US-BES as your design restoration and preservation partner and US-CES as your contractor, we offer a one-stop shop with precise services tied to your specific needs. Owners interact exclusively with a single company from design restoration-preservation to construction completion. Whether you need a consultation, preliminary designs, construction restoration drawings, bidding, or general preservation construction services, we aim to exceed your expectations with efficiency, expertise, and customer-to-client prioritization.
We are unique because our hands-on founder is a restoration architect and contractor. When he is not in the office guiding the staff in developing waterproofing preservation drawings, he is on a construction restoration job site laying bricks, tuckpointing, roofing, or any other tasks that may be needed. He often teaches his field staff how to improve their construction building techniques, like an archaeology professor teaching his students about the process of digging artifacts. However, in this case, he is teaching them about restoring the artifacts on buildings above the ground.
We remain hands-on from the beginning of the design restoration construction drawings to the completion of the construction restoration phase. While preparing the preservation or restoration construction drawings, our staff creates vintage detail drawings specific to your building. Each detail is generated based on our exploration during the inspection process and is later customized. No boilerplate flashing details duplicated or copied from other projects are used. Our approach is simple. No two buildings have the same problems or are built using the same construction methods. There are many variations in the assembly and installations for constructing buildings. The concept is to clearly understand the existing building and its construction. Then we develop sensitive restoration construction details that blend closely or in-kind with current building materials.
Frank V. Gonzalez, President & Founder
US-BES was founded by Frank V. Gonzalez, a licensed architect in Illinois, New York, and Florida. With 30 years of architectural and construction experience, Frank has performed proficiently in a wide variety of architectural disciplines. His forward-thinking and progressive approach has made him to become a sought-out architectural consultant for landmark renovations and high-performance building energy projects.
Frank’s is licensed Illinois as a Public Adjuster, Roofing Contractor, and Home Inspector. In Chicago, he is a licensed General Contractor and a Brick & Concrete Masonry Contractor (Class A).
Frank’s persistence in helping others in the construction industry led to the development of the Chicago Masonry Contractors License Exam Training Courses. He teaches out of Lewis University and has a two-day training class to prepare candidates for the Chicago Masonry Licensing exams. In addition, he is also an Illinois Roofing Contractors License Exam Training Course instructor, where he educates roofing contractors on the statewide license exams.
He is a commissioner of the Hinsdale Preservation Commission. He is also member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the Association of Licensed Architects (ALA), and a Green Globes Professional (GGP).
Mission
U.S. Building Efficiency Solutions and U.S Construction Efficiency Solutions are dedicated to optimizing the repurposing of existing buildings, and maintaining and sustaining the value of structures developed since the turn of the 20th century. The companies’ mission is to participate in the preserving of our built environment by assisting property owners and institutions with cutting-edge architecture and construction services.
65% of the building stock in the largest 50 cities was first built over 50 years ago and continue to play a critical role in robust local economies.
(Source: National Trust for Historic Preservation.)
Professional Collaborations
Our practices are founded with the idea that a structure is built with the expertise of professionals collaborating to ensure the clients goals are met in a timely manner, within budget, and completed using best industry practice methods.
With every project US-BES/CES takes on, you can expect a cross pollination of the brightest architects, designers, engineers, builders, and subcontractors to provide successful results.