In addition to Carver's firm, Carver Design Studios, the other members of the group include Domain Architecture, Armonics, HCO Architects, A2SO4 Architecture and Williams-Dotson Associates. Past projects these various firms have successfully undertaken include buildings for the Veteran's Administration, Department of Housing and Urban Development, numerous churches, the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library, Indianapolis Public Schools expansion projects, Wishard Hospital, the Urban League, Fall Creek Place and IndyParks. Individually, these firms consist of anywhere from one to 13 staff members.

By joining together, they created the kind of clout necessary to play a prominent role in determining how the new airport may look. "That usually doesn't happen with minority business activities," Carver says. "They usually happen at the tail end and have to do with residual fees at the end of the project."

"We wanted to have the design notoriety as well as the construction work," adds Daryl Williams-Dotson, the consortium"s president. The consortium has been able to combine an array of skill sets, from the conceptual design phase to construction administration. It represents the equivalent of a 40-person firm. "That's a remarkable thing to put together in one entity," Carver says. "We really can respond to the entire scope of work on a project."

Williams-Dotson says that the members of the group had, in various configurations, collaborated with one another in the past. "So starting the consortium was inevitable. It came naturally." Nevertheless, some members came to the group concept with certain reservations based on their reluctance to be labeled a minority business. "We haven't really participated in minority business enterprise programs," Armonics" Russell Lewis says. "Yet this project, because of its size and potential earnings value, couldn't be ignored."

Lewis says that, too often, projects create what he calls "shotgun weddings," teaming minority businesses with larger organizations in order to meet whatever percentage of minority involvement is mandated by contract. "You're not there as a result of any skill or qualification, but to meet the need set aside by political concerns. The consortium is an effort on our part to try and circumvent that, to insert ourselves up front and make our role meaningful. To put our necks and reputations on the line - saying we can do this." HCO Architects' Henry Onochie says ARCHonsortium plans on going after other work in the city. "By coming together, we have become a force."