Architectural firm moves into downtown Sault Ste. Marie

Sault Ste. Marie now has a full fledged architectural and engineering firm located in the city. Sidock Group recently sealed a deal with Northwoods Surveying to add A&E expertise to their existing surveying services and locate it in the same building Northwoods Surveying (formerly known as Northwoods Land Surveying) has occupied in the downtown  since 1987.
 
Sidock Group, which is headquartered in Novi, with offices in Muskegon and Gaylord, has been sending staff to the Eastern Upper Peninsula for different commercial and residential A&E projects for a number of years. Now, the area will have a "full service" A&E firm conveniently located in the city.  
 
"By full service A&E I mean civil, structural, mechanical, and electrical engineering," says Brad Butcher, senior project manager with Sidock Group. "We design water and sewer distribution systems and also roads and streets."
 
Some of the specific services Sidock provides are engineering services like facility inspection, utilities engineering, instrumentation and controls, facilities engineering, automation and controls; and architectural services including developer consulting, programming, master planning, site planning and design, site selection, and construction management.
 
The "new" office will retain the familiar moniker, Northwoods Surveying, "into the foreseeable future," according to Butcher.  Bill Karr of Northwoods Surveying will continue to direct the Sault office while Butcher, who lives in Gaylord and manages the office there, will lead the work of the architectural staff.
 
Sidock has already made their presence known in the community by doing work for Arbic Construction and the new Sovereign Communications building, designing a fire station in Pickford; a garage for Continental Automotive in Brimley, and doing work for the Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians, among other projects. Their current project is the Garfield Commons renovation, converting an old school into a shopping, dining, and events center.
 
Butcher, a graduate of Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, has been in the architectural field for over 25 years.  He says his real passion and expertise is in residential architecture, which he hopes to do more of out of the Sault office.
 
The new Sault office will also offer an opportunity for budding and experienced engineers and architects to work in the U.P., or perhaps return to their roots here. The help wanted sign will be out when the new office becomes fully functioning. Butcher says they'll initially staff the office with about 8 to 10 people but sees this increasing to about a dozen in years to come.
 
The Northwoods Surveying  and Sidock Group office is located at 816 Ashmun, in downtown Sault Ste. Marie, in what the locals remember as an old bakery.
 
"We expect to be in that office for the foreseeable future," says Butcher. "We'll most likely upgrade that office to suit our expanding staff."
 
Butcher will be introducing himself and the group to the public April 23 at the Sault Area Chamber of Commerce business luncheon. He will be presenting an architectural rendering of the Garfield Commons project and talking about the firm's recent move to the Sault.

Neil Moran is a freelance writer in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan and owner of Haylake Business Communications. You can find him on Twitter at @moranwrite.