When Michael Kennedy Sr. took a Missouri board exam to obtain his architectural license in the 1970s, he did not realize it would mark the beginning of a lifelong career of creating change in communities through architecture and design.
Kennedy established Kennedy Associates Inc. in 1980 in St. Louis, which was later renamed KAI Enterprises.
He was able to open doors for many minorities in the field after becoming the first Black registered architect in Missouri, but it was not easy for him because he could not get much work outside underserved communities, said Michael Kennedy Jr., CEO of KAI Enterprises.
“When we started the company in 1980, those communities were the only communities that gave my dad an opportunity to do any work in the first place,” he said. “So, as we grew and expanded our services and became one of the top providers of these services, regardless of race, why leave that community behind that gave us the opportunity?”
KAI Enterprises is now one of the largest Black-owned design and construction firms in the country and has served the St. Louis area for 45 years. The company has offices in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, Kansas City, Kansas, and Atlanta. Kennedy Jr. said that after four decades, its legacy is giving a voice to the community.
“It's the impact of the scale and the complexity of projects we can handle in tough communities that's going to be our legacy,” he said. “How do we change the physical environment? How do we change the people who use that environment by creating programs, understanding their needs, dealing with complex financing that needs layers of that in delivering a high-quality product, so that's the legacy there.”
Some of the design and construction firm’s most impactful work is in plain sight and is used by the community on a daily basis. KAI Enterprises is the architect and design team behind multiple projects with the Metropolitan Sewer District, the Deaconess Center for Child Well-Being, Metro Transit, the St. Louis Community College Center for Nursing & Health Sciences, St. Louis Community College-Forest Park, the Black Radio Hall of Fame Museum inside of Harris-Stowe State University, the University of Missouri-St. Louis’ student center, the BJC West County replacement hospital and the Boys & Girls Club of Greater St. Louis Teen Center of Excellence in Ferguson.
Its mission is to transform communities through integrated design and construction excellence. The multimillion-dollar company employs over 100 architects, interior designers, engineers, builders and support staff across the country. They specialize in commercial, K-12, government, water, mobility, sports and entertainment, aviation, science and technology, health care, higher education, residential and community-focused projects. Over 60% of the firm's projects are located in areas designated as Project Safe Neighborhoods.
Kennedy Jr. said the community is always at the forefront of his company’s designs, because the people will flow throughout the physical space, and they should have a say about what comes into their community.
“It's really about having empathy, and it's about listening, and it's about educating the wise, because when you come into a community and say, ‘Here's what we're going to do,’ we don't do that,” he said. “We don't even tell them what we're thinking. We listen to them first, and then we come back with the facts and try to teach them, and then we come back and say, ‘Here's what this looks like based on what you said.’”
‘Entrepreneurial challenges’
The trust KAI Enterprises has built with communities did not develop overnight. It is the proven work and consistency that continue to bring KAI and the community together over time. Although being in business for four decades is rewarding, Kennedy Jr. said there were multiple challenges along the way.
“After 9/11, we were frozen. We're like, ‘Oh my gosh, what are we going to do?’ and it pivoted us and forced us into new service lines, which are now some of our biggest service lines.
“My dad started in development, and … we got some development opportunities, and so we were working on that and got enough opportunities to cover our costs,” Kennedy Jr. said.
KAI Enterprises also felt the economic shifts during the housing crisis in 2008 and during the coronavirus pandemic, but he said there are always lessons to be learned during troubling times.
“Sometimes crisis forces you to turn and find an opportunity that you didn't know was there, you're ignoring because you're comfortable here,” said Kennedy Jr., who became the CEO in 2000. "We've been through it enough times that, as it happens to me today, I just sit back, I take a breath. … I don't panic. I am concerned. I get stressed, but I'm like, ‘We made it through so many others, we're going to make it through this.’”
The team's strength and tenacity are telling as it continues to shape underserved communities with commercial, municipal and civic projects across the country. In Atlanta, the team created and built the Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation and Aquatic Center, which, prior to the project, was the first pool for African Americans in the city. It is also making moves in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex through the re-creation of the Paul Laurence Dunbar Young Men’s Leadership Academy and South Oak Cliff High School.
Kennedy Jr. is proud that his team secured the contract to design the National Juneteenth Museum in Fort Worth, which is expected to open in 2028.
“The Juneteenth holiday, which we are trying to savor all of our holidays that are being attacked right now, but this one has made it and is still underway,” he said. “They're in the process of selecting a contractor, but this is a gorgeous facility.”
‘Community commitment’
In 2020, the company made a commitment to reshape 100 communities across the country through design and construction over 10 years. So far, it's completed about 50 projects, many of which are in underserved communities.
“As you look at our mission statement … it's a combination of all facets of our four business entities, and so we were like, ‘Let's take that up a step,’ and let's make sure that we look at how do we have a lasting impact outside of just a bricks and mortar,” said Darren L. James, president of KAI Enterprises. “It permeates through our DNA, which is, how do we serve the community?”
Over the years, the company encouraged employees to give back to the community, but James and Kennedy Jr. have seen the most impact by exposing underprivileged students to the possibilities of architecture, design and construction careers and teaching them the pathways into the field.
“We participate in those conversations about how we can advance and increase the awareness of people of color that traditionally have been frozen out of the architectural profession,” James said. “It was kind of an old boys club for the longest time, and now we're just trying to increase the awareness of it. This is a viable career path.”
Today, KAI Enterprises is in the public engagement portion of its refresh to Fairground Park in north St. Louis. The company is leading the effort by updating its master plan. Team members are also working on the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis’ business and empowerment center in Ferguson.
Kennedy Jr. said that in the next 45 years, he hopes KAI Enterprises continues to take on projects that make an impact on their clients, but more important, on the communities it serves.
“We are poised for even better things. We have a tremendous amount of young talent here, the ability we've had to recruit over the last five years with the types of projects we've been working on … and the types of projects we are going to do,” Kennedy Jr. said. “People are going to see KAI has got something to say, and we're excited about what the next 10 to 20 years are going to show us.”
