WICHITA — For the second time in less than a year, GLMV Architecture has laid off employees.
In August, the cutbacks affected a half dozen employees. This time, it’s about a dozen. Some employees also will now be working reduced hours.
“Nobody saw this coming,” says one laid-off worker. “Everybody’s so shocked.”
Neither Chairman Bill Livingston nor CEO Jeff Van Sickle returned calls for comment.
Sources say that in some ways, the company seems to have had more work lately. The issue may be that some of GLMV’s clients have had difficult first quarters.
The layoffs affected GLMV’s Wichita, Kansas City and Houston offices.
In January 2010, Gossen Livingston merged with McCluggage Van Sickle and Perry. In 2012, GLMV moved into a prominent new home in the Douglas Design District at 1525 E. Douglas.
The Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce recently awarded GLMV the Keeper of the Plains award during its annual Honors Night for the firm’s work restoring the 30,000-square-foot 1930 building that originally was home to J. Arch Butts’ Packard dealership.
“If you have two of the longest firms in Wichita merge (and) they just won an award for a building, and now you’re laying off another round … it doesn’t add up,” one former employee says.
“That plus the last round is a pretty big hit.”
