Cyle Erie and Brian Muellner are two Rochester natives who have pursued careers in the built environment for the better part of the new millennium, working in cities across the Midwest. Now, as their hometown has grown into a first-class city, they both decided about 10 years ago to settle back into the community they knew as children to help build it from the ground up.

“I’ve worked for a number of firms in different locations, and through all the time and energy I put into my projects, I always knew I wanted to come back to Rochester,” says Muellner, a project architect with 24 years of experience.

Both Erie and Muellner were determined to advance their careers and bring a different approach to design and planning to the Rochester and southeast Minnesota market. The best avenue to do that, they say, was through ISG, a multi-disciplinary architecture and engineering firm swiftly expanding across the Midwest. The two colleagues have embraced the chance to co-lead ISG’s new Rochester office — an opportunity that Muellner said was the perfect job for him at this point in his career.

“It feels really good to know that the time I invest here will pay off,” says Muellner. “Cyle and I are both very invested in the community, and together with our spouses are raising our families here. This is our home and we’re not going anywhere.”

What Makes ISG Different?

The difference between ISG and other firms, Erie says, lies in their culture of collaboration, no matter where team members are stationed. If a client needs specific help on a project, the Rochester office can bring in the right expert from any one of ISG’s ten upper Midwest offices.

“We’ve demonstrated that we can work anywhere,” says Erie. “We put together our teams with a client-centric approach based on who’s the best fit. You might be working with a landscape architect from Des Moines, an architect from Mankato and a civil engineer from Minneapolis–whoever is the best fit for the project–while still benefiting from having local team members who understand the local market and have long-standing relationships locally.”

Civil engineers, architects, urban planners, designers, experts on city administration, you name it, if a construction project needs expert assistance, ISG has the right people for the job. The company is 100 percent employee owned, which means the 300-person workforce isn’t incentivized to compete with one another, but rather works together for the benefit of the client.

When one office wins a project, the entire firm benefits and any one of the employee owners can be called upon to serve the client and project needs. It’s a culture that’s not present at all consulting firms, says Erie, and the ability to communicate quickly across multiple disciplines makes the design and planning process much easier for all parties involved.

“Those outside of the industry might be surprised to know just how much really comes together on a project,” says Erie. “It’s such an iterative process when all the services aren’t offered under one roof. You’re working with so many different firms, that all use different tools and systems. Since ISG is a multi-disciplinary firm, the communication process is much more streamlined: we’re all using the same tools, it’s all centralized, and things move much faster and more efficiently.”

While ISG has already designed several projects in the community — including fire alarm upgrades for Rochester Public Schools and the renovation of Bamber Valley Elementary — Erie and Muellner expect the firm’s local footprint to expand significantly over the coming years.

Erie and Muellner believe that as Rochester continues to grow through 2021 and beyond, the community can expect to see ISG’s impact in every corner of the city, and thanks to the firm’s collaborative nature, the work of Rochester-based architects and engineers will make meaningful impressions across the region.

The ISG team is excited about being a part of Rochester’s growth and will gradually recruit additional talent to the market. The expanding pool of talented ISG professionals will be led by the select duo of boomerangers, people who left Rochester but just couldn’t stay away.

“I look forward to contributing to Rochester’s growth and development while also recruiting new talent into the firm and the community,” says Muellner.

To learn more about the ingenuity of ISG, visit www.isginc.com.