RIM Architects Diversifies to Create Niche in Architectural Design.

• Author: KANE, ROGER

The late 1970s through the '80s were tumultuous times in Alaska While the high times of the oil boom still echoed from Valdez to Prudhoe Bay, the oil money that once oozed through the state slowed to a trickle; restrictions in the timber in dustry silenced the buzz of Southeastern chain saws and mills; and fishermen plying the sea for a share of its bounty found themselves competing with more vessels for fewer fish.

Those economic downturns forced some of the state's biggest revenue producers to tighten their belts, reducing the flow of cash into ancillary businesses. Consequently, many shops were squeezed into bankruptcy and people left Alaska in droves, among them were much of the state's architectural talent.

Not to be counted among the fair weather draftsmen who left the state in the mid-1980s, transplanted Architect Larry Cash decided instead to hang out his shingle in Anchorage and start his own architectural firm--Larry S. Cash Architects-a firm that has evolved into RIM Architects.

Humble Beginnings

An Alabama native, Cash came to Alaska in 1977 from California for a job with Harold Wirum & Associates in Anchorage. Cash registered as an architect here in 1978. The first projects he worked on were the Soldotna High School and Redoubt Elementary School, also in Soldotna.

Harold Wirum & Associates became Wirum & Cash in 1983 and Cash stayed with Wirum & Cash until 1986.

"I suddenly found myself out on the street and made a decision that it was time for me to try it on my own," Cash said. "So I started making phone calls."

Working with a local engineering firm, Cash pursued a contract to provide management and design services with the Anchorage School District. Cash won the contract to correct major code deficiencies and deferred-maintenance deficiencies at 82 school district-owned buildings in Anchorage.

"That was a coup," he said. "That project enabled me to get going."

After a scant six months in operation, Larry S. Cash Architects grew from a one man show to having 15 employees.

Cash said without the financial assistance of KeyBank President Mike Burns, his firm would never have gotten off the ground for that first job. Nor would Cash have been able to expand the business.

Cash's first opportunity to expand came in 1987 when he got a call from an engineer friend who tipped him off to an opportunity to purchase an architectural firm in Guam. Cash took the chance and acquired the firm that became HNC Architects in Hagatna, Guam.

For the first six months of ownership, Cash divided his time between Anchorage and Hagatna, flying south for one week each month to tend to his affairs on the South Pacific island.

Business in the early years at Larry S. Cash Architects was not booming, but growing steadily. By the late '80s, the firm was attracting talent. In 1990, Cash took on partners Phil Usher and Jerry Barner, and the firm was renamed Cash Barner Usher Architects Inc.

The firm's name again changed in 1994 to Cash Barner Architects Inc...