FIRM HISTORY

It has always been our intent to provide professional services with a full understanding and consideration of the requests and budgets of our clients.  We seek to tailor our services and our designs to fit our clients program and unique needs.  Our design philosophy is one of conformance with the existing environment, while providing lasting value and complementing the surrounding community.  With over forty years of experience in the Architectural field, we have proven our ability to achieve high quality design on both large and small scale projects.

Graber and Associates is the third generation of an original firm, founded in 1960 by Blaine Imel, doing business as A. Blaine Imel Architects.  In 1977 Jim Graber joined the firm after living and working in Great Britain and Europe for a British Architectural and Planning Firm.  In 1980 Jim Graber became a partner and the firm name became Imel and Graber Architects.  In 1996 the name was changed to Graber and Imel, and following the passing of Blaine Imel, the firm became Graber and Associates.

Our staff includes three members which have been with the company for over thirty years which lends continuity to our work and consistency in our performance.  This has been a factor in our ability to retain clients over a period of years.  We are also the Owners of our building located in Tulsa at I-44 and Lewis.

A great deal of our work has been in the educational field.  We have been the Architects for local school systems for over thirty years and have completed over 300 million dollars in construction costs for various school systems in the area.  The majority of these projects began with long range master planning and a needs assessment which were developed by our firm.

Education institutions for which we have worked with include the following:
Jenks, Glenpool, Muskogee, Tulsa, Grove, Bixby, Bristow, Weatherford Schools, and Rogers State University.  We believe these schools have benefited from our master planning experience and quality of design which we have developed.

Our other clients include Local and State Governmental Agencies, Department of Defense, Commercial Facilities, Industrial Facilities, Renovation Projects and Residential Projects.  Local governmental work includes Fire Stations, Police and Fire Academies, various Parks and Recreation Projects, and Libraries.  Projects for the Defense Department include Naval Facilities at Keflavik Iceland and Pearl Harbor, projects at Vance, Reese and Altus Air Force Bases and a project for the National Guard.  For Wagoner County, we have recently completed a new County Office Building, Jail, and renovation the County Courthouse.

For the private sector we have designed, renovated and remodeled numerous projects, including banks, automobile dealerships, fraternity houses, corporate office buildings, manufacturing plants and private residences.  Before becoming a partnership, the firm also completed eleven multifamily housing projects for FHA/HUD totaling 1,851 living units.