Sargent also will serve as project director for the firm. In his four years with IA-Dallas, he has overseen dozens of major projects for IA-Dallas and is the office's architect of responsibility in the Dallas office. He also is project manager for regional work for IA's national accounts.

With the appointment comes a share of ownership in Interior Architects Inc., the parent company, which also has offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Costa Mesa, Denver, Ft. Lauderdale, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C. The ownership is possible only by demonstrating "a consistent and overwhelming commitment" to profitability, productivity and other IA goals. The Dallas office, established in 1995, is considered one of the metroplex's leading architectural firms in terms of gross revenues, which had gross billings of $2.3 million of the $36.2 million for the parent firm's fiscal 1999.

Sargent has headed up IA teams for the 88,000-sf IBM Engineering and Scientific Regional Headquarters in Dallas; and a three-bank consolidation design for Compass Bank. With a prior employer, he had worked on high-profile projects such as the regional offices for Grumman Aerospace and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Fairborn, Ohio and a 260,000-sf corporate headquarters for S&A Restaurant Group in Dallas.